acting top tips with jessica ellerby
In Season 1, we spoke to actress Jessica Ellerby on all things acting - the career path she chose in the industry. These are her top points of advice around both the industry and her particular career path.
You don't always have to go to drama school
"I think drama school is great, but I also think you don't have to go to drama school." Jess talked about how you can't necessarily teach someone to act, but you can give them the tools to use when things are challenging. Drama schools help young actors enter the industry, as they showcase the students on, and lead them into finding an agent. However, this path is not the only one.
Don't stay with your agent forever if you don't want to
Naturally, having an agent makes things a bit easier. They "work their ass off for you" Jess shares. Agents really help you crack into the industry, especially if you are inexperienced and perhaps don't know where to start. Jessica also made points around not having to get the "best' agent, or even staying with an agent forever. The most important element around having an agent in Jess' mind is that "you have to have a good working relationship with that human, as much as anything else, you want to get on with that person and kind of be on the same page." Jess also suggested that sometimes having a bigger agent implies they have a lot of other big clients, meaning they might neglect your opportunities
Don't expect a career trajectory
When you're an actor, there is no straight road to the top. One thing Jessica learned along the way was there is no career trajectory: "Acting is not like climbing up a ladder, but rather that of snakes and ladders", going on to say that even when you're at the top, "you can suddenly fall down a little snake."
It's not all glamour
When Jessica first started getting meetups with her agent, she mentioned none of it was particularly exciting, "and instead of being like: Oh man! Oh my gosh! So exciting! It will feel a bit more despondent." Jessica also admits having submitted horrible auditions at the beginning of her career. She recently found one of her audition clips back and says it was "actual career suicide".
Script, script and more script
When rehearsing for an audition, she usually starts off reading the 10 to 15 first pages of the script, to get the general feeling of the production. Then, she learns her lines, and once she feels like 60 to 70% in, she goes back and reads more, eventually trying to get to the end of the script. Finally, she goes over it before bed.
Self tapes anyday
She prefers auditioning through self-tapes because: "I quite like not going in because I get a bit nervous. And if I'm just doing it at home, I can do it anytime I want." It's not so much on the spot, which can be quite stressful.
Feel all the things
The industry can also, at times, affect our mental state: "Creatives, in general, are quite sensitive as people and feel things very deeply. And I think it's what makes you a good performer or a good, a great artist. But it also means that you know... you feel things."
Find your why
Jessica 'hit rock bottom' and didn't get any acting projects for a whole year. As a result of that, she thought her career in acting was over and started training as a yoga teacher. After spending a month in India to immerse in the yoga course, she found "it helped me focus on why I wanted to be an actor, rather than all the fluff around it. That self-worth I was looking for in the job, I was never going to get, because something outside of you, isn't going to make you as a person."
Jess' Top Tops:
"Don't feel like you're a failure because you have another job. You have to support yourself first and foremost."
"Find your own work process, because everybody's so different, and what works for you might not work for someone else. Find the method that works for you and be kind to yourself - I remember one of my drama teacher's advice was that you're only young and inexperienced once, so use it to your advantage. If you don't know what something means, ask."
"Do a couple of things a day that relate in some ways to the industry, even if you only read a couple of pages of a play or sing a song, whatever it might be just to keep dipping your toe in because otherwise, six months can go by and you can feel like you're not an actor, but you feel like you're, whatever your other job is, a receptionist or a waiter."