Are you a beginning actor and unsure of what an acting resume looks like? Here is a start. This is a sample acting resume. You can edit this format to fit your own skill set and style. Remember, try to keep it simple and easy to follow. If you have dozens of school productions you were in, there is no reason to list them all. List only your best roles. Try to avoid listing very small roles, especially things like non-speaking extra work, unless, those are all you have.

The 1st roles listed should be the most significant, the ones that really show off your skills. If they are all equal, you can order them chronologically, or most recent first.

The sample below is broken down into sections such as Film, TV, theater, etc. You do not need to use all those sections and can easily leave any out that you have no experience in. If your acting experience is very limited with only a few projects, you can combine it all together into a more general section such as “recent projects” or something along those lines.

You can also check out How to create an actor’s resume for more information and things to include and mistakes to avoid.

First & Last Name

union affiliations such as SAG or AFTRA

contact info – phone #, cell # and email

Project Title                        Type of Role                        Studio or Director

Project Title                        Type of Role                        Studio or Director

Project Title                        Type of Role                        Studio or Director

Show Title                        Type of Role                        Production Co.

Show Title                        Type of Role                        Production Co.

Show Title                        Type of Role                        Production Co.

Play Title                        Type of Role/Character                        Theatre Name

Play Title                        Type of Role/Character                        Theatre Name

Play Title                        Type of Role/Character                        Theatre Name

List any available

School Name                        Class/Workshop                        Instructor Name

School Name                        Class/Workshop                        Instructor Name

School Name                        Class/Workshop                        Instructor Name

list any special skills you have such as accents, martial arts, sports, fencing, etc.

At the top we have Lindsey… honors for biggest waste of 10 bucks!

Moviegoers tagged Lindsey Lohan with the year’s worst performance by an actress (3.8 million of them!).

Fifty-eight percent of voters in an online poll by AOL’s Web site Moviefone gave Lohan that dubious honor for her turn as a woman escaping a sadistic killer in the box-office flop, “I Know Who Killed Me.”

The poll, which tallied more than 3.8 million votes, had more bad news for the starlet…

Another of Lohan’s films, “Georgia Rule,” finished second among voters for biggest waste of $10 spent on a movie ticket.

Some more opinions…

Gary Shandling in Over the Hedge. Laziest voice acting I’ve ever heard.

Brad Pitt when does Oirish. A slap in the face to everyone in the country.
Orlando Bloom in Troy. (he did a decent job in Kingdom of Heaven though).

Everyone in the starwars movies. All of them.

Faye Dunaway in supergirl

Robert in Rocky and Bullwinkle

Who can forget Demi Moore’s pitiful performance in Striptease? yes, this is a bit old… but it is such a classic.

One more time… Everyone in the 3 newer Star Wars Films

I gotta say, I may agree with that opinion. I thought the 3 newer Star Wars films had the worst casting ever… of anything. Picking the worst of that bunch is another, very long post. There is a site called just sick shit, I am surprised they do not have a Star Wars section under sick video.

Why do they keep killing off Liam Neeson in big films? If they had kept him then maybe starwars would not have stunk up the place.

Corporate Spies called John should be neutered.

Vince Vaughn in everything he’s in.
Colin Farrell in everything he’s in, probably with the exception of Tigerland.
The entire cast of Roland Emmerich films.
With the exception of Ian McKellan, the cast of DaVinci Code.
Jeno Reno in Pink Panther, he knew it was a turkey while filming it.
The kid that played Anakin Skywalker in Phantom Menace.
Hayden Christensen for the same role as above

Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

Keira Knightly and Matthew McFadyen in Pride and Prejudice. Dreadful interpretation of the characters, wooden performances, no chemistry.

Colin Farrell in Alexander. Hilarious.

Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. LOL.

Steve Martin in the Pink Panther. Painful to watch.

Halle Berry as Catwoman. Similarly Sharon Stone in the same movie.

Clive Owen in King Arthur.

and even this, for anyone who has cable, OK, this is a commercial, but all this fool does is smile… badly.

The Worst Acting Job In The World Is Occupied By That Enzyte Guy

From last years Razzies, we get this opinion I found on the huffingtonpost

LOS ANGELES — Advice for actors looking to get nominated for worst performance: multiple roles help. Lindsay Lohan and Eddie Murphy scored multiple nominations Monday for the Razzies, which sort out the worst that Hollywood dredged up the previous year.

