Latest / Next Act with Jeff Ornstein / Aaron Marcus - Full-time actor, model, mentor, author, lecturer and webinar host

Transcript

Aaron Marcus - Full-time actor, model, mentor, author, lecturer and webinar host · Next Act with Jeff Ornstein

• 0:01
  Jeff Ornstein: Hi everyone, and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
• 0:05
  Jeff Ornstein: I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness.
• 0:10
  Jeff Ornstein: Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy.
• 0:21
  Jeff Ornstein: We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.
• 0:27
  Jeff Ornstein: So the best is yet to come.
• 0:29
  Jeff Ornstein: Aaron Marcus is a professional actor, model, author, and mentor with over 40 years in the entertainment industry and nearly 1,300 bookings.
• 0:38
  Jeff Ornstein: Congratulations, no small feat.
• 0:40
  Jeff Ornstein: He's worked alongside Academy Award winners like Tom Hanks, Judy Dench, and Ellen Burston, and has guided hundreds of aspiring actors through workshops, books, and online mentoring programs that demystify the acting and modeling world.
• 0:53
  Jeff Ornstein: Aaron, welcome.
• 0:54
  Jeff Ornstein: Hey, it's so nice to be here.
• 0:56
  Aaron Marcus: Thanks.
• 0:57
  Jeff Ornstein: Good, good.
• 0:58
  Jeff Ornstein: So I love the impressive CV you've got with regarding to your mentorship, but I want to talk about you first, okay?
• 1:06
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm not that interesting of a guy, so okay.
• 1:09
  Jeff Ornstein: You wouldn't be here if you weren't that interesting.
• 1:12
  Jeff Ornstein: Just briefly, can you tell me like how you got into acting or what at what age you when did the bug finally say this is me?
• 1:19
  Aaron Marcus: So I have an unusual kind of story, and it's not a typical one for actors.
• 1:26
  Aaron Marcus: A lot of actors I know who've been doing this for a long time.
• 1:29
  Aaron Marcus: They grew up, they did theater, they knew this is what they wanted to do with their lives.
• 1:34
  Aaron Marcus: I kind of had a backwards way of getting in.
• 1:38
  Aaron Marcus: I was actually in college for the second time after dropping out and trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
• 1:44
  Aaron Marcus: And I decided I wanted to be a physical therapist.
• 1:46
  Aaron Marcus: And I started taking all the classes that I avoided my entire life, all the sciences.
• 1:52
  Aaron Marcus: And I needed a part-time job to support myself in school.
• 1:56
  Aaron Marcus: I met an actor, he did mostly TV commercials, and it hit me.
• 2:00
  Aaron Marcus: And I thought, this is a great part-time job for a full-time college student.
• 2:05
  Aaron Marcus: And once again, I had no intention of trying to make a career out of it.
• 2:10
  Aaron Marcus: And so that's what I started doing on a, once again, part-time basis.
• 2:16
  Aaron Marcus: And it wasn't just TV commercials, it was commercial modeling and things like that.
• 2:19
  Aaron Marcus: Although when I started, I had no idea what that meant.
• 2:22
  Aaron Marcus: And after doing it for two years, I finished all my prerequisites to start applying to physical therapy school.
• 2:28
  Aaron Marcus: So at this point, you know, I'm thinking I might have been like around 26, 27, I mean, somewhere around there.
• 2:36
  Aaron Marcus: It wasn't like a young kid.
• 2:37
  Aaron Marcus: And I started having these thoughts.
• 2:40
  Aaron Marcus: I love doing this stuff.
• 2:42
  Aaron Marcus: And I thought, you know what?
• 2:44
  Aaron Marcus: Here's what I'm going to do.
• 2:46
  Aaron Marcus: I want to try this for one year on a full-time basis.
• 2:50
  Aaron Marcus: And then I'll reevaluate and I'll see: was it enjoyable?
• 2:54
  Aaron Marcus: Could I actually get more jobs?
• 2:57
  Aaron Marcus: Is it something that I could live with being self-employed and things like that?
