Several months ago, a reporter from the LA Times reached out to me as a source on an article she was doing about actors and “that typing thing.” Obviously, I have a lot to say on that, but I also made sure she was talking to people whose entire careers are about helping actors nail their primary type. She said she kept hearing about the work I was doing, with my Self-Management for Actors courses, and, while typing is certainly a part of that, there’s typing as a foundation for targeting shows, which is a foundation for targeting representation, and there’s creating content that helps drop breadcrumbs down the path of “this is how to cast me next,” all while understanding the Hollywood machine and how much spin is required to thrive at various tiers throughout the creative journey.

The best thing to do, I decided, was to invite this reporter into our world. Let her join the upcoming SMFA seminar, give her access to our entire curriculum — both in the room and online — and then encourage her to interview dozens of actors who are alumni of the SMFA programs. Heck, I even connected her with the upper-tier folks we use as shining examples of “good, early branding,” so she could speak with them about how they learned — at the beginning of their journey — that their specificity and consistency in communicating that specificity is exactly what helped get them ahead, faster than if they had done the “typical actor thing” of submitting on everything, submitting to every agency, trying to be whatever it is “they” are looking for… rather than committing to a brand and trusting that commitment to pay off.

Part of the “demystifying this stuff” STUFF is that there’s no secret to it, at all. Everything I teach, I’ve written, right here. Every interview I’ve conducted is source material for it all. I live my life as if everything I say is “on the record.” Why not go “all in”?

I worked privately last week with a very successful recording artist who is struggling with getting similar high-level traction with her acting career. She talked about doing blanket submissions to agencies. She talked about hitting “all the CD workshops” because she keeps hearing she needs to do that. When I asked how she targeted these folks, she had no answer, because that wasn’t a part of her process. As soon as I drew a parallel to the music industry, a lightbulb went off over her head. Just like she would NEVER have interest in working with a whole chunk of music producers, or signing to a whole segment of record labels, there are shows — and therefore casting people — and therefore funnel agencies — that have nothing to do with where she “idles” as an actor.

The point of understanding your brand (which comes from getting clear on your type, your targets, the vibe of the stories you like to tell, and where all these things intersect in current opportunities) is that it clears the clutter of all the overwhelming NOISE out there that comes from hundreds of casting directors and even more hundreds of agents and managers, not to mention the thousands upon thousands of actors, all sure they know exactly how it works… but of course, they’ll change up their headshots again in three months, and then their hair, and then their team, and then their stage name… because, well, “nothing’s working.” :\

Anyway, all this preliminary info about the LA Times story is to set up something that got crystal clear to me, when the reporter came back around last week, frustrated, saying that no upper-tier casting directors were willing to speak with her for the story. They were claiming either to know nothing of actor branding as a concept or they weren’t willing to go on record for the piece. She came to me and asked if I remembered what that was like, from my days as a journalist, and of course, that got me thinking.

Twenty years ago, when I first moved to Los Angeles, there was one book out there that demystified the casting process. It was An Actor Succeeds by Terrance Hines and Suzy Vaughan. I still have my well-worn copy, with notes scribbled throughout the margins. I remember being shocked that one CD would say “always do” this and another would say “never do” that exact same thing. I got so confused by the contradictions until it became clear to me that, “Aha! There are *some* universal rules… but not every casting person is going to agree on every element of a creative career. Got it!”

When I was hired to write “Casting Qs” for what was then called Back Stage West (and sometimes still referred to as Dramalogue back then) in 1999, I was thrilled. I was basically going to get to continue the work I had fallen in love with, as an actor starving for ANY information on how these people tick, and now share it with the tens of thousands of readers per week who would look to me as a sherpa through the maze of more than 250 different casting directors’ opinions on how it *really* is. Awesome.

Of course, by then there was one more book, and that was Karen Kondazian’s The Actor’s Encyclopedia of Casting Directors. I still have my well-worn copy of that book, as well, with notes throughout the margins, chronicling my “aha moments” about the themes and contradictions these folks would share.

One of my early stories for Backstage was “How To Become a Casting Director,” as, in addition to each of my weekly CD interviews, I was hired to cover (or moderate) panel discussions put on by the Talent Managers Association, Showfax, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Women In Film, etc., and that meant themes would emerge, rather than *just* the raw interview content of these standalone interview opportunities. Of course, I was taking to this like a duck to water, and soon realized that acting was the bait to get me out to Los Angeles (twice) so that I could do what I was actually meant to do with my life: demystify the creative process from a business perspective so artists could get some insight into what was at that time a very closed world.

