Expert: Taylor Sheppard - 7/6/2008

Question
Hey Taylor.

I'm a 21 year old university student.  I've been interested in acting for a long time, and I've been involved with improv for a few years, but I'm currently stuck at an engineering school.  I've only taken a few acting classes, but I really will not be able to dedicate my time to acting until I graduate when I'm 22.

I live in Los Angeles so being close to the business is not a problem.  I want to study at an acting school.  However, I don't have much training and I have no professional acting resume to go on, so it's hard to figure out where to start.  What is the best way for a someone like me, who is passionate about acting but doesn't have much experience, to approach the industry?

Thanks for taking my question.

Answer
Hi Joe,

Luckily, unlike some of my readers, you WANT to go to acting school.
There are classes that meet once a week, which might fit your schedule. I was just surfing the web and looked up Adam West and Burt Ward's bios on the web. They started out strong and then their careers waned since. That is a cold, hard object lesson in this fickle business. That being said, I whole-heartedly agree with your wanting to stick to your engineering curriculum until graduation. It is great to have a fall-back if things don't work out and you don't want to struggle...if you have someone you decide to settle down with and have a family later on, say. I have always advised young actors to do it for the love of acting and nothing more, because if you just love acting, you get what you came for, whereas, if you are only happy with fame and permanent fortune, you may just have signed on for an unhappy life. The weird thing is, I found the fame, etc. seems to follow people who don't worry about it!
By taking classes, you will at very least have something impressive to put down on your resume that along with your explanation of attending college, will explain your not having acted extensively already.
As I have said before, training not only teaches you, it keeps on teaching you and making you a better actor through thought and practice. Casting people look to see who you've schooled with and that you are training to keep sharp -even when the business is slow.

Best to you, good question!

Taylor