• 3:02
  Aaron Marcus: And that's turned into a 40-plus-year career.
• 3:05
  Jeff Ornstein: Fantastic.
• 3:06
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, it's not well, theater is not for the faint of heart.
• 3:09
  Jeff Ornstein: But what's so remarkable about that, yeah, it definitely takes courage and courageousness and obviously some innate skill that you possess.
• 3:16
  Jeff Ornstein: So that is interesting because it's sort of not like, oh, I had this calling and, you know, someone spoke to me or I went to see the show and I said that guy.
• 3:24
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, it sort of came up out of necessity, but also there was this sort of like, I really love this, you know, and unexpected, which is what I love about it.
• 3:35
  Jeff Ornstein: So you've had some opportunities.
• 3:37
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, I gotta hear about House of Cards.
• 3:40
  Jeff Ornstein: I mean, perhaps one of the famous streaming shows of all time.
• 3:43
  Jeff Ornstein: It took you 15 auditions to land the role.
• 3:47
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah.
• 3:47
  Aaron Marcus: Is that common?
• 3:48
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah.
• 3:49
  Aaron Marcus: And so for people who aren't that familiar with it, um, it was the very first streaming show.
• 3:54
  Aaron Marcus: It changed the world.
• 3:55
  Aaron Marcus: It literally changed the world.
• 3:57
  Aaron Marcus: Netflix, you know, most shows, you you shoot a pilot, you hope it gets picked up.
• 4:03
  Aaron Marcus: Most of them don't.
• 4:04
  Aaron Marcus: And for House of Cards, because of the people connected with it, the showrunner, some of the stars, Netflix gave them money, enough money for two seasons without seeing a thing.
• 4:17
  Aaron Marcus: Wow.
• 4:18
  Aaron Marcus: So, and that just changed how we watched TV.
• 4:22
  Aaron Marcus: It was like I said, it was first streamy show.
• 4:24
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, it's really interesting.
• 4:25
  Aaron Marcus: And and and I and I think this will be really helpful for fellow actors to hear.
• 4:30
  Aaron Marcus: A lot of actors that I've spoken to, they get very frustrated when they audition with the same casting director multiple times.
• 4:39
  Aaron Marcus: Maybe it's the same project, a TV show, and they're, you know, still casting, or, you know, maybe it's other projects, but it's the same casting director.
• 4:47
  Aaron Marcus: And after four or five auditions, people start thinking, you know what, it's clear the casting director doesn't want me.
• 4:54
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 4:54
  Aaron Marcus: I don't know why they keep bringing me in because it's clear, you know, I'm not going to get a job.
• 4:59
  Aaron Marcus: I feel like I'm just wasting my time.
• 5:01
  Aaron Marcus: I really don't want to continue doing this with the casting director.
• 5:04
  Aaron Marcus: What people don't understand is that a casting director will not bring an actor back a second time unless they think the actor is great.
• 5:13
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 5:13
  Aaron Marcus: And there are a million and one reasons why people book a job and don't book a job.
• 5:18
  Aaron Marcus: Most of the time, it has nothing to do with talent.
• 5:20
  Aaron Marcus: You know, it's not, it's not like the Olympics where whoever, you know, skates the best, you know, and scores tens gets the gold medal.
• 5:28
  Aaron Marcus: For acting, it's very different.
• 5:29
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, of course, you have to be skilled.
• 5:31
  Aaron Marcus: It has to be a good audition.
• 5:33
  Aaron Marcus: But then there are so many factors that have nothing to do with your read.
• 5:37
  Aaron Marcus: You're too tall, you're too short, you're too good looking, you're not good looking enough, your body's in too good a shape.
• 5:42
  Aaron Marcus: You know, who knows why?
• 5:44
  Aaron Marcus: So I read over two years, 14 times.
• 5:49
  Aaron Marcus: I had callbacks, I was asked to put myself on hold, I was being considered, sometimes nothing.
• 5:55
  Aaron Marcus: And it was the 15th audition where I booked a recurring role.