Lohan’s thriller, “I Know Who Killed Me,” in which she plays two characters who may or may not be the same person, received a leading nine Razzie nominations, among them worst picture of 2007.

Murphy’s “Norbit,” released amid a film-honors season that earned Murphy an Academy Awards nomination for “Dreamgirls” last year, received eight Razzie nominations, five of them for Murphy alone, more than anyone has ever gotten in a single year.

Besides worst picture, “Norbit” had nominations for Murphy as worst actor in the title role, supporting actress as Norbit’s beefy wife, supporting actor as an Asian man and worst screen couple for Norbit opposite either of Murphy’s other characters. Murphy also shared a screenplay nomination for co-writing “Norbit.”

“We decided that each of his characters was so offensive that he deserved individual nominations,” said Razzies founder John Wilson.

Finally, worst of last year is made official by the inquirer, wait… I think these have already been mentioned, repeatedly… but hey,it WAS that bad!

Eddie Murphy and Lindsay Lohan were crowned the worst actors of 2007 at the Golden Raspberry Awards on Saturday and, perhaps not surprisingly, neither star showed up to accept the spoof Oscars.

For their lack of acting prowess, the veteran comic and the young actress with the hard-living reputation each won three gold spray-painted Razzie trophies worth $4.89 (P198) each.

The annual honors were announced by the Golden Raspberry Foundation at a presentation that pokes fun at the Academy Awards ceremony Monday.

Murphy, who starred in the critically savaged comedy “Norbit,” set a record by winning three of the four worst acting categories. Despite bad reviews, moviegoers had turned out for the film, which took in $158 million (P6.4 billion) at worldwide box offices based mostly on Murphy’s popularity.

Lohan won two worst actress awards for playing twins in “I Know Who Killed Me,” a film that was named worst of the year.

Its all about entertainment isn’t it?

Below are some books which I have found to be of great value in learning about the auditioning process.

But before you jump to the books written by some old time pro’s, here’s some advice that you won’t find in the books. It’s what I do before auditions… for those of you that’re interested…

Okay, you’ve sent your headshot and resume in… you did like we recommended on The Actor’s Hour page. You get the call… they don’t tell you a damn thing ‘cept where to be, when to be there and what part you’re reading for. Sides are everywhere they say. Everywhere? What does that mean? Basically it means ShowFax… you’ll find your sides at ShowFax. If it’s a professional project, you’ll find your sides there. All you need is credit card and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Of course they’ll fax your sides to you too… hence the name ShowFax. You can purchase sides page by page… but that’ll get too expensive if you follow the advice I give in the next paragraph. Sign up for the “all you can eat… I mean download” per year package.
Okay, you’re a yearly member… good. Now what? You download your sides, right? Yes… but you also download every other character’s sides in that project. Chances are, you’ll get about 50-75% of the project’s script right there. Now you’ve got way more information about the role than you’d get from just your sides. Read every page. Get the feel of the project. See who your role is in relation to other characters.
Next… get as many names of the production people as you can… director, writer, producer… right down to costume designer and prop master. Then go to The Internet Movie Database and see what you can dig up on them. You’ll probably see that a few of them have worked together before… doesn’t that tell you something? If they like you, you’ll work with them again too. You’ll also learn what kind of projects they’ve done before. You’ll get the flavor of their work. You’ll also be able to schmooze a little better when you can rattle off a little of their history if the subject arises. People are impressed when you know about them… afterall what’s every Hollywood type’s favorite subject? Themselves!
After the Internet Movie Database, you go to Yahoo or another general type search engine and see what else you can find. Use the names of the crew and the project title as keywords. Glean what you can. There may be hundreds of links or only a few. Spend enough time to get a good feel for what you’re getting into.

Brad Blaisdell offers the following words of wisdom:

Before you write the letter. Is your headshot great? What’s on your resume? Is is clear, clean and professional? This is much more important than what your letter says.

