There are as many ways to narrowing down one’s type as there are acting types themselves. Everyone has their methods some simple, some straightforward, some intricate and others just misleading. I found the best road to finding your type is a mixture of public feedback and honest reflection. Below is a three step method to discovering a well-rounded concise character type for scenes and acting auditions.
Survey the Public
- Ask yourself (honestly). Look at yourself in the mirror and think of jobs/vocations/careers you LOOK like you do for a living.
- Ask your friends/family. This one can be tough because most friends and family will give more complimentary feedback. You may need to encourage them to be objective and honest.
- Ask people who don’t know you. It can be difficult to approach a complete stranger and ask them to judge you but try phrasing your questions like so: “If you saw me in a commercial what kind of commercial would it be? What would I be doing?” “If you saw me in a TV show what kind of TV show would it be? What would I be doing? What would be my job?”
Age & Occupation
From that feedback pick a solid 5 year age range (ex. ‘late 20s to early 30s’ or ‘mid-30s’). Then considering your physique & physical features in combination with the feedback from others pick the 3 top jobs/occupations your type would be seen working.
The Nitty-Gritty
Take a free Myers-Briggs personality test. If you don’t know much about Myers-Briggs, google for some reference. The Myers-Briggs test (and other like it) are immensely informative because they can teach you things about yourself that you may not have even thought about. Since these test results are based on your natural habitual tendencies, they will be valuable when consider the types of characters that would you suit you well in a TV show, film or play production.
If you go to www.16personaities.com they provide free detailed analysis on your likely habits and tendencies. It was scary accurate when I did it for myself. This site is not a sponsor by the way, they just have the best free test I’ve found and provide extremely helpful analyses.
Now, take those analyses, your top 3 jobs/occupations, age range, & physique/features, and write out a character breakdown for yourself. You can then take this information and form characters within a film or logline. See below for an example.
EXAMPLE
Age range: Late 20s to early 30s
Physique/Features: 6 foot, athletic, broad shoulders, strong facial features.
Occupations: Military, Entry-Level professional, Graduate student
Demeanor: Pensive, analytical, loud, charming, ambitious, upbeat
Vocal Resonance: Low resonance, Baritone
Myers-Briggs: ENTP (look up ENTP on www.16personalities.com for reference)
An uncompromisingly honest lieutenant whose charming antics become too much for his own good.
A over-analytical graduate student whose miscalculations end up teaching him his hardest lesson yet.
Now you can start to see what type of roles you could be cast in and how you could contribute a fresh nuanced perspective to those roles.
ScriptClips Tip:
With ScriptClips you can search for acting scenes from tv and film scripts that are unique to you and your type by entering keywords within the search bar, or selecting ‘Subtype’, or ‘Additional Description’ and entering in the keywords of traits that would fit your type more specifically. Click here to login to your free account and filter through the libraries using these dynamic search features to find the best script scene for you.
Author: Christian Telesmar is a professional actor living in Los Angeles, CA. He received his Bachelors (BA) from the University of Washington as well as his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Washington School of Drama’s Professional Acting Training Program (PATP). He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Kaplan University School of Business. He is known for his work in Stomp the Yard 2 (2010), Sense and Sensibility (2014), and BONES on FOX (2015). He is also a freelance Creative Director and Writer, having won awards for his promotional work with Microsoft Windows 7, Wal Mart, and Pepsi Co. He enjoys hiking and is an avid Seahawks fan.