• 6:00
  Aaron Marcus: And you know what's really interesting.
• 6:02
  Aaron Marcus: This 15th audition, and I can't say for sure, I believe it's because of a question that I asked that helped get me the role.
• 6:12
  Aaron Marcus: So for this particular role, it ran for um a shot for three different uh episodes.
• 6:18
  Aaron Marcus: But I always watch a show, you know, before I audition for it.
• 6:22
  Aaron Marcus: So I'm familiar with the pacing.
• 6:24
  Aaron Marcus: Is it a comedy?
• 6:25
  Aaron Marcus: You know, do people just talk over each other?
• 6:27
  Aaron Marcus: Is it more laid back?
• 6:28
  Aaron Marcus: Just to get a sense of it and to know who the characters are.
• 6:31
  Aaron Marcus: So for this one, I'm reading with a character that I wasn't familiar with.
• 6:35
  Aaron Marcus: And I say reading with a character is the casting director, or they had a reader, but it was a character that hadn't been in the episode yet.
• 6:43
  Aaron Marcus: So I asked the casting director, what is my relationship with this character who I'm talking to?
• 6:52
  Aaron Marcus: And she said, You work for her.
• 6:55
  Aaron Marcus: I went, Oh, that completely changed the way I read it.
• 7:00
  Aaron Marcus: She's my boss.
• 7:02
  Jeff Ornstein: Yeah, she's a that there's a dynamic right there.
• 7:04
  Aaron Marcus: Absolutely.
• 7:05
  Aaron Marcus: It was a huge piece of information that transformed things for me.
• 7:09
  Aaron Marcus: And I read it like she's my boss and not just a friend, somebody we're hanging out with, you know, that kind of stuff.
• 7:16
  Jeff Ornstein: Very different.
• 7:16
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, and I booked a recurring role.
• 7:18
  Aaron Marcus: So it was it was just an amazing experience working um with Ellen Burston, who is an Academy Award-winning actor.
• 7:26
  Jeff Ornstein: Phenomenal.
• 7:27
  Jeff Ornstein: Phenomenal.
• 7:28
  Aaron Marcus: Robin Wright, who played the president's wife.
• 7:30
  Aaron Marcus: And so anyhow, it was a a great, great experience.
• 7:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 7:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Obviously, actors have to develop thick skins because of the rejection issue.
• 7:38
  Jeff Ornstein: But a very good friend of mine who is a booking agent in Los Angeles says 100 people get called in for a role, 90 of them will suck, 10 people will be good.
• 7:47
  Jeff Ornstein: You're gonna get called if you're called back, all 10 of you are great.
• 7:50
  Jeff Ornstein: And it's gonna be the guy that takes the cap off of his water the way the director likes it.
• 7:57
  Jeff Ornstein: It could be so like he says, You asked a question, it was a good question, but it could be so minuscule, you never know.
• 8:03
  Jeff Ornstein: You that you reminded him of his cousin Eddie, who was the inspiration for the character.
• 8:07
  Jeff Ornstein: You never know.
• 8:09
  Jeff Ornstein: So, but still, I have a friend who's an actress, and she got it went on an audition for a play, and she was sure she got it, sure she got it.
• 8:17
  Jeff Ornstein: She nailed it, it was down to her and one of the girls, she didn't get it.
• 8:20
  Jeff Ornstein: And then two months went by and they called her, we need you to start tomorrow.
• 8:24
  Jeff Ornstein: So, yeah, so she did a post about how, you know, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
• 8:30
  Jeff Ornstein: But she was negative, and this is not a negative person.
• 8:33
  Jeff Ornstein: So, inspiration and determination and perspiration, of course, is important for actors.
• 8:39
  Jeff Ornstein: So, I do want to talk about your mentorship because I mean, in addition to having booked 1,300 jobs.
• 8:45
  Jeff Ornstein: Almost, not quite there.
• 8:47
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm getting there.
• 8:48
  Jeff Ornstein: No small feat because being a great actor and booking a job are two separate things.
