ONE LOOK OUGHTA BE ENOUGH
Everything I know about commitment came from five classes I took at The Groundlings with Phyllis Katz, Kevin Kirkpatrick, Drew Drogge, Kevin Bernston and Annie Sertich.
Having only one LOOK is limiting, right? WRONG.
You may find this initially counter-intuitive. We can draw from the success of Pee-Wee Herman as an example. Maybe you'd like to have your own television show and three major feature films starring yourself in a role that you have originated.
Pee Wee (real name Paul Reubens) was a sketch comedy performer from The Groundlings. Like many of my clients who perform sketch comedy, I understand Mr. Reubens has a repertoire of original comedy characters. Wouldn't it be better for him to to have exploited all the characters that he has created?
I believe Reubens' success comes from the combination of two principles: the first of which is "have a look", which in his case is a oddball fictional character of his own creation (Pee Wee). The second principle comes from the theatre, the principle of "commitment". I heard about commitment (with respect to the practice of comedy) in a variety of places, but The Groundlings is the one place where this principle is most clearly espoused and integrated into the educational curriculum and practiced in the live performances.
If you were to walk up to the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard and look at Reubens' star, it does not say "Paul Reubens", it says "Pee Wee Herman". I think you'll find that most celebrity actors want their stage name on the Walk of Fame, not the name of a character that the actor played. This is an example (albeit an extreme example) of the principle of commitment. Commitment to a role. With possibly the exception of Daniel-Day Lewis and his commitment to characters using method acting, there is no clearer example of how success in the entertainment business comes from a commitment to the choices you have made. For the purposes of this blog, we're talking about commitment to a look, the look, the choice of a look that you have made to get your acting career off the ground.
A lack of commitment to "a LOOK" (aka an actor's brand) can also be described as "unfocused", "spread too thin", or the common misconception among actors just off-the-bus from Omaha, "avoiding making a choice so that casting can cast me in a wide variety of roles."
Let's theorize that Mr. Reubens has at least nine original characters, complete with fully realized costumes and personas, just as detailed as one original character, Pee Wee Herman. One might say that those other eight characters have been wasted, but let's look at some of what Mr. Reubens achieved with total commitment to that one character:
Paul Reubens: selected appearances as Pee-Wee Herman
A recent studio movie from Judd Apatow Pee-wee's Big Holiday (Netflix).
A Tim Burton studio movie starring his original character (Pee Wee's Big Adventure - Warner Bros) and a follow up studio movie (Big Top Pee Wee - Paramount Pictures).
Hosted Saturday Night Live - a major achievement for American entertainers/comedians.
45 Episodes of his own TV show (Pee Wee's Playhouse) and at least one other pilot.
10+ appearances on David Letterman, the center of the 1980s weird comedy universe
Countless other daytime and late night appearances in character as Pee Wee Herman
Long before I ever took a comedy class in Hollywood, I knew that Pee Wee Herman was famous for "never appearing on television out of character". This is, practically speaking, the very definition of commitment in the theatre.
Why is Commitment to One LOOK Necessary?
Human beings, including you, have a hard time learning and retaining new things. For example, you might listen to popular music, but how many musicians/bands do you really know? Unless you're a disc jockey, probably there are 100 bands in America who have records out that you might really like but have "never heard of". You've probably seen them mentioned in social media feeds or talked about by friends or maybe a single passed by on Spotify that you can sorta remember but didn't know who the band was. Hundreds of working bands, yet you have no real knowledge of them. You don't know them. Now consider the 10,000 bands that don't have record deals that also want you to listen to them and garner your attention. Probably, you dismiss their importance because they are not associated with a major music marketing system like Universal Music or Pitchfork whatever. In fact, you probably dismiss their importance simply because you do not know who they are. You do not recognize them. They are not distinctive to you. They are part of a background noise of cultural activity that you ignore. You're not even aware that you are ignoring them because your mind does this automatically with things that are not significant.
They say that there are 100,000 actors in Los Angeles. How many of them can you name from memory by simply sitting down and writing their names on a piece of paper. And how many of them would you recognize in any photo such that you could point to them and write their name down in an unequivocal fashion? These actors in L.A. who you do not already know are quite literally unimportant to you. When you do recognize an actor who has A-List status, it is a result of hundreds of million dollars of marketing impressions that have been assaulting you since before you were aware that marketing impressions were a thing that you have been assaulted with. In short, a huge expenditure of resources to get you to remember one simple thing: the name and face of an actor (SEE ALSO: The Laws of Hollywood: Hollywood only markets NAMES and BUDGETS).
There may be a hundred character actors who work regularly on television who you might recognize as a character actor who works regularly on television: yet, you are unable to write their name down or accurately identify them without the aid of a tool like IMDb. Why is that? If you cannot do this for working actors you recognize, why on earth would you expect casting directors to similarly remember you?
Therefore we can summarize this situation as follows: human beings have a hard time retaining information that they have limited exposure to. With sufficient repetition (i.e. 100 million dollar marketing budget) human beings can be "conditioned" to recognize public figures that the media companies are promoting. Casting directors are human beings. Therefore they cannot be expected to memorize the names and faces of thousands of new arrivals in Hollywood with just a few auditions, let alone the difficulty in recognizing a single actor who looks substantially similar to other actors of the same age and ethnicity. One of my agent friends told me that they have a client working as a Series Regular on a NBC prime time show and most casting directors still do not remember/know that this actor is currently a Series Regular - the agent must remind them.
Therefore, we can understand that all these principles accrue to a single aim: the aim of making an individual actor memorable. Being easier to remember is going to make your rise from unknown actor to working actor much more rapid (efficient). Why would you want it to take 30 years if you can achieve it in three years? Take the thirty if you must but please don't complain about how long it's taking or how few auditions you get or whatever other byproduct of "doing things the hard way" that irritate you.
MARKETING PRINCIPLE
The distinctive LOOK is easier to remember than the generic look. The commitment to the distinctive LOOK means that, over the course of many years, casting (and later directors and producers and film critics etc) will be exposed to repeated impressions of that one distinctive LOOK (and NAME) which will result in long-term retention of the talent and their career and their suitability for certain roles (which is really our primary concern here).
SUMMARY
Introducing the character actor to casting directors takes a long time with many, many repeated attempts to get them to notice you. Choose a distinctive LOOK to stand out from the crowded field of aspirants.
Commit to the LOOK to ensure that over a period of many years you are increasing your chances of being remembered first over other similar actors. In general marketing principles, this is called having MINDSHARE.
A distinctive LOOK is easier to remember simply because it's distinctive. A generic look is hard to remember because it is generic. Repetition and reminders reinforce memories. Clear memories result in recognition and recall. Recall means you will be remembered at a crucial moment when casting needs your LOOK.
Commit to the LOOK until you are an A-lister so that over time, casting starts to associate you as the preferred choice for that LOOK in your particular age range/ethnicity/gender.
CONCLUSION If you want efficient progress in your Hollywood journey, choose to be easier to remember.
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