VERY IMPORTANT! Do you know who the agencies are in this town? Have you chosen this particular agent for a reason? Before you mail to them, know who they are and who they rep. Get the client list. Find out who they are. Agents have egos too. Big ones if they’re any good. You need to be specific. Honest. Real. To the point… NO BULLSHIT!. Clear and respectful and most important… SHORT.
Introduce yourself simply. Dear Mr/Ms, My name is ________.
Then let them know you know who they are and that this is not a mass mailing. Something that lets them know you know them… “their work.”
THE RISK. Tell them in one or two sentences something true that peeks their curiosity. For example, if I was Paul Molinaro, I’d write something like … “I went to Medical School to become a part time doctor and a full time actor. Acting is my passion, please come see me in Welcome Home Soldier.” I would call him/her 3 days later and offer to pick him/her up and bring them home after the show… or hire a limo… or whatever it took to get them there.
Now that’s a risk… but if you want results, you have to take big risks. You have to believe in yourself if you are ever going to get them to believe in you. If they shine you on or are rude … great, you learned something about who they are and they’re not who you want … now you can move on. Be bold not crazy!
The truth is the letter isn’t important, if you’re gonna follow the way other people tell you what it should be. You gotta make it up. You gotta care that much. You gotta risk your own ego to wake people up.
Don’t be crazy or nuts. Lots of wannabe actors are totally crazy and nothing will most likely work for them. You have to figure out a way to show confidence with class… And if you don’t really believe in yourself … you can’t fake it. You gotta find that first.

Agents have enough actors already. They don’t want anymore actors… UNTIL… somebody knocks them out! Excites them. You might be the best actor in the world…(we all are in our own minds) but unless an agent believes you are gonna walk into an audition they get for you and GET THE JOB… your P/R and cover letter are in the trash.
How do you do that? I don’t know. I’ve done it. I’m no where near the best looking guy. I never went to medical school … BUT this is my life … I got nothing to lose. Be BOLD.

So bad its hilarious.

Actually, I kinda liked the sliding horse stunt, bad… yes, But so inventive. It looks like a stiff, dead horse sliding on pavement then magically coming back to life and galloping away. Awesomely BAD!

Cold reading, it’s enough to make you scream.

You walk into an audition and get handed a few pages and 10 minutes to read them.

Calm down. Read it through. Think about it. What’s this scene about ? Who are the characters ? What kind of character are you ? Try and get a bit of a feel who you are. Don’t, for heavens sake, try and learn the lines – if you feel compelled to do this, only commit your opening and closing lines to memory

Don’t wave your script around like a prop, the less attention drawn to it, the better. Hold your script about chest level. If it’s too low you have to keep lifting it up to read it, and if it’s too high no one can see your face. Perish the thought !

Don’t sneak a look at your next line while the other character is speaking. Listen. This is just as important as speaking your own lines. When it’s your turn to respond look at your script and memorise the first sentence, If you have more lines than you can manage in one glance, go ahead and repeat the process. Don’t stick your face in the script!

Keep in mind that you’re playing a scene normally and merely taking short pauses to read your lines. This way you stay in character even while you’re reading.

Practice cold reading at home, it’s easy. Got a newspaper handy ? Pick it up and read the headlines. Now memorise them. Look up and speak them. Look down at the first paragraph, memorise the first two sentences. Look up and speak them.

You just completed a cold reading!

That is the point of a cold read, they want to see how you handle the script and your performance without prior preparation.  Seasoned actors know very well how to handle a cold read so read on and get some acting advice for a script cold read.

Have you ever found yourself so engulfed in a man or woman to the point where you are totally convinced that the two of you have a “divine” connection because they have a special way of making you feel “warm and fuzzy” inside or feel very special?. May be it’s your boss, the pastor at your local church, the cute girl next door or a perfect stranger you just met. The eyes, hug or a hand shake did the trick; but there was just something about the person that made your libido sit up and howl.

That something my dear is what is known as sexual aura or sexual presence.

Some people have it oozing from every pore of their skin while the rest of us spend thousands of dollars in speed seduction seminars or hours and hours surfing the internet for the next sociological study to tell us how to be magnetic to the opposite sex.

Whether instinctively or through practice these people have developed a particular way of BE -ing present, which among other things, is an ingredient of their erotic presence. We are attracted to the way the person experiences him or herself, or at least how we perceive they experience the world around them, and feel sorely tempted to initiate first contact with them even knowing the consequences.

But what REALLY makes these people so magnetic? What is their SECRET?

Simple. They present themselves to others with no other intention than to be fully seen – not to impress, not to influence or deceive but be open and let their sexual Being-ness be seen. Any size or shape, magnetic people simply show and everything just “happens”.

Many of us however have constrained ourselves in the way we experience ourselves sexually. Whether it is in how we live in our body – we restrict our movement and become really rigid and inflexible in those parts of our body that we associate with the sexual or sex or limiting sexual attitudes and beliefs scripted through custom and habit.

