If you haven’t been to drama school or set foot on a stage, then you might think a career as an actor is out of the question. But there are a number of major stars, including Carey Mulligan and Michael Caine, who never had any formal training. Mulligan applied to several drama schools but was rejected, with one even telling her that she should be a children’s TV presenter instead. “I just started acting when I was 18 and got into it,” she recalled in an interview with Variety. And Caine said he learned acting “on the subway, watching how people moved and what they did.”
It may prove harder to make it if you start later in life, but it’s certainly not impossible. Margaret Bowman (who gave a scene-stealing turn as a waitress in the Hollywood film Hell or High Water) was in her fifties when she first started acting and was still racking up credits in her ninth decade.
Thinking of taking the plunge? Here are some tips.
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One option, of course, is applying to drama school. There is no upper age limit at places like RADA and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Some, such as the Bridge Theatre Training Company, which runs one- and two-year training programmes, actively encourage mature students to apply.
If you don’t have the time or money to commit to a full-time course, know that many leading drama schools – the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and RADA among them – offer short courses. There are also several other organisations, such as the London Actors Workshop and The Actors Studio, that run workshops and short courses, often in the evenings and at weekends, for both beginners and professional actors looking to improve their skills.
It’s important to keep exercising that acting muscle. “Practise, practise, practise. Act, act, act, in whichever way you can,” says acting coach Gary Condés. He suggests running through scenes with other actors, attending drop-in classes, or even just reading scripts out loud at home.
Make a showreel to display your acting talents and start booking auditions. Professional actors include clips from films, TV shows, or theatre productions they’ve performed in, but when you’re just starting out, you’ll want to choose versatile clips that prove your potential. It doesn’t need to be slickly produced; a short video clip (shot on a smartphone) of some scenes or monologues is sufficient. Condés suggests keeping it simple and cautions against including characters who are living in extremes. “Just have relationship-based scenes. One when you are having fun with a friend, or one where you are maybe breaking up, rather than conceptual, big, genre-based characters or ones where you're hiding behind a lot of character attributes as opposed to revealing your truest self.”
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Along with a showreel, you’ll be expected to submit your headshots for a casting director to assess your suitability for the part. These should be shot professionally. Casting director Carl Proctor (who is also a photographer) cites some common mistakes, such as only including one image or one side of yourself. It can be tempting to do this if you believe one particular photo is your best shot at being seen, or, as Proctor put it, you think, “This is the type I seem most castable in, so I'll just push that. I'll just put four photos up with me looking like a serial killer and I'll see if that works”, but that’s a “missed opportunity”.
Prices vary, but you should be able to get decent headshots for £200–£400 in the UK. To find the right photographer, ask other actors for recommendations.
Next, upload your showreel and headshots to acting databases – bear in mind you often have to pay to join. Be sure to include any special skills in your profile, such as musical instrument or dance qualifications, as this can give you an upper hand even against more experienced actors.For example, a role might requires fluent Urdu or a high level of athletic ability. In those cases, casting directors might broaden their scope and consider someone without much experience but the right set of skills.
Most auditions are invite-only, but some productions have open casting calls, particularly for harder-to-cast roles. These can be the perfect opportunity to snag that much-needed first role. Casting directors often put callouts on social media or on casting websites. You’ll be asked to send details, like a showreel or a link to your online profile. In the past, open auditions would have involved actors queuing up to be seen, but these days, if you’re selected, the casting director is more likely to ask you to send a self-taped scene rather than attend in person.
Research talent agents and contact those you’d like to sign with via the submission process on their website. Send them your CV, showreel, and headshots, or a link to an online profile that contains all of these. Keep it brief and avoid being pushy. Proctor says he’s put off by the kind of emails that say, “Bring me in. You won't regret it,” saying, “It's just a bit too much.”
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Thomas Turgoose was 13 years old when the casting director Des Hamilton, who was looking for actors for Shane Meadows’ This Is England, spotted him on a street corner in Grimsby. Turgoose has gone on to star in major series and films like Game of Thrones and Eden Lake.
Kane Robinson was cast as the costar of Top Boy when he was in his twenties. Although he’d found success as a rapper in the UK’s grime scene, he’d never acted before. Hamilton, who is known for using street casting and was the casting director on this series, also brought in acting novices Shone Romulus as Dris and Michael Junior Onafowokan as Cornell over the course of the show’s run.
Zoha Rahman is a British-based actress who was born in Pakistan. She was plucked from obscurity to appear in the 2019 blockbuster Spider-Man: Far From Home. Rahman played the role of Peter Parker’s friend Zoha and was the first hijab-wearing character ever to appear in the Marvel franchise. Though she’d previously modelled in campaigns for brands like FIFA World Cup and Wagamama, her only prior feature film credit had been in the Indian romantic comedy Mr. Majnu.
Dave Turner was working in a village pub (after spending 30 years in the fire service) when he was cast in a small part in Ken Loach’s Newcastle-based film I, Daniel Blake. Loach cast him again in Sorry We Missed You, and then as the leading role of TJ Ballantyne in his third north-east England-set feature, The Old Oak.