Actors Roundtable

(44:04) I'm a young actor, and over and over i keep hearing actors are cattle. actors are a dime a dozen. how do you keep up your confidence? what do you do to keep up your confidence? - Joshua Malina? Be grateful for what you have. Love what you do. Just love it. - Scott Porter? Um... I also just think that, like, you don't become an actor because you think you're bad at it. Do you know what I mean? Like, every single person who's ever wanted to be an actor thinks they're fucking great. Like, do you know what I mean? And, like, there's nothing wrong with that - like, you need that. And I think that you have to, you know, be honest with yourself, like, don't ever lie to yourself about who you are or what you look like, or how you sound - like, learn to appreciate and embrace the things that make you uniquely you. And then know that yeah, the reason you're doing this is you're fucking great. You know? And if you walk in thinking, "No, there's others better than me," I think people can feel that. I think insecurity is normal, but I think that fear is... it's like animals, you know, you can smell it. And I think that, like, confidence is everything. All I know is, like, there are dudes who fucking suck in Hollywood. I don't know many of them. But I will tell you that on average in my experience, the confident ones book more work. Not necessarily the talented ones all the time. The ones who walk in and are just like, "No, I'm--- this is-- yeah, you should hire me. - Joshua Malina: And yeah, I think part of that speaks to it's not even necessarily confidence in your talent. It's confidence in who you are. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Because if you go in there, you're not going to be right for every part no matter what. But if you go in there and you feel like "No, I know exactly who I am" - 90% of Hollywood doesn't have a fucking clue who they are. - Or humans. - But if you feel that confidence in yourself of "No, I am inalienably myself." Then you already have a leg up on the vast majority of people in that town, who are so wishy-washy, who are positioning themselves in same way - and, like, as human beings, we can see that through that crap all the time. And casting directors are the best people in the world at seeing through that crap. People who are posturing and all that jazz. But, you know, be a real person, like know who you are, and that's already-- you're, like, way ahead of the curve. - I think that's a good call. Because a lot of the times people get cast for 'essence.' There's two different ways people get cast: they either get cast because of their talent at playing this character, or they just cast because just of their essence, who they are. And I think what he's saying is really great - is a really good point because, basically -- most of the time it kind of comes down to your essence. I mean, you walk in and you have a certain vibe to you and they're like, "Oh, my God, this feels right" and it just kind of clicks, right? And it's true. If you're trying to be something you're not, or you're not confident in yourself just kind of being enough, you know, regardless of your skill level or your experience level or what you've done in the past, that is a great point. I think that makes a big difference. Because a lot of times it's just about the guy who walks in the room and just, they're interested in you, and they can't be interested in you if you're doing something fake or if you're trying to pretend you're something you're not. - Jack Porter: (47:14) The other thing to keep in mind is that you're-- a friend of mine told me about this quote, which I will have to paraphrase... but, um. It's by some well-known lady. - Joshua Malina: Maya Angelou. - Jack Porter: Probably. Or whatever. (laughs) But it's something like... my paraphrase of it is "there's a hole in the market in the shape of you," and the only one who can fill it is you. So, like, I can't do what you do. I can't be you. So whatever your thing is, you're the only one who can provide the world with it. So put it out there. And let the world decide whether or not there's any value to it. Like, and there will be, but let them determine where it falls, in their eyes. Don't count yourself out. - Josh Malina? And if they don't see it right away, then you might have to make the movie that shows who you are, you know what I mean? Like, everybody in this room has a story that's compelling, and if some, you know, director or casting director or producer is too thick to see, like, "Oh, I don't see a marketable film" - then, like, what we were saying - the tools are there. You can tell your story now. And you can also give yourself the skills to make it as compelling as your life is, you know? - And that's pretty inspiring, to me. Your story. I don't even know you, man! - And it's okay to fail. Like, don't let failure or anything like that hurt who you are. Like, give yourself permission to have shitty days. Like, I'm not the type of actor who's great every day. I deliver real shit performances sometimes. And, like, at a certain point I had to sort of acknowledge that, right? Where I'm like "all right, this is pretty fucking terrible today." Ha. But give yourself permission to not be perfect and still keep going. Like, when you hold yourself to an unrealistic standard, you're setting yourself up for continual and perpetual failure. Which will just eat away at your psyche. So just give yourself permission to be human, which is, you know, flawed, imperfect and unique. You know? - Jack Porter? And at worst you will always be you. You know? Like, even if you don't hit the target - if you have some target in your mind, which is my problem: I'm always aiming for something and I'm way off the target - but the people who are watching don't know what my target was. So, you know, I have to accept that, that it's-- I'm not-- we are not the best judge of our own success. Anyway. (50:00) --- How long from the first time you got your agent to your first big break? Did you feel like giving up? Scott Porter: You know, the message that these guys were just delivering on the last question kind of applies here as well. Cause for me, I just did whatever I could do wherever I could do it on stage, anywhere, whatever you need to me to do - sing, dance, beatbox, try and act, which I was-- that was probably my worst. I can sing, I've been singing my whole life. But the acting was so new to me and I had no training and uh... I got to New York and I beatboxed off-Broadway and then I got a little show called "Altar Boys" and I got an agent from that show. And to me that was a big break. And I did that show for two years and then my first pilot season came around and I got "Friday Night Lights." I already felt-- because I had been performing so much and just performing anywhere and everywhere and learning everywhere I could, I already felt like I had kind of made it when I got the agent. --- I was just wondering if anyone has any particular roles or moments that you come back to that you're particularly proud of? (53:27) - Lucas Neff: No. -