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Having a successful acting career takes lots of effort and passion, but also being able to determine which roles are right for you and your career.

This skill will come over time, but sometimes it’s better to have someone such as a talent manager, acting coach, mentor, or even fellow actors guide you through the process. This is specifically helpful when deciding to say yes or no to an acting job, especially in the early days of your professional acting career when you’re hungry for any role that comes your way.

The most exciting part of an acting agent’s job is calling an actor and telling them they got the role. However, the actor is now left with a difficult decision: deciding choose whether they want that job or not.

Here’s how to help you decide when to take a role and when to turn it down.

Different Facets of Acting Jobs

There are many different facets to an acting job, both good and bad. A good acting gig should include some degree of the three following items:

  • It must provide acting career advancement.
  • It must be financially beneficial for the actor.
  • It must be challenging and artistic.

However, every acting job is very different from the next and each actor is very different from the next. Let’s dive into these three acting role qualifications.

Determine if the Role Provides Acting Career Advancement

Every job in the acting industry should allow an actor to build their body of work, allowing them to showcase several diverse roles to build an impressive acting portfolio or acting resume. Acting gigs should give a professional actor a new experience and in some cases push them outside of their comfort zone.

Working with a specific casting director may also mean career advancement if their name holds weight. There are many angles of career advancement for actors, and although each actor may be looking for something different to fill a specific gap in their acting career, they’ll have to decide if the role makes sense for them.

It’s believed that actors with little experience may need to take any job initially to gain some acting experience, but this is not the case. While beginner actors might not necessarily go after lead roles or wait for lead role auditions to come their way, they can still choose which types of roles they’d like to pursue and audition for those specific roles and genres.

For example, a new actor who wants to pursue dramatic roles might see a casting call for a larger role in a comedy but decides to take a role as a background actor in a drama instead. It could lead to working with a specific casting director or even your breakout role. You’d be surprised how many stories of actors choosing to go this route you’ll find.

The Acting Job Should Benefit You Financially

When it comes down to the specifics, an acting job is still a job. It should pay appropriately so that actors can pay their bills. When an actor accepts or rejects a job offer, compensation is a large part of the decision. Not every acting job will provide career advancement, but it should give you enough money to live. Most actors will have flexible survival jobs to offset dry periods between acting jobs, but that doesn’t mean you should take an acting job that’s going to pay you a low rate.

That being said, some actors choose to take roles that will pay a little less because the role provides career advancement or is a challenging and artistic role that they would not normally be cast in.

This is common in the world of independent film, where lower-budget movies have the potential to be shown in film festivals. That can potentially lead to a movie receiving a big distribution deal, putting the film in the mainstream and revitalizing an actor’s career, where they will go on to work in higher-level productions.

Challenging & Artistic Roles for Your Acting Career

Some jobs may not fulfill a career advancement nor will they be a financial gain. However, an artistically challenging job may reinvigorate an actor to remember why they got into this business to begin with. Or it can be a fresh coat of paint for your career, such as moving from commercials to theater productions.

Challenging and artistic roles can also reinvigorate an actor’s career. This happens with actors who are either mounting a comeback, looking to break free of typecasting being considered for a different range of roles than they are normally featured, or obtaining larger roles as a big fish in a smaller pond. There are many stories of actors who have rejuvenated their careers with a comeback on the independent film scene, going on to land major roles shortly after.

A challenging part may not initially be seen as career advancement, but in the long run, it can improve and even revive an individual’s professional acting career. You might be surprised how quickly you amass lots of projects in a short period of time with just one role.

Choosing the Role That’s Right for You

When it comes to which acting roles you take, the choice is always yours. This is different for every actor, as they will want to work in different genres of the entertainment industry and perform different types of roles. That being said, there are three common factors that you should consider before choosing to accept a role:

  • The role should provide some form of acting career advancement
  • The role should make sense financially.
  • The role should be challenging and artistic enough to pique your interest.

    • While there are exceptions, and in some cases, you may not see all of these in a role you’re considering (sometimes you just want to do a commercial audition for a comedy role in an insurance company’s ad), you have to decide if a role is worth it to you.

    You’ve got this. Check out the range of roles you’d like to play, find some casting calls and audition opportunities for said roles, and go out there and perform at your best.

    Want to get your acting career started? Sign up or login to Casting Frontier and start auditioning today!

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    Written by Casting Frontier