When with the opposite sex and trying to attract one, we select sides of ourselves to present that we think are favourable. In most instances, our language and actions are equally selected to correspond or match the side of us we’re trying to present. We chose a side to present because we feel that one side of ourselves is stronger or more acceptable to the other person, but mostly we chose based on an insecurity that we are hiding: long suppressed feelings of vulnerability resulting from the countless negative messages about sex and sexual pleasure that we were fed with in our childhood or emotional and sexual wounds from sexual abuse and unhealthy early modes of sexual and erotic transference and learning. We consider these parts of ourselves to be defective, inadequate or bad, and we hide them, hoping like a child, that no one will see.

We fear that if we let others see these parts of us, they will see these shamed, insecure, vulnerable and hurt parts of ourselves and they too will find us defective or unattractive. Because we don’t accept and embrace all our innermost feelings, thoughts and intimate interpersonal issues, including our sexual desires and urges, or even are aware of them, we don’t believe that the other person will accept them either. This in turn forces our intimate connections to remain emotionally shallow and physically superficial. These separate parts of us that we are trying to hide are what sends us out to seek affirmation and refutation of our own sense of self through all sorts of self-sabotaging techniques that do no favour or good to the person we are trying to seduce.

Don’t think that you can “hide” behind pick-up lines and seduction scripts and expect to look into a mirror and see “sexiness”, not to mention expect others to see it. Your ego can stand tall and pretend that you are some kind of idealized version of yourself but often those you try to be intimate with sense those hidden parts of you and respond in different ways.

Even if you are able to “fool” someone with a “sexy” outfit, “sexy” moves, pick up lines and techniques or even “good” communication skills, at some point in your life together you are bound to “slip up” or simply just get tired of “acting” scripts. When this happens an inner switch flips inside of the other person which creates an invisible barrier and even though that process and the barrier are invisible, they are still very real and very obvious – the attractiveness and magnetism just isn’t there anymore!

Sometimes, if they have parts of themselves they are trying to hide too, they’ll join in the cover up. You will get a few hits from equally insecure men and women, but after a while you’ll feel as empty and worthless as before because the deeper parts of you will cry out or more than a romp in the sack with a really insecure man or woman!

To become an empowered attractive and magnetic man or woman, you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. You have to open to the deeper parts of yourself. You have to practice presenting yourself with no other intention than to be fully seen – not to impress, not to influence or deceive but be open and let your sexual Being-ness be seen.

It’s only by allowing ourselves to be fully known by another that we allow ourselves to be fully loved.
About the Author: Christine Akiteng is an internationally renowned Sexual Confidence/Dating Coach and author of e-Books: The Art Of Seducing Out Of Fullness, Breaking A Bad Relationships Pattern, and Playing Hard-To-Get The Love Way.

Duet acting scripts are difficult to find on the Internet. If you’ve done any poking around at all in search of one, you already know this. But there is an alternative. More important, it’s an alternative that will not only help hone your acting skills, but also aid you in understanding your characters even better.

The solution?

Write your own duet acting scripts.

I know. I know. Writing’s scary. But this doesn’t need to be a painful process or even a particularly difficult one. In fact, it can and should contribute to your inventory of acting skills by forcing you to become more in touch with and more observant of the world of characters already all around you. Especially those who might otherwise go unnoticed.

And that’s the key to writing your own duet acting scripts: observation. The better you are at observing, the easier the writing is going to be.

Ready to get started?

The easiest, most direct path to writing your own scripts is to start a swipe file. If you aren’t familiar with a swipe file, this is a term that’s often used in marketing and copywriting circles. A good copywriter will save ads, brochures, and mailers that he comes across so he can learn from them and refer back to them when he’s developing his own ad campaigns. Now, he doesn’t just copy this material and present it as his own. He simply draws upon it for inspiration and guidance.

This is what you should be doing, too. You won’t be looking at ads, of course, but you will be carefully observing the interactions of the people around you and recording your observations.

For example, you’re in the checkout lane at the store, picking up a few groceries, and the checker is chatting with the bagger. They’re talking about the date the checker went on the night before and how it was a dud. That’s a duet script.

For example, you take your dog into the veterinary office for his annual series of shots and there are two other dog owners in the waiting room. One has a dog with a broken leg that’s healing. The other has a puppy that’s tugging on the chain, full of energy, wanting to play with the healing dog. Gradually, you see the tension growing between the two dog owners until it suddenly spills over into a conversation about responsible dog ownership. That’s a duet script.

