He’s got too much acting work on.

Now, I know you may not have much sympathy for him, but to be fair he has worked like a dog to get into this position.

He’s been acting for 20 years. He started acting aged 12 on the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club.

After a long hard slog he has finally reached the top and now he faces his biggest challenge yet.

He’s burnt out!

This is what he said.

“I’ve been doing (acting) it too much. I’ve lost perspective on what I’m doing. I think it’s good for me to take a break and reassess why I’m doing it and how I’m doing it.’’

He adds: “The more opportunities I’m given, the more I learn about how easy it is to (f***) it up.’’

“You fight for freedom and then you get it, and then you have enough rope to hang yourself. It’s like trying to exercise some restraint because I do have so much freedom.”

You see, no matter what level you are at you need time to stop and take stock.

You also need to be clear about what it is you want to achieve acting wise and put a plan in place to achieve it.

Then one day you may wake up and say ‘’I need a break, too much acting work!’’

Many people think that acting is easy. That anyone could give it a go. This is actually true: anyone can give it a go and it is easy to be bad at acting.

To be a professional actor requires professional training.

Acting is one of the few professions in the world for which many believe that training isn’t required or can be done on the cheap.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let me put it this way: If you had to have brain surgery and you had the choice between a brain surgeon who had done a professional training or one who had been to a few classes and workshops, who would you choose?

Right, you want the professional guy! Of course you do because he/she is going to be better. They have more knowledge, expertise and techniques under their belt.

Okay, so now imagine a Casting Director who is casting a new BBC programme and they need to get actors who would be right for a particular part. Bear in mind that if they get it wrong, they may not get the next casting job.

They have a choice between someone who has professional Acting School training and one who has done a few acting classes and workshops.

Yes, the outcome is clear. So don’t delude yourself – you need to train professionally and anyone who says otherwise is quite clearly deluded.

So, often I have seen people try to cobble together an ad hoc acting training and fail miserably. The fact is, professional training will lead to better results.

However, training in itself is not enough. I have known actors who have been to the biggest drama schools in the country and do not succeed, and others who went to smaller schools and did succeed. So, why did this happen?

Well, an actor’s success is down to the individual once they get into the industry. The training is there to enable the actor – the rest is then down to their application.

Basically, an actor goes to continuous job interviews. Some they get, some they don’t. The reasons can vary but one thing is certain: the better trained you are and the more optimistic, the better your chances.

Don’t scrimp on your acting training. Get the best you can afford – and if you can’t afford it, save up. It will be worth it in the long run.

If you trained as an accountant, lawyer or brain surgeon you would expect to invest in that training to be the best you can be. The same should be true when you consider training to be a professional actor.

If you just want to do acting as a hobby then a few acting classes here and there is fine and enjoyable. That’s all you need to do. However, if you are serious about becoming a professional actor, then a whole different, more professional, approach is needed.

Are you wondering about how to become an actor? Acting lessons are a crucial starting point. Almost no-one makes it without training and you need to think carefully about the type of training that will help you most. If you don’t do this, you’re making one of the top five biggest mistakes people make when trying to figure out how to become an actor.

1. Never rely on talent. What we see as ‘talent’ is the result of hard work and skilful technique. Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep didn’t get to the top of their game by being complacent about their innate abilities. The reality is that our greatest actors have worked on developing their skills and exploring techniques that allow them to produce memorable, moving acting. Luck, innate inability and inspiration from above play little or no part in acting excellence and success.
2. Never confuse acting with pretending. Faking it is death to your acting – and your career. The secret of how to become an actor is to understand the difference between natural acting that conveys authentic emotion and forced acting that is about pretence.
3. Don’t fool yourself into believing that acting is about becoming your character. You can never be anyone but you – and do you really think you can ‘become’ Joan of Arc, or the Godfather? Acting is about using your own resources and experiences to explore and create a 3D character. It’s not pretending, but it’s not shape-shifting either.
4. Shakespeare’s Hamlet famously said ‘the play’s the thing’. The reality of acting is that while the play (or TV or film performance) is the goal, it’s only a part of what an actor does. In fact, acting is a constant learning experience: from acting lessons to learning lines, perfecting accents, auditioning, rehearsing and finding the next role to pay the bills. Don’t let dreams of glory blind you to the never-ending hard graft and intelligent planning ahead that an acting career demands.
5. Don’t give up. Acting isn’t a career where you graduate, get a job and everything is rosy. There’ll always be some setbacks and spells of ‘resting’ (unemployment, in other words) until you’re established. Unswerving commitment is a key trait that successful actors all have.

These are things not to do. But there are plenty of proactive things to do when you’re contemplating how to become an actor. Method acting lessons are designed to help you avoid these key mistakes and cultivate the skills you need to do the opposite. Method acting lessons rest on the premise that you can learn the techniques and grow your ability – if you have the commitment and tenacity.

