Expert: Peter Messaline - 4/10/2010

Question
I have a question. How do actors become famous? I'm a teenage girl with an amazing voice and acting skills and I want to be known. I have no support, though. I'm in Wisconsin and my parents don't think I could do it but I know I can. I want to be like those Cinderella girls that are completely unknown like me but become famous! Like that girl from Precious who skipped school and within a year was nominated for an Oscar. I know I can do it but I need to know how! I just need help to turn myself from an unknown unsupported teen to an acting sensation. I dream of being in successful movies but I don't know how. I'm different than Elijah Wood who's mom saw he had talent and sent him to auditions. How do I start? How do I find out about auditions?

Answer

You're not going to enjoy this.
First off, a bucket of cold water.
There.
Now I've got your attention, you must understand that you can't have "getting to be a famous actress" as a target. That's like trying to make yourself smart. All you can do is all those things that all the other actors do, only better and with an eye focussed on getting better known to better people.
The stories that we hear about instant stars generally turn out to be either outright lies or the carefully picked bits of the truth that support the story. We love to hear the stories because they are strange. No-one is interested in a story that goes, "Well, I got good grades and did lots of local acting in high school, so I got into an acting school and three years later I was hired by a school touring company, which led to films for teaching kids about danger, and ..."
And we certainly aren't interested in the version that ends with, " so I was out of work in Wisconsin again and calling my agent to see if there was anything coming along for me ...."
Being an actress is a career choice, and if you treat it like that, your parents will be more likely to support you. Like any job except MacDonald's, you have to have certain abilities to start with, then you have to add skills until you are unusually good, then you have to find out who is hiring people like you.
Don't try to take a shortcut into fame and success -- it doesn't happen that way but there are plenty of people who will play along with you, telling you that you are on the edge of a big career, while draining your money and your self-confidence.
You are unique and valuable; but that doesn't make you into a property people want to hire. Read all you can about the job of acting. Go to the library and ask the staff for something in Dewey Decimal 790, about acting as a career.
Now get a nice warm towel, dry off and don't lose heart at the long path ahead of you.