For example, you’re at the local bookstore, reading a mystery and enjoying a cup of coffee, when a woman comes through the door, admonishing her elderly mother about the fact that she doesn’t get out enough. That’s a duet.

These are everyday occurences. They happen all around you. But you know what makes them worth your attention? They reveal character. Each and every one reveals character. And that’s what a good duet script should do.

It won’t take you long before you’ll have a fairly weighty file of these situations, trust me. Most of the writing is already done for you. The words that are exchanged in these situations are honest words. They cut into the heart of each person. And they’re all right there for the taking.

Now, there’s a very simple technique you can use to take a single situation and turn it into multiple duet acting scripts. You change the characters. Instead of the mother and daughter coming through the door, it’s a mother and son. Instead of the daughter concerned about her mother not getting out, have the mother concerned about her daughter. Try a bitter daughter. Try a meek daughter. Try a guilty daughter. Try a blind daughter. The potential for unique characters is endless. You already have the foundation in hand. All you need is to explore the possibilities.

Writing a duet acting script doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Using the techniques we’ve touched upon here, you’ll not only build a great library of scripts, you’ll expand your understanding, empathy and awareness of character.

It’s worth the extra effort. Try it. You’ll see.

Theatergoers in England by the beginning of the 17th century learned how to distinguish Hamlet by actor-manager, Thomas Betterton. This was accomplished by other productions of Shakespeare’s plays. Using different staging of familiar and classical plays sharpened spectator’s senses. Good acoustics were designed into theater halls to help performers to be heard differently and to have more subtle and natural reflections. Visual details of a performance were easily perceived and critiqued with the introduction of indoor stage lighting. Individual actor’s faces and hands were then displayed by the indoor stage lighting.

Charles Macklin and his student David Garrick became one of the first modern actors on the British stage in the 18th century. Commedia-like farces and pantomime was Charles Macklin’s background and why he was hired, based his character Shylock (a Jewish businessman in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”) on Jews in London. Lifelike details of movement and speech were added to written text. These details might not have been noticed 50 years earlier if not for the stage lighting, acoustic changes and other technologies.

Under better lighting conditions and more plausibility, David Garrick continued natural acting. Mimicry was brought to the stage through Garrick’s practices of imitating facial expressions of actual people. In his performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Garrick used a crazed neighbor to reenact the accidental killing of his infant daughter. Garrick never dropped his character during a performance and he would listen and react in character to all the dialogue around him. Because of this, he was very popular with theatergoers.

Denis Diderot, an 18th century French encyclopedist, became fascinated with Garrick who was on tour in Paris. The actor feeling less emotion is what Diderot believed could achieve a more consistent and stronger performance.

Diderot’s essay “Le paradoxe sur le comedien” (1773; translated as “The Paradox of the Actor, “1883), compared to famous rivals who performed at the Comedie Francaise, Marie-Francoise Dumesnil and Hippolyte Clairon.

Dumesnil believed it was an actor’s responsibility to become the character and represented the so-called emotional school. She was very uneven as an actor and normally coasted through a performance until a tragic point was reached. She had emotional depth and tremendous power. She made claims she new the secrets of great acting. To find out who she was as a character, where she was and what she had done, Dumesnil would use prayer. Alcohol stimulation was unfortunately a big part of her inspiration.

Clarion claimed she created her characters through movement and speech and not from becoming them or playing them. By rehearsing endlessly and perfecting the “look of emotions, she was able to develop a natural and reliable character. She believed audiences applauded the actor, not the characters.

By these two actors’ comparison’s, Diderot uncovered polarities of inspiration and technique.

Problems of inspiration and expressiveness were not solved for other actors, however. For example, any schools or treatises that were left behind seemed to be more philosophical than technical. Actually with Garrick’s natural school of acting disappeared after his death. It was more of a fad with British audiences that was associated with the actor. Basically, Garrick and the rest couldn’t teach their techniques.

In the 19th century emotional and anti-emotional acting styles of the great actors ran in cycles. Actor’s of one generation championed the first technique and then was replaced by a younger actor who championed a different technique, which happened in every country. The romantic and emotive Edmund Kean followed Sarah Siddons, who followed Garrick and so on.

The limelight gave way to the rise of gas lighting and then on to electricity. More and more physical detail appeared on stage and costumes and scenic displays grew in complexity and size, which dwarfed the actor.
Michael Russell