The following video is the third and final in our three part series about Acting Resumes from America’s Premier Acting & Modeling Career Coach – Aaron Marcus. In this video Aaron reveals the importance of listing your special skills and talents on your resume.
Transcript
Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus and I’ve been a full-time actor for nearly three decades and so far I’ve been booked nearly 1200 times. This is the last segment that I’m going to be sharing with you about the resumes and if you have any other additional questions please feel free, you can contact me at Facebook.com/HowToModel or my website HowToModel.com. Just so you know I also offer private online coaching sessions as well as monthly webinars.
Here’s one part of a resume that a lot of actors don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about, but it’s really crucial and in some way it’s just as important if not more important that some of the jobs that you’ve done. That is, the section for your special skills. And what you want to be thinking about is what is the casting director needing in order to bring somebody in to read for a role. And there are a couple of factors. Certainly, your look, what age, whether you look right for this part, whether you seem to fit the part physically.
But also sometimes they need somebody with special skills. And so if you are a bartender, if you do martial arts, if you drive a car, if you have a driver’s license. And I know outside of New York that typically isn’t much of a factor, but for New Yorkers, a lot of people don’t drive. If you drive a stick shift, put that in there. Are you a musician? Do you speak foreign languages, fluently? And you know, sometimes people will say, “Well, I took French for two years in high school.” The fact is, if you’re brought in, if you say you can speak French, you have it as a special skill, you need to sound like a native. You have to be able to speak fluently.
Can you do any unusual things? Do you ride a bike? Are you good with horses? Do you ride English or western? Do you do dressage? Make it specific. If you are a swimmer, what kind of strokes do you do? Make it easy for the casting director.
I was doing a private mentoring session with someone and this woman told me that she this uncanny ability to contort her body and she can fit into a suitcase. That’s a pretty amazing special skill, which could be really helpful, especially for commercials where they might need somebody who can do unusual things like that with their body. Spend some time, really think about your special skills, you don’t have to be a professional, you do have to be proficient in whatever you list and don’t make things up that you’re not really good at and you’ll find that that can be really, really helpful and that can be the factor as to whether you’re brought in or not.
So I’m Aaron Marcus, I hope this was helpful to you. Please feel free to send me a note if you would like, just go to HowToModel.com. I also offer three incredible videos free. It’s my way of giving back to the acting community just by visiting HowToModel.com. You can check them out there yourself. I’m Aaron Marcus, talk to you later.
Aaron Marcus
SAG-AFTRA
America’s Premier Acting/Modeling Career Coach
Author – How to Become a Successful Commercial Model
My Website: www.HowToModel.com
Friend me: www.facebook.com/howtomodel
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aaronrmarcus
Office Phone: 410-764-8270