I’ll never forget reaching out to CDs who had been more than happy to sit and speak with me for one-on-one interviews, when it was time to do the “How To Become a Casting Director” piece, and catching an earful of ire. “How DARE you ask me to share with people how to do my job so they can swoop in, charge less, and take my career away from me.” “How could you POSSIBLY be so stupid as to think I’d want to share with others how to put me out of a job.”

*blink* *blink* *blink*

I learned that day — and this was probably just 12 or 13 years ago — that there are some people out there who have no intention of sharing *all* their toys. They’ll share SOME. They’ll tell actors how to do well in the room, should they ever get inside (not that they’ll tell ’em HOW). They’ll tell their favorite stories from decades in casting, y’know, about a wonderful “discovery” that still makes ’em proud to this day. They’ll talk about “be prepared” and “don’t touch my stapler” and all that good workshoppy stuff. But ask ’em to *really* pull back the curtain to reveal the guy pushing all the buttons and pulling all the levers to keep “The Great and Powerful Oz” up there, doing his thing? Never.

And how dare you ask!

So, for that pack of folks in the industry, I was always just thrilled to be invited in to do an interview. I knew there would be some things I’d never get *cracked* with them, and that’s okay, because there’s still a TON to learn from anyone who has been working in casting since the profession evolved out of a secretarial desk in a studio’s actor holding area, decades ago. From these folks, I learned about — and wrote about — the history of our industry. I wrote about the evolution of casting.

But these were the folks who — when I asked about self-submissions or use of the Internet or self-taping or prereads via uploaded vids or even whether color headshots would ever be a “thing” (remember, this was YEARS ago) — would tell me to stop trying to push an agenda of change onto their segment of the industry. Rather than realizing I was just tech savvy and young enough to be plugged in on what I was predicting *might* become a part of how casting was done in the future, they were blaming me for suggesting such things. Hell, long-term readers of this column will remember the heat I took for writing about self-taped auditions back at the beginning of the YouTube days. An actor had self-taped and submitted on a film I was casting using this brand new YouTube thing… so I wrote about what a cool way to be seen that was. I didn’t create the concept, but WOW, at the hatemail that column generated. You’d think I was spearheading a revolution, rather than just commenting on a cool resource I had observed!

Part of what I love about being of “my generation” and having gone back to J-school between my first and second moves to Los Angeles to pursue acting is that I am both connected with those folks who fear change, who love the old-school way of doing business, who have a stake in things staying a bit shrouded in secrecy about their process… and with those folks who are part of what I call the Open Source generation.

Twenty years ago, when I first moved to LA, there were no CDs sharing their toys like they do today. Today, in the era of CDs (and agents and managers and showrunners and producers and directors and writers and publicists) blogging, vlogging, Tweeting, writing guest columns for publications, being interviewed in DVD behind-the-scenes extras about their process, showing up on reality shows, authoring books, hosting livestream panels, etc., we are FILLED with actor advantages, since actors now have NO EXCUSE for not studying up before a first encounter. The information is out there, and free, and that is freakin’ awesome.

Yes, it’s due to the Internet. Yes, it’s due to the interest — and accessibility — of more “behind the scenes” shows and whole networks and DVD features and webseries on the HOW of production and how much niche programming exists all over the web and TV about the HOW of Hollywood.

But the biggest shift of it all, I believe, is that we’re seeing a generational handing off of the baton from a group of people who had the mindset of, “I walked uphill in the snow both ways to and from school every day,” or — for our industry — “It was HARD for me to get where I am so I’m certainly not sharing my HOW because you’ll steal jobs from me,” and, “I had to scrap and scheme and hustle to get my SAG card and you kids today have no idea how easy you’ve got it just walking up and creating a New Media project and becoming eligible,” yada yada yada (Tell that story again, grandpa!) and that baton is being passed to a generation of Open Source.

A generation of, “Hey, here’s a lifehack I’ve tried that has helped me in my productivity. Hey, here’s something I found useful and maybe you will too. Hey, if I like this information, I’m gonna hit the SHARE button because it’s not nearly as much fun for me to hoard the good info for myself.” It’s a generation of, “My jobs are my jobs and there’s no one who will STEAL my job just by knowing how to join the union or how to format a resumé or how to organize a show bible. If I don’t get it, then I HOPE it’s you, because I love my community and the resources I’ve shared to help build it.”

