How can an 11 year old become an actress?

Question:my 11 year old wants to become an actress. how can i make her become an actress?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: my 11 year old wants to become an actress. how can i make her become an actress?

Well, there's a lot of good advice here so far, especially about agents. But let's take a hard look.

What are your odds of getting her into show biz anytime soon? Not great. You personally don't know the ins and outs of the business like the parent-managers of most child actors. Even if you hunted down some open auditions and got her in there, she'd be up against a few dozen other talented pre-teens, most of whom already have professional experience. And directors love experience--let's face it, would you want to take a chance on a newbie??

Long-term, however, there is more opportunity. Here's the plan.

1. Do what everyone else here said: instruction in acting, dance, song, etc. Also generally, urge her to get good grades in high school while taking a college-prep curriculum (four years English, four years math, chem, bio, physics, and a wide range of social sciences and arts), and encourage her to read lots and lots of plays.

2. Get her in as many plays as you can--school, community theatre, and even phone local college theatre departments and ask if they need an 11 year old girl in any coming shows. Help your daughter network with the lead actors and directors in those shows. If she can't get a role (which is no reflection on talent, sometimes the show and the performer just don't fit) then see if she can work backstage--costume assistant, props--or even usher.

3. Junior year of high school--identify four or five colleges that offer a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) in theatre performance/acting. You don't want just a bachelor of arts (BA) program--the "F" in there indicates a much more thorough program that prepares professionals. You want to wind up with choices of one or two very selective top programs (Yale, NYU) that might not take her even if she's terrific, one or two somewhat selective schools where she's likely to make it, and one "safety net" that accepts everybody. Also have her score really high on the ACT/SAT. (I know, not asking for much here...)

4. Early in senior year of high school, apply to the selected colleges. It's good to apply early because (a) you beat deadlines for certain kinds of financial aid (b) once accepted to the university as a student, one usually must then apply and be accepted to the theatre program. For the application to the program, she'll need a resume that shows a lot of participation in shows; letters of recommendation (best if they come from directors and actors--best of all from a college play); and an audition, usually on-campus where she travels at her own expense.

Once in a BFA program, she'll learn how to build a career in show biz--plus her talents will be polished to a high degree.

It's a long hard slog, but what I've described is the way that most American actors get there.

Sign her up for dance/music/acting classes.
Start there.
And there are talent agencies and stuff you could have her be a part of.

you are in for a long haul if you mean professionally...

first one question to ask you... where do you live? it is so important. if you live in burbank you are the luckiest family alive. the farther away the tougher unless you want to have her audition in new york. la is great too there are auditions there.

if you live in the middle of kansas, they probably will still sign you if they are interested in your daughter. im not sure tho. it's not going to be tough for the agent. it will be tough for you.

if you are willing to say, 4 times a month fly your daughter out of kansas to Burbank, leaving the airport at 8 oclock to make it to a 3 o clock audition in Burbank then your daughter could be successful. but it gets so tough. i live in vegas and it takes us like 3 hours to get to our audition. im just glad the agents are so picky about where you live tho.

.........................................
okay she needs to be good at acting most importantly
and parents can never like neveerrrr really tell. you need a objective opinion. but the problem is soo many people are not honest if there are scams.

here are the steps...
1) get her in plays (even if she doesn't want to do theatre, she needs a resume) she needs a few leads or at least a couple things that sound like leads on a resume. the best part is this is free. once she has done like 5 plays then thats fine she is good.

if there are no plays for her to be in then have her write it ,get friends and do it in your garage. it will go on the resume nonetheless. garage plays are really fun and also she can cast herself as the lead so it will look really good.

2) take classes (if you can i highly recommend it.)
note for the classes: they shouldnt like record you doing commercials in front of the camera they should put you in scenes!! that will really make you better

3) make a resume with special interests, things such languages you can speak and sports, if you sing that kind of stuff your info all the work you have done(plays at this point), etc. and your classes and instructors cause it looks good. make the resume neat. look for formats online that look good. don't use crazy font.

4) get pictures
all you need in one picture. it should cut of at your head. your name should be at the bottom and well it should be shiny and well-done. good resolution is a must. this should be done by a professional photographer. my favorite is kevin at red-head talent he is really nice. i think he's in oakland. but you can get it done whereever really as long as it is a real headshot.

5) staple the headshot and the resume... back to back. four corners.

6) you need to get an agent.

okay this is the hardest step... here are the rules to make it easy...and so you dont lose like 20 grand lol

1)YOU do not ever pay the agent no no noooooo! until you signed a contract, went on an audition sent to you BY the agent, and booked it, it has been filmed and money has been put into your koogan account, none of your money should be taken away. 10 percent of what you make on a job will go to your agent.

