What Is An Actor?As Shakespeare wrote, ‘one man in his time plays many parts’ or, to put it another way, we play many different roles throughout our lives. Certainly those people who get paid for pretending to be someone else, professional actors, need to be very convincing indeed because almost 90% of them are looking for work at any one time. It is even more difficult for women because there are far more roles for men. Whether or not you get a chance to act won’t only be on the basis of your talent. Actors are chosen (‘cast’) for a variety of reasons, few of which relate solely to acting ability. For example, a play may demand two actors of contrasting physical types, one tall, the other short, one with red hair, the other bald and so on – so however much talent you may have, if you don’t match the physical type you won’t be offered the part. When actors do find employment it can be in theatre, television, film or radio. Some actors are also hired because their voices are thought to be suitable for use in advertisements, or to tell the story in a television documentary. If you are very successful you can earn lots of money, but most actors really aren’t in it for the money, and in any case most of them, even those working at the National Theatre, will never earn on average more than, say, a teacher, policeman or nurse, and some a great deal less. |  | |