• 8:53
  Jeff Ornstein: They're right, they're two separate skills, even.
• 8:56
  Jeff Ornstein: So, but you have done over 800 workshops on three continents.
• 9:01
  Jeff Ornstein: So there's something in you, obviously, you must be incredibly inspiring to the people who come and listen to you, otherwise, you wouldn't have given 800 of them.
• 9:10
  Jeff Ornstein: But it's also such a great thing to give back.
• 9:12
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah.
• 9:13
  Jeff Ornstein: Because, you know, people would like to tend to think that Hollywood or theater is cutthroat industry, but it's not.
• 9:21
  Jeff Ornstein: It can be very supportive, and you're sort of like emblematic of that support.
• 9:25
  Jeff Ornstein: How'd you get into doing that?
• 9:27
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Aaron Marcus: So, and you know, and it's so interesting.
• 9:29
  Aaron Marcus: There were some other things I was gonna say about it, but the the immediately answer your question, once again, it it's just, I don't know, maybe it was just the way I was brought up of trying to help other people, try to give back.
• 9:42
  Aaron Marcus: There was an agent, and I'm going back decades.
• 9:44
  Aaron Marcus: There was an agent, probably about three and a half hours away from where I lived, who I worked with.
• 9:49
  Aaron Marcus: And she was really nice.
• 9:50
  Aaron Marcus: I liked her.
• 9:51
  Aaron Marcus: And she said, uh, look, Aaron, I know you get a lot of commercial modeling work, which at that time period I did.
• 9:58
  Aaron Marcus: And she said, I wonder if if you could do me a favor, would you mind coming down here talking to my actors?
• 10:04
  Aaron Marcus: And, you know, just explain to them what commercial modeling is all about, how you go about doing it.
• 10:10
  Aaron Marcus: And I said, sure, I'd be more than happy to do it.
• 10:12
  Aaron Marcus: And there was no money involved.
• 10:14
  Aaron Marcus: I'd be spending, you know, full day driving back and forth, doing an hour workshop.
• 10:18
  Aaron Marcus: And so I put this whole thing together.
• 10:20
  Aaron Marcus: It's the first time I had ever done that.
• 10:22
  Aaron Marcus: And I went down there, gave the talk.
• 10:23
  Aaron Marcus: I really enjoyed it.
• 10:25
  Aaron Marcus: And then I started finding I'm getting, I mean, at that time period, it wasn't emails, but I'm getting a lot of phone calls, people wanting to ask me questions.
• 10:33
  Aaron Marcus: And so I thought, you know what?
• 10:36
  Aaron Marcus: Maybe this is a good time to maybe start putting together an actual workshop, something even longer, and seeing if, you know, people have an interest in it.
• 10:45
  Aaron Marcus: That also, so that that's really how that started.
• 10:48
  Aaron Marcus: It was just a complete freebie.
• 10:50
  Aaron Marcus: Somebody asked.
• 10:50
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 10:51
  Aaron Marcus: And I said, sure.
• 10:52
  Aaron Marcus: And when I started getting so many questions all the time, I thought, you know what, maybe I could, maybe I could write a book.
• 10:58
  Aaron Marcus: And and so at that time period, it was how to become a successful model, commercial model.
• 11:03
  Aaron Marcus: And then that turned into how to become a successful actor and model.
• 11:07
  Aaron Marcus: And that's been, it's it's a great cookbook for people who want to learn how to actually get work.
• 11:14
  Aaron Marcus: It's not, look, like you were saying, there are lots of really talented actors who don't know how to go about getting jobs.
• 11:21
  Aaron Marcus: I've spoken to plenty of people at major acting, you know, programs, and you know, they're taught how to act.
• 11:29
  Aaron Marcus: And they're really, really talented actors, but there's so much more because we are running a business.
• 11:36
  Aaron Marcus: That's what a lot of people don't think about.
• 11:38
  Aaron Marcus: We are our business, right?