Method actors use techniques and exercises to help them create believable acting that radiates genuine feeling, on cue, every time. This is the goal of acting lessons at Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio, an acting school in London.

The Studio’s acting lessons teach students essential, practical techniques for character creation, rehearsal and performance, as well as auditions. We also help students to plan, manage and launch themselves on an acting career. If you’re looking for an acting school in London, and want to avoid the mistakes that unsuccessful actors make, our Method acting training ticks all the right boxes.

The best actors are those who deliver the most believable and authentic performances. The audience forgets that this is an actor playing the role and is completely convinced by the- character they see before them. This is what real acting is – and it’s much more than just ‘putting on an act’.

How can you become a real actor? The first thing to consider is what acting lessons can give you. It all starts with the training you choose, because no-one today really makes it without classes. Most kinds of acting lessons will help you on the road to an acting career, but you do have options. Choosing your acting lessons carefully is a second step towards creating real acting.

There is one kind of training that is dedicated to helping you do just that. Method acting is the end product of a hundred years of work on refining the actor’s craft. Finding ways to create genuine acting was the life’s work of Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio in New York – and you can use the methods he developed in your own work at an acting school in London.

Step three is to recognise the goal. Real acting is about real emotion. Method acting has been developed to achieve this ultimate goal. Strasberg’s methods centre on techniques and exercises that every actor can cultivate to create the highest quality acting. A Method acting training will teach you to overcome the obstacles to real acting, such as the tension and stage fright that can ruin your performance.

Real acting is the opposite of superficial. Step four is learning how to create your characters from the inside out. Method actors learn how to create three-dimensional characters who can display authentic, persuasive emotion. In acting lessons you will learn memory exercises that will help you to bring your character to life and provide you with techniques to deliver memorable, believable performances on cue, every time.

Most of all, Method acting is about not faking it. The methods of Method acting have been developed over more than seventy years to get past the problem of stagey, forced performances. The audience wants to see the character and feel his or her dilemmas and struggles. They don’t want to see actors pretending to be a character.

The trouble is, the best actor in the world can’t become someone else. You’ll always be you. Your job is to find the resources within yourself, and in your own experience, to bridge that gap. Method acting lessons are not just about producing emotional performances. They will teach you how to use your own resources to produce the right kind of emotion for the role or scene. Real acting is about emotional truthfulness.

There is one acting school in London that specialises in Method acting lessons. The goal of the training at Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio is to give actors practical skills to hone their craft and create the real acting that is at the heart of a successful career.

Auditioning is a craft in itself. Unfortunately, there are many good actors who never see the light of day due to poor audition technique.

The Importance of Rapport

It’s not just about how well you act in the audition room; it’s also about how well liked you are by the people auditioning you.



I had an agent once who said to me;

‘Brian, sometimes it’s whether the auditionees fancy you or not.’

I know it might seem savage, but he did have a valid point.



Let me explain. Someone who auditions well not only has talent but they also have the ability to seduce the audition panel.  They know how to get on their right side and make people want to work with them.



This is called building rapport. When you are in rapport with someone, you feel like they are on your wavelength. You like them. The thing is, you can deliberately build rapport with someone through good interview technique. It’s a skill. Something you can develop.

We Like People Like Ourselves

Here is one that you should try out for yourself. You don’t need to go into the audition room either to try this out. You can do this with anyone. It’s called mirroring. Basically, when you are in conversation with someone, start to mirror their body language and vocal tones.



If they cross their legs, you do the same. You wait a second or two after they have done it, then copy them. If they fold their arms, you do the same.



Listen to how they talk. Are they loud and direct or quieter and slower in speech than you? Match your speech with theirs.



I know what you’re thinking: ‘They are going to notice I am doing this.’ Not so. You will be shocked how many people never pick it up. However, their unconscious mind does pick it up and they start to believe you are just like them. We human beings are always on the lookout for people who are similar to us. We like people like ourselves.



Try it out the next time you are out with a friend. You could even tell your friend and practise with each other and see how it feels.

Don’t Say ‘No’

Another useful tip for when you’re in an acting audition is to try to avoid the word ‘No’. When you say no, it is a sort of rejection and brings the conversation to an abrupt halt. If you can, don’t say no and find a way to continue the train of thought.



Obviously, if you have to say no because it’s important in order to be clear, then do so. But practise trying to turn a no into a yes.



Does that sound tricky? Well, here is a short video from a live acting seminar I did on how to not say no in audition. I give you a real example from an audition I did many years ago.







Acting auditions are nerve-racking experiences and any tool you can use to swing the decision your way is worth adopting. Remember: you will be doing the audition panel a favour. They want to like you and give you the part. You will be solving a big problem for them.



The other reason audition panels like to get on with the actors they cast is that you may have to spend a long time working together – and who wants to work with someone who is a pain? Much better to cast someone who is similar to you.



Want more useful audition advice? Why not sign up for one of my method acting courses?