Rhoda Pell's 10 Strategies for Earning Your First Acting Credits (without an Agent), Part 2

LA Actress Rhoda Pell

Like all actors starting out – whether children, new drama school grads, or older – Rhoda Pell faced the task of building her initial acting credits and showing LA producers that hers was a face viewers wanted to see. Here’s how she launched her career without an agent, eventually banking hundreds of credits in film, television, commercials, music videos and more.

1. Register with Central Casting Los Angeles: for background work: Unless you’ve graduated from film school and have already observed the production process, you’ll need a firm grasp of what goes on on-set. Whether you want to continue with background work or not, having some initial experience as a background performer gives you a chance to watch other actors, experience the production environment, and learn the rules of on-set behavior. Central Casting can also help you establish your type.

2. Sign up with Self-Submission Sites: LACasting/Casting Networks, Actors Access, Extras Access, Casting Frontier, Backstage, and IMDbPro are the major ones. Keep all of your performer profiles up to date. For free or a relatively small annual fee, these sites will email you roles that fit your profile on projects that allow self-submission. Add an annual Showfax subscription and you can have unlimited self-submissions instead of paying per-project fees. Also check out Craig’s List. CL is less of a resource, but actors have found work there as well. You’ll have a lot of competition so check these sites early and often every day.

3. Seek out work in student films at major film schools. Here in Los Angeles that would be the University of Southern California, UCLA, the American Film Institute, and Loyola Marymount. (Rhoda also has done student films at the New York Film Academy in LA, which screens at Warner Brothers Studio). Around the U.S. top film schools can be found at NYU and Columbia (NYC), the University of California at Berkeley, Yale (New Haven, CT), the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), Cornell (Ithaca, NY), and the University of Chicago (IL).  Serious young filmmakers turn out high-quality productions on a par with some of the best of Hollywood (only shorter). They don’t pay (or don’t pay much), but here’s where you’re likely to find meaty roles for your demo reel.

4. Know your craft: The best actors are always learning, and not just in drama class. You can also learn a ton from watching professional actors at work. Rhoda sees as many plays as she can (sometimes 3-4 a week) and attends film festivals and student film screenings, watching all of the films and not just the one in which she appears. On set, she watches her fellow actors.

5. Take advantage of opportunities to network: In LA everyone’s got a film project in the works. Screenings and film festivals are great places to get inside information on upcoming projects and who's casting what. When Rhoda is acting in a film she also networks while in holding. Fellow actors often double as producers/directors of short films and independent features, so be sociable. Don’t bury your face in your smart phone. Introduce yourself around and chat.

 6. Look your age and look like your photo:

Silver Fox Judi Dench

In this era of “real,” actors no longer feel pressured to look Ken and Barbie perfect. Knobby knees ? Overweight? Not a problem. Keep your headshots up to date, especially if you're a child actor. Also, gray is acting gold. Rhoda refers to her long gray hair as her “moneymaker,” in part because of its versatility. Worn down it lends itself to everything from hippie to scary; worn up it can be grandma to duchess.

7. Join SAGAFTRA: If you want entré into speaking roles in big budget films, TV, and commercials, you need to join the actors union, which Rhoda did in 2004. Union membership brings significantly higher pay at every level and marks you (and the filmmaker with a SAGAFTRA contract) as a pro.

8. Be a savvy negotiator: Like most actors, Rhoda was initially just thrilled to be cast. But as she became known in the industry and more and more in demand (producers now call her), she found she could often negotiate a better contract on low-pay/no-pay productions, because filmmakers were willing to pay her more to secure her for the day. This even works with student films.

9. Cast a wide net on roles: Every actor has to decide how they are willing to appear on screen, so think about your career and what you’re up for. Rhoda has worked background in music videos. She’s had roles in web series. She’s appeared in swimwear and naked. She’s rolled around in mud. She’s played dead bodies. She’s been serious and silly. She loves to perform and she’s up for almost anything. Think about the kinds of acting available. There are more opportunities than you might think.

10. When opportunity knocks, be ready to roll: Rhoda is willing drop everything to be on set, and says she’s played a nun so many times she keeps a costume in the trunk of her car. A few years back, she saw a last-minute mid-morning call for a “grandma” for a TV commercial; last minute as in “can you be on-set at 2 o’clock?!!” She could, and the commercial earned her $30,000 over its three-month run on television. Last-minute calls eliminate most if not all of the competition if you can show up at a moment’s notice.

That’s it. None of this is magic or one of those an insider’s secrets advertised online. All it takes to secure those initial credits as a professional actor is a willingness to work at your craft: networking, performing, learning, negotiating, and being ready to take advantage of opportunities as they come along.

Where you go from there depends on what you aim for in an acting career. Looking for recurring/series regular or lead/supporting roles in TV and film? Now you'll need an agent, and your credits will help get you in the door. But big career or small, this is an effective way to launch it.

And let me add one more thing: all of these strategies apply regardless of where you live currently, and it's often easier to pick up good credits in a smaller market before you arrive in Los Angeles. Think about that.