• 11:41
  Aaron Marcus: And you have to learn how to get out in this world, how to find an agent, how to put together the right kind of resume that industry professionals expect, how to market yourself.
• 11:55
  Aaron Marcus: You know, even if you have an agent, I've always been very proactive.
• 11:59
  Aaron Marcus: I never like to just sit around and wait for agents to call me.
• 12:04
  Aaron Marcus: I was always out there trying to hustle, and I would contact commercial photographers, I would contact casting directors, I would contact art and creative directors at advertising agencies.
• 12:16
  Aaron Marcus: But getting back to something you said that I think is a really important thing as far as the cutthroat stuff, and it's not necessarily good or bad.
• 12:24
  Aaron Marcus: Everybody does things differently.
• 12:26
  Aaron Marcus: But there are a lot of very competitive actors out there.
• 12:29
  Aaron Marcus: And look, that is one way to run your business.
• 12:32
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 12:32
  Aaron Marcus: It's not the way that I run mine.
• 12:34
  Aaron Marcus: And what I have found is that these are things that I talk about, whether it's private mentoring, my actor career program, or workshops.
• 12:42
  Aaron Marcus: We're not competing with anybody.
• 12:44
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 12:45
  Aaron Marcus: It's just a reality.
• 12:46
  Aaron Marcus: Very true.
• 12:47
  Aaron Marcus: We might look very similar.
• 12:50
  Aaron Marcus: We might be going to the exact same audition for the same role.
• 12:55
  Aaron Marcus: But the fact is, we've had different lives, we've had different life experiences, we do things differently in our auditions, and we're not competing.
• 13:06
  Aaron Marcus: And for me, what I found, and by the way, you know, look, I'm saying this very confidently now.
• 13:12
  Aaron Marcus: When I first started, and I'd walk into a room and I'm looking around the room, seeing who's there, go, oh, I've seen that guy before.
• 13:18
  Aaron Marcus: You know, he's been in movies and TV shows when I'm first getting started.
• 13:22
  Aaron Marcus: You know, I'm never going to book.
• 13:23
  Aaron Marcus: And once I stopped doing that crazy stuff, and I just focused on doing what I want to do, things started to improve.
• 13:34
  Aaron Marcus: And I felt better.
• 13:35
  Aaron Marcus: And I love the idea of forming a group of fellow actors.
• 13:40
  Aaron Marcus: And that's also one of the reasons why I have I have a YouTube channel, and it's just filled with free quick tip videos.
• 13:48
  Aaron Marcus: There are over 500 of these things.
• 13:49
  Aaron Marcus: Wow.
• 13:50
  Aaron Marcus: And I like the idea of sharing information, having other people comment and share their experiences so that we can all learn from each other.
• 14:01
  Aaron Marcus: And I think, like you were saying before, there are plenty of auditions out there.
• 14:06
  Aaron Marcus: There are plenty of jobs.
• 14:07
  Aaron Marcus: And if it was meant for you to get the job, you're going to get it.
• 14:11
  Aaron Marcus: If it wasn't meant for you, you're not going to get it.
• 14:14
  Aaron Marcus: And it'll be something else.
• 14:15
  Aaron Marcus: So once again, I'm not telling people what to do.
• 14:18
  Aaron Marcus: I never do that, but I think it's it's been really helpful for me just to do my work and share information with people because it seems like a much better way, not only to run your business, it's a much better way to live, at least for me, to live my life.
• 14:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 14:34
  Jeff Ornstein: Well, interesting because if you're the most successful bricklayer, you've perfected a way to lay the bricks.
• 14:40
  Jeff Ornstein: You lay the bricks.
• 14:41
  Jeff Ornstein: But acting is not like that because it's so personal between the writer and the director and the other people who've been cast.
• 14:51
  Jeff Ornstein: So there must be something about the way you communicate to your students that says, this is not an exact science.
• 14:58
  Jeff Ornstein: You have to bring what you bring.
• 15:00
  Jeff Ornstein: And then if it doesn't work out, it wasn't meant to be.
