Do Not Let Your Big Talk And Bad Dancing Ruin Your Big Screen Career. Chapter 3. (inspired by my act

This is the Third Chapter of my sharing with young actors how to have a short but meaningful conversation in order to make that casting director or agent remember your name.

The simple rule is to never exaggerate your skill set; however, do not be too shy about sharing your skills either.

If you took one dance class in your life when you were five years old, please do not say that you know how to dance to your casting director or agent. I witnessed some very unpleasant moment when an actor had to be kicked out in the middle of the big budget film shoot after it turned out that he could not dance.

He was supposed to be a part of featured extras in the dance scene for the film Live By Night directed by and starring Ben Affleck. In the morning, when they asked people to raise their hands if they could do partner dancing, this tragic hero was very bold to raise his hand very high over his head. I, on the other hand, was too shy at that time and was hiding my hands in my pockets. I did though have enough courage to come up to Sasha one of the casting agents from Central Casting and tell her that I was actually a trained dancer and would love to be considered for any dancing scenes if required later. She was very nice and said she would keep it in mind. And she did.

Did you already guess the end of this story? Yes, ten minutes before shooting the main dance scene, a beautiful girl ran out screaming in a very heavy Russian accent that her partner could not even do two steps and lead her into the right direction. Now imagine the panic! This Russian lady did not hold her passionate frustration back. The dancing was simple but the blocking of it was a little bit complicated because of the camera work. The camera operator had to capture not only dancers but also Affleck's character walking smoothly through the crowd of dancers in the very close proximity. If you are familiar with partner dances, you know that in most of them a woman can not see where she is going, and it is a man's responsibility to guide her into the needed direction. In this case, knowing that Ben Affleck would be walking right in front of her in his cool gangster outfit did not not help to calm her Slavic nerves either!!!

Well, I am a curious extra, so I was just hiding in the small corner trying to see what they were dancing. Yes, do not waste your time as a lot of other extra actors do. See if you can be as close to the set as possible without bothering anyone and OBSERVE! You will be surprised how much you can learn by simply observing the work flow of these professional people. It is fascinating.

The Production Assistant Mathew was awesome and did not waste his time. He was already notified by the casting director that I could dance. How do I know? He did not ask me but came straight at me and said "You can dance, right?" I said "Yes". He replied "Cool. Go ahead and start learning the choreography". That's how I was placed into the scene. Moreover, I was put into a lot of other dance scenes later that day,which allowed me to witness the filming of some of the main club scenes of Ben Affleck and Zoe Saldana and to have a two minute chat with Ben Affleck when we both ended up getting coffee during the lunch time when everybody had already left the set. You wonder what we talked about, I assume. Well, I thanked him for an opportunity to be in such a cool film and to be a part if a great film acting workshop. He smiled and said "[he] wished [he] could teach better". See, those people up there are very humble. That's why, they are where they are. But if you think about it, I was getting paid to learn about my craft from some of the best while being paid for it. I was witnessing professional work of the actors and the whole crew! That's why, do not do what every other extra does: doing his/her own thing while waiting for the call time and then run back to check that phone as soon as possible. Enjoy all the time you can get during the good extra gig and learn, learn, learn.

By the end of the day, I received my first SAG voucher although I was hired as non-union. They also asked me to come back for a completely different extra part. That meant I could now learn even more and get to be a part of the cool experience of witnessing an old fashioned real train station to be built with a train powered by a steam engine going back and forth; and cool people dressed in gangster suits chatting while standing by the old fashioned cars parked on the side; and all that awesome jazz which makes the film industry so attractive and magical!

I do not know what happened to the other guy. He probably took a few dance lessons after this painful experience or simply deleted that skill from his resume. I really hope he chose to take lessons though.

The tragic hero and I made almost the same mistake. He said too much. I said too little. I just had more luck that day and was given an opportunity to correct my mistake.

You should know that luck is not just something that happens. It is something that you actively create without knowing it at the moment. See, if I did not know how to dance and did not notify Sasha about my skills, the good luck would have never taken place in this scenario.

The conclusion is simple: say the truth and do not let your big talk ruin your big screen career.

Thank you for reading my post. I hope it was informative and entertaining.

Now, you can put your gadget to the side and go take some dance classes.

Photo by Gregory R.R. Crosby.