2) your agent should be in l.a. or new york. whatever you live closer to. if there is an agent in your city its great but those are not the auditions you want.

3) you need a good agent. a bad agent will be licensed or

whatever it is called and everything, but they won't send you on good auditions. look at there clients. are there clients in big productions? for example, my agent has clients such as ashley tisdale in high school musical and zack and cody from the suite life of zach and cody. so, SHE was the one who sent them on those disney auditions. therefore, she has good contacts and disney knows to call her. i like this b/c i knew when I signed with her that she would send me on those same auditions. and she does.

if you are interested in this agent, which would be good b/c she especially likes those 10 11 12 year olds, then contact the Diverse talent group . or go on there website and look for cattle call..

have a commercial, and monologue, and at least 20 seconds of singing memorized perfectly (if you claim to sing on your resume) before going in to audition b/c they will ask you: do you have a commercial or monologue prepared. i guarantee it!

i honestly dont know how it works in the agency b/c my acting school is great and she came to us as opposed to me flying out there. there might not be like a cattle call for that agency. otherwise, just send your headshot and resume to the addresses of all the big, reputable looking agencies in LA. If they contact you, thats great. you're going to have to fly out.

only do this if you are sure you want to get yourself involved in this. if she doesn't like the local theatre then she won't like auditioning in front of a scary c.s.a. trust me.

the first audtion is the worst!! don't be mad if you don't get a callback. i only get callbacks like 1 out of 3 and its not a bad thing. the casting director has like a vision of what the character should look like and probably will only cast that person.

your daughter doesn't even have to be cute but she has to be entertaining. in hollywood they are looking for anything.

i don't know how long the writer's strike is going to last but once you get an agent, they should be sending you out at least once every two months, ideally more.

before an audtion, you usually have a day to prepare. it really sucks. one time i had 8 pages to memorize and i had less than 24 hours. on top of that, i had to go to school the day of the audition because the audition was late in the day.

i wish you the best of luck! if things don't turn out well, you can't ever say " i wonder if acting would have worked for Julia" I think you won't regret it.

BReak a leg!

once you have an agent, they will educate you on accounts and work permits and everything else you need to know.

bye!

4) you don't need a manager. you shouldnt pay a manager. they would potentially get paid, as an agent, after you book something.

a personal manager should only have 3 to 4 clients. not 300.

5)
ok i know this sounds stupid but :
if she can read from a book loud and clear without stumbling, with expression, and

Well, first off, do a little research on your area's community theatre. See what auditions are going on, what classes are taking new students, etc. Get her into some classes, camps, whatever. Have her audition for shows, the more she auditions for, the more experience she'll have with auditions, even if she doesn't make it. Have her read some plays to get a little background. Get her a few monologue books to practice with. Buy her a keyboard and try to get her some piano lessons, and see if she can start playing some songs for her to sing. Enroll her in some dance classes. Check out the drama club at her school, if there is one. If there isn't, try to get her and her friends to start their own! Take her to see some plays, community or maybe even broadway across america! All this will help her get an idea of what acting is and get her some practice. Good luck!

look around for a talent agency - try looking on google by typing in talent agencys + wherever you live.. from there, get a talent agent. (mine was free, but i dont know if there will be a cost where you live)

some talent agents have workshops for you to go to if you go to these workshops, you can place them on your acting reseme (she/he will give you one when you sign up with their agency) which is later placed in the computer with 3+ professionally done photos. KEEP IN MIND YOU DO NOT WANT GLAMOUR SHOT PHOTOS my talent agent LAUGHS at these types of photos because NONE of the film industries want photos like that and YES they CAN TELL the difference between a glamour shot photo (where you look like your 25 with caked on makeup and whatnot when your really like 12) she told me WALMART takes good pictures that are good enough in quality for your reseme.
anyway, you want as much as possible on your reseme there will be a section on there like ''special skills'' or whatever, and by that they just mean can you mkae yourself cry when needed, can you sing/dance WELL, good with pets, etc.

KEEP IN MIND > EVEN IF YOU HAVE A TALENT AGENT IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL BE CALLED TO AUDITIONS ALL THE TIME!!!! THE PEOPLE WHO HOST THE AUDITIONS WANT A CERTAIN TYPE OF PERSON - SURELY IF YOUR A 300LB 48YEAR OLD MAN YOU CANT PLAY THE ROLE OF A 120LB 26YR OLD WOMAN so don't become disgusted if it takes a while for you to be called for an audition.

alsoooo- if they have plays you can try out for EVEN IF THEY ARE AT YOUR SCHOOL - TRY OUT FOR THEM! all of this adds up to experience and filmmakers WANT people who have tons of experience

this is all i can think of off the top of my head-good luck:]

exploretalent.com is a good beginning agency or william morris agency. Also, if she wants to be on broadway-there are auditions posted on playbill.com