• 15:05
  Jeff Ornstein: And don't take it personally.
• 15:06
  Jeff Ornstein: And to have someone say, you know, you have that aha moment, oh, fantastic.
• 15:11
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, if I don't book for the next three months, I'm not going to let it get to me.
• 15:15
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm just going to say the right role and the right director and the right casting crew just wasn't there that day for me.
• 15:21
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, and you know, and that's really interesting because there are a couple points to that.
• 15:24
  Aaron Marcus: One is every audition I do, most of them I don't book.
• 15:28
  Aaron Marcus: And that's just reality.
• 15:29
  Aaron Marcus: When and sometimes I've heard actors say, oh, I booked 97% of all the auditions, you know, I go on.
• 15:34
  Aaron Marcus: Well, if that's really true, you probably went on two auditions or something like that.
• 15:38
  Aaron Marcus: Because the fact that it's hard to book.
• 15:41
  Aaron Marcus: I mean, that's just the reality.
• 15:42
  Aaron Marcus: But something that that I do that I find really helpful as well is that I truly do not believe I'm going to book any audition that I go on.
• 15:57
  Aaron Marcus: I don't do that because I think I'm horrible and I don't have any talent.
• 16:01
  Aaron Marcus: Look, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not the greatest actor in the world.
• 16:05
  Aaron Marcus: I'm I'm okay.
• 16:06
  Aaron Marcus: And there are certain things that I think I do okay, and those are the things that I book.
• 16:11
  Aaron Marcus: But here's my strategy.
• 16:12
  Aaron Marcus: And once again, this took me many, many years to figure out.
• 16:15
  Aaron Marcus: I never try to book the job.
• 16:19
  Aaron Marcus: Like, you know, some people walk out, I nailed it.
• 16:21
  Aaron Marcus: You know, this is my job.
• 16:23
  Aaron Marcus: I'm not even trying to book the job.
• 16:26
  Aaron Marcus: Here's my number one goal for every single audition.
• 16:30
  Aaron Marcus: Have a good time.
• 16:31
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 16:32
  Aaron Marcus: That's it.
• 16:32
  Aaron Marcus: That's my goal.
• 16:34
  Aaron Marcus: I want to say, hey, you know what?
• 16:36
  Aaron Marcus: It's a Wednesday afternoon.
• 16:38
  Aaron Marcus: I get a chance to play, I get a chance to explore, I get a chance to be, you know, a character.
• 16:44
  Aaron Marcus: That's fun for me.
• 16:45
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 16:46
  Aaron Marcus: And I have 100% control over that.
• 16:48
  Aaron Marcus: But like we talked before, we have no control over who gets booked for the job.
• 16:53
  Aaron Marcus: The other thing too, for well, actually, there are two things.
• 16:57
  Aaron Marcus: One one is, God, you're bringing out all these ideas in my head that I'm trying to get out there.
• 17:00
  Aaron Marcus: I hope I remember.
• 17:01
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah.
• 17:01
  Aaron Marcus: The audience wants to hear it.
• 17:03
  Aaron Marcus: So the other thing too is every time I do an audition, I kind of view it like I'm making a small deposit in the bank.
• 17:10
  Jeff Ornstein: Excellent.
• 17:11
  Aaron Marcus: Because, like you were saying, yeah, I'm going to go in there and very possible, I'm probably not going to get it.
• 17:18
  Aaron Marcus: But if it goes well, then why wouldn't they ask me out on a date again?
• 17:23
  Aaron Marcus: The first date went well.
• 17:24
  Aaron Marcus: Wasn't, you know, they didn't, we didn't get married the first date, and that's okay.
• 17:28
  Aaron Marcus: I wasn't planning on it.
• 17:30
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 17:30
  Aaron Marcus: But if it went well, of course they're going to think of you because if you can fill the need for a casting director, right this time, it didn't work.
• 17:39
  Aaron Marcus: But they'll remember that.
• 17:41
  Aaron Marcus: And and the one other thing, and I'm so glad I remembered it, this also took me a long time.
