When Jacqueline Steiger sent me her spectacular POV contribution on the use of character history for a role-playing game character to inspire an understanding of your actor brand, I beamed like a proud momma. See, Jacqueline has been such a star student of Self-Management for Actors since she first started working with us not quite a year ago, that she’s now coming on to the Cricket Feet team, and with good reason. You’ll see a ton of Bonnieisms in this edition of The Actors Voice: POV, but from a totally different perspective. Read on!
Brandprov
Acting can be a lot of work. Or rather, the pursuit of acting. Headshots, mailings, breakdowns, demo reels, websites, craft classes, workshops, targeting (and if you’re a ninja, self-producing), etc. Perhaps the most important aspect of the whole hustle is making sure that all of your materials — everything in your arsenal — represent you and your brand. If you show up as “awkward character actress” in your headshots and “suave romantic lead” on your website, you risk confusing and driving away buyers that would otherwise just love to hire or represent you.
I don’t know how many times Bonnie has told us to run everything through our Brand Filter, but I do know that it can take a while to figure out your brand, let alone make sure that everything you put out screams “THIS IS MY BRAND!”
But never fear, actors who are uncertain how to create a brand filter. Although it takes a little bit of thought and effort, the results are totally worth it. Presenting on-brand in everything you do not only gives casting directors the best way to cast you, but your consistency shows that you are low-risk and therefore much more bookable. Now let me help you create a brand filter with the power of Geek.
Part of my brand is being a sci-fi gamer nerd girl and being totally unapologetic about it. So let’s talk role-playing games. I play a lot of tabletop/pen and paper RPGs. The most widely-known one is Dungeons and Dragons. (For the three of you reading this that care, currently we’re in a D20 modern Urban Arcana campaign.) In the game, you create a character with set attributes and skill sets, and use that character as your avatar in the adventure.
I discovered that building a character for D&D is similar to creating a character for an audition, or learning to fine-tune your own brand. It might be the sci-fi/fantasy nerd in me that makes me inhabit the world of imagination; it might be that “actor thing” that makes me want to try on as many characters as possible. Either way, I’m lucky enough to have cemented my brand and found my bullseye. (Plus I created a kick-ass character for our current campaign.) Here’s how I did it.
You start with the broad strokes. What kind of “class” is your character? A fighter? A diplomat? A thief? Think of this as the type of world you belong in. Are you a sitcom kinda gal? A procedural guy? A leading man or lady?
Then you fill in the special skill sets. The character that I’m playing right now is a diplomat, and so is really good at bluffing, negotiations, and extracting information from people. Think of this as your bullseye. What do you do better than anyone else? Are you the lab tech/brainy person? Are you charming and suave with a dark secret? Do you play hipster snob jerk better than anyone you know?
To add a little flavor to your character, think about the clothes they would wear and how they would present themselves. These are super valuable questions for us as actors too, since we’re supposed to never leave the house “off-brand.”
Once you have your outline and your specialties, it’s time for the fun part. Backstory, likes and dislikes, accents, and all the trivia and minutia that make up a human being. (Note: not all nerds do this for their characters, but most of the people I game with are also theatre geeks so character creation is part and parcel of our fun.) Think of this in terms of your brand. What events from your childhood or past have influenced you immensely?
My character grew up destitute and her motivation for charging outrageous prices for her skills is so that she will never be financially dependent on anyone ever again. I had a lot of surgeries as a child. Being stuck in bed for days on end, I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on, primarily science fiction and fantasy. That cemented my love for all things nerdy at a young age.
If you’re stuck, something that I really enjoy doing is taking those online personality quizzes. If you grew up in the ’90s like I did (especially if you were a teenage girl, ever) you probably took nine zillion of them. Remember them? Some of them had sparkly graphics that you could copy the html code of and then paste to your Myspace or Livejournal (depending on how angsty you were). “What element embodies you?” “What color represents you?” “Your food personality,” etc.
Think about the answers that your character would have and the choices your character would make. To continue the analogy, find the best on-brand answers and see if the quiz result turns out to be surprising.
A final tip: Boring dating questions. Take a group of friends and make a list of 15 or 20 of them and take turns answering them as fast as you can. Favorite ice cream flavor. Type of shoe. Signature drink. Celebrity crush. Car. Boom! Ninja answers.
My diplomat’s answers are: mocha, Loubotins, Sazerac, Daniel Craig, and Lamborghini.
Mine? They’re easy: green tea, boots, gin and ginger, Felicia Day (or Alan Tudyk), Tesla.
Love it! Jacqueline, thank you for making the Self-Management for Actors principles on brand consistency so very accessible, using something as simple as role-playing game character creation. Awesome! Of course, you know I’m a huge fan of drilling those quick-answer items, always on-brand. Before any interview, networking event, or audition at which “so tell me about yourself” may come up, getting a little run-through of your Brandprov is such a fabulous bit of prep work. Ninja on!
About Jacqueline Steiger
Jacqueline Steiger is jumping back into the industry full-force after a break for school (graduated summa cum laude from UCLA, to brag). She has been enjoying taking classes and working on both sides of the camera this time around. As a child she was lucky enough to work with some of the industry’s greatest, including Danny DeVito and Sally Field. Outside of the industry, Jacqueline enjoys all things sci-fi/fantasy, anime, and anything with melted cheese on it. She is an LA native.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/plus/pov/2012/11/brandprov.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the managing editor’s personal archive.