GET YOUR HEADSHOTS RIGHT

Once you decide to pursue work as a professional actor, you'll need to get your tools together. The first and perhaps most important tool is your headshot-resume. If there's one thing that an actor needs to get work, it's a great headshot. It's the first thing the casting director (or anyone else) sees. It's your first impression. If they like the look of the 8x10, they'll turn it over and peruse your resume listing your credits, skills and training.

A quick word about your credits, skills and training: don't invent! People might ask you about the bogus credit and, if you don't know something or someone that your should, it will taint your reputation quickly. You may, from time to time, exaggerate a little bit (this is Hollywood after all), but do not flat-out lie. This goes for skills your list on your resume. If you say that you can ride a horse while juggling then you better be able to do it--and do it well! Someone once told me to put "singing" on my resume as a skill. "Everyone can sing," my adviser told me. No. Not true. I cannot sing. So I do not list signing as a skill. I do list "cartoonist" and "radio disc jockey" as these are both jobs I have earned a professional paycheck for in the past. Finally, advice about training: get some locally. Even if you have a BA in Theater from a prestigious university, get some names on your resume that the casting directors will recognize. Plus, it's a great way to start networking, which is another important component of an actor's life.

So, back to the headshot. Most actors have at least two "looks." One look is always a closeup showing off your eyes and conveying personality through your expression. The other look is a wider shot of your body and is typically your "character" look. What kind of roles can you realistically play? What does your body shape and size most broadly indicate? My days of a leading man vanished as quickly as my hairline. Hey, those are the facts! Don't kid yourself. Craft a look that your can make money at in the acting profession.

If you examine my collection of headshots you can probably see me in different roles based on different photos: dad, neighbor, insurance salesman, used car salesman, drunken bum, hard-nosed cop, good guy and bad guy. These are all my looks. On "Beverly Hills 90210" I was the boss of a car wash; on "All That!" I was a funny security guard; I was a dad in a Cracker Jack commercial; an oil company worker in "Live from Baghdad" and a doctor in "The Horribly Slow Murderer.."

My concluding thought on the topic of headshots is: make sure that you look like your headshot and it looks like you! You do no one a favor if your headshot makes you look incredibly good courtesy of airbrushing and Photoshopping tricks. This also means that if you gain a lot of weight or lose it, get new headshots to reflect it. Also, as you get older, make sure your headshots acknowledge that fact! That's where I'm at now. The gray on my temples appears nowhere in my headshots.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what new looks I have now! Senator? Executive? AARP commercial guy?!

I'm just saying...