Hello beautiful people!
Let’s get real about the age thing.
Okay, hold up. I know it’s rude of me to diminish something that so many people find to be so incredibly important. So, how’s about I share how we can all come at this whole age thing from a more empowered place. But first I’ll explain why you want to shoot for a four-year age range.
Okay. So, a few things.
When you think about the future, next-tier you, you KNOW that person gives zero poop about your age, what people think about your age, and so on, right? You’re certainly not — at that next tier — paying someone to run around playing whack-a-mole to remove your age from the internet. So getting comfy now is empowering. It teaches the buyers you’re in control of your trajectory. Teaching the buyers now that, “Hey! This is what 35 looks like!” is so much more George Clooney than Wilford Brimley.
Today’s work: Create an age range survey. Using the magic of the Google form and a quick vid “hello” or a clip from your footage or a headshot or even a selfie, ask folks, “How old am I?” or, “What age range do I play?” if you prefer. Dump the data into a word cloud generator to see the digits that pop largest or put all the numbers in a spreadsheet and create a graph.
IMPORTANT! I say it at 5:55 in the audio, but this gets missed somehow so I’m writing it here in BOLD again: Do *not* limit the age range you ASK for in your survey. Get aaaaaaaaaaaalll the data and then narrow it DOWN to your four-year age range after you have the info.
Read that again.
Seriously.
Thank you.
When you learn from a buyer that he or she perceives you as X age, note that in your show bible for that person! “On [date] at audition for [project], he said, ‘You’re coming off too young. I feel like you’re 32!’ when the role was for 38.” So you know when submitting to or auditioning for that person again to skew toward that perception. Further, when you next time hear from this buyer, “Oh, you’re just way too old for this role!” when the role was for 32, your show bible gives you backup that 100% this buyer uses age as a stopper, and that means age comments from him are to be ignored at all cost — because they are never the real reason you’re not cast.
Phew! Liberating, isn’t it?
Extra credit: If you prefer to interview your bookings to surveying the community about your age range, have at it! Heck, you can do both and see where non-buyer perception aligns with buyer results, if you worry they may be different. Everything you’ve ever been cast in has an age range, so you’ve got data already. Go back to the breakdown if you can find it. Notice the difference in on-stage and on-camera age range. Notice the difference in that old smaller market and the newer larger market to which you’ve recently moved. Obviously, don’t go back years as you interview your bookings! Just 18 months should do the trick. You can use a longer span if you are over 50, where everyone in casting is just happy you’re still around, because attrition severely reduces the talent pool and we’ll let you play decades outside your actual age to get the right actor for those half-century-plus roles!
Now, I know my attitude about the irrelevance of age is pretty bold. I have a LOT of practice with this. When I was an actor, I never once believed someone when they said my age was the reason I didn’t get cast or repped. It’s too easy a reason. It doesn’t make sense. BTW, I also didn’t believe them when they said my weight was the reason. Even when an LA casting director said — when I’d been in town all of three weeks — “Why are you so fat?” to me at a CD workshop, I didn’t see that as, “OMG, I’m uncastable at this weight!” I noted in my show bible that he was never gonna see me as anything other than the plump best friend (even at my hot-as-heck, curvy-BAM-bod age 23 status) and I also noted that he was a bit of a dick.
Notice the pattern: I’ve never turned a reason I’ve been given for “rejection” (a concept I don’t believe exists, frankly) into something I need to FIX in order to change that perceived rejection into acceptance. Never. Not once. Population of thirds? Check. Data about this ONE job today? Check. Enoughness? Check. Remember, m’dear, any sort of validation we’re seeking in life is sooo much easier to get when we make it an inside job.
How do we build the muscle for that bit of badassery? You’re almost 1/5 of the way through a 100-day process that gets you there. (Tweet a bit of celebration about that with me if you’d like, wouldja?)
Woo HOO! Owning — and loving — exactly who we are is the most castable thing we’ll ever do.
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