Just like the merger finally went through, just like the Internet has become a legitimate source of original programming at the professional — and Emmy-winning — level, just like Self-Management for Actors has become a textbook in schools all over the world, the resistance that creates the “I know nothing about actor branding” statement is going to die off soon, in favor of pulling back the curtain and saying, “Yeah. The reason that actor gets in front of me is because he’s so well-branded both for what he delivers creatively and the consistency and professionalism with which he delivers it.”

I remember sitting with a casting colleague four years ago and talking specifically about type and branding — after she had asked me to teach her about using social networking to help “up” her profile. She hadn’t worked in nearly two years and kept hearing my name. Clearly, I was doing something “new generation”-like, and she wanted to pick my brain. I love to share my toys, so OF COURSE, I was happy to walk her through all the things she didn’t yet know about Facebook and Twitter, in case it could help her score some coaching work between casting jobs. (Heck, we’re all hyphenates, at this point, and the ability to keep a lot of pots on the stove at once is an art!)

Now, she has been casting for nearly 40 years. When we started talking about branding, she scoffed and said, “Pff. Robert DeNiro doesn’t worry about branding!” to which I replied, “On the contrary. He is so very well-branded due to a lifetime of work, you don’t even REALIZE it’s a brand you think of, when you think of him.” Just like people who love Apple products don’t think of Apple as a BRAND (they just say they like what they like), the people who do it best — and who have been doing it for decades — are so well-branded that the WORK of it all disappears into the background. That’s ninja.

Of course, you all know that I see nothing wrong with helping people at the beginning of their journey get well-versed in some of the tactics that people at the higher tiers — who can afford a publicist or media training — get taught. There is something beautiful about demystifying the process so that it can be understood and even mastered by those who don’t yet have the advantages that exist for those who have booked series regular roles and then have sessions with network-hired publicists to keep their styling, their red carpet chitchat, and their representation of the network’s property (the show and ITS brand) on track.

Casting directors prefer working with specific upper-tier agents BECAUSE of the brand that the agents have built: They’re easy to deal with, they always supply wonderful actors who are both talented and the exact right type for the role as described, etc. Take a look at ICM (one of the top agencies on the planet). They wouldn’t have “branded entertainment” as one of their main menu items on the front page of their website if branding weren’t a part of this business. It has long been a “guy behind the curtain” bit of work done to help Hollywood “sell” the giant head of “The Great and Powerful Oz” story.

People who say they know nothing about “actor branding” are either hoarding information about what happens with that “guy behind the curtain” or they’re so completely wooed by brand that they don’t even realize it. Why will I pay more to fly Virgin, when I grew up a “Delta brat” due to my dad’s 40 years with that company? Because I’m down with the Virgin brand. Why are some actors EVERYWHERE for a year (like, in every single commercial, it seems, plus on these two shows, and in this feature film, etc.)? Because everything lined up for the buyers to jump on board — and fast — and the actor is smart enough to take advantage of as much of it as she can today. (I talked about this in a recent piece for E!, if you’d like to see more.)

While it’s still not the majority of folks who are out there, engaged in the pursuit, today, who are thrilled to share their toys, the numbers are growing. The folks who refuse to share information about HOW to join the union or HOW to get an agent or HOW to rock the red carpet are dying off, retiring, or (slowly) evolving into more freely-sharing folks these days. The Open Source generation is teaching the dinosaurs of this business that it’s not only safe to hit the share button when a lifehack presents itself, it’s actually *SMART* to do so.

We’re building a better Hollywood every day that we make choices that include one another, that embrace the collaborative process, that celebrate the “yes, and…” of it all. Clutching “trade secrets” is as effective as trying to hold on to a fistful of sand. I say, let’s all get in there and build castles together! 🙂

Start now. Even if you’re at the very beginning of your creative journey, share your toys. Your ability to pull back the curtain on your process TODAY will make a difference in someone’s life down the line. Believe that. Don’t wait ’til you’re at the top tier to decide it’s time to give back. Be Open Source today. Not only will it NOT cost you work, it’ll help you transform this industry into one you’re ridiculously more proud to be a part of, every day.

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/columns/avoice/archives/001610.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.