Acting Advice – Your "Looks"

By Bob Fraser

Actors are often worried about their looks – and whether their career will ever get off the ground because they aren't 'hot' enough. I get this kind of email many times a day:

Bob, I love acting. I have been doing it since I was 13. Since I moved to New York, people tell me that I'm not good looking enough to be an actor. I'm not sure because I don't like the way I look either. I'm sending you my new pictures to look at. Well? What do you think?  

Signed - Jack (or Jill)

Here's the answer I send out:

Dear Jack (or Jill),

Why does the hero have to be good looking?

The answer to this question, which is asked more often than you might imagine, is the key to achieving one of the most basic 'mind-sets' that a professional actor must have. Once you understand the answer you will improve your performance in auditions, interviews, on-stage, on-camera, in public – and you'll be able to enjoy an over-all peace of mind about your chances of success.

Here's the answer: The hero is usually conventionally attractive for two reasons;

First, the audience is meant to identify with the hero and it's so much easier for most people to identify with someone attractive. (Suspension of disbelief, a crucial part of story telling, requires the constant removal of impediments to the audience's understanding – i.e., an ugly, short, green hero requires a time-consuming explanation.)

Secondly, the reason we watch stories (on stage or screen) is because we like looking at other people. We like to look. It is much more pleasant to look at someone attractive. It is important that the audience be in a 'rooting' mood as they watch the hero – and thoroughly disgusted, when the villain shows up.

Those are just the basic facts of telling stories – as we do – in 'pictures.'

So, what if you aren't the next Dr. McDreamy or Scarlett Johansson? Does that mean you have a lesser chance of succeeding? Truthfully? If your goal is too play the hero – it's going to be tougher. Not that it can't happen. Let's face it, the number of less than beautiful movie stars (heroes) is fairly substantial. From Humphrey Bogart to Whoopi Goldberg to John Candy to Steve Buscemi – and there are hundreds more.

But ... 9 times out of 10 the hero needs to be attractive. 'Twas ever thus.

What does that mean to those of us who aren't "hero types?"

It means relax. In most stories there is only one hero and one heroine. Which means all the other parts are just people ... characters who can look like anything at all.

Can you look like what you look like? Duh?

What you look like is part of the whole "you" package. If you are not happy with the way you look – join the billions of humans who feel the same way about themselves. That feeling comes with the territory. It's so ingrained in the human psyche, that when we meet someone who likes the way she looks – we're a bit put off.

Liking your own looks is a very unattractive 'quality.' We make fun of those kind of people.

Okay, this brings us to the important part. If you look like the hero – you'll probably have a shot at playing the hero. If you look like the bad guy – guess what? If you look like Uncle Ferd, The Nurse, Lawyer McNulty, Mrs. Simpkins, Princess Mar-Lin of Mars or The Bag Boy – well, you've got a good chance of being successful when you try out for those parts. You will be competitive. It will usually be between you and someone else who looks like Uncle Ferd. You've got a fifty percent chance.

I'm being a little facetious to make a point. Good storytellers (Writers, Directors and Actors) do not give a rat's hiney what you look like. Period. They just don't care. If you are what they think Princess Mar-Lin should look like and you can walk and chew gum – you've got a real chance at the part.

What this means is simply that you must dispense with any concerns, worries, hesitations, or thoughts of giving up – because of the way you look.

You look like you. It has nothing to do with whether you will fulfill your dreams.

All snowflakes are composed of the same thing. And they all possess the same features – they are all cold, for instance. But they are all different. Leaves, rocks, blades of grass, bugs, animals ... well, you get the idea ... all different.

Whether or not it is divine providence or some German chaos theory that makes all things different in nature – we can argue about over coffee sometime. But no matter what makes it that way ... it is a fact.

No two natural things are exactly alike.

You are a unique human being. When we 'watch' a story, one of the best parts is watching the people – because every person we see is different. We may try to bend nature to our will, "Doesn't that guy look like my cousin, Edward?" "She reminds me of Katherine Hepburn" – but the facts don't change.

Each of us is different.

Like snowflakes.

The only place where snowflakes look the same is in 2nd grade – when we all cut one out from the same pattern. Remember? Teacher put them all up on the bulletin board. Did it look like snow to you?

Don't worry about the way you look. You are a snowflake and without you and your fellows – we'd have no snow. And you know what they say ...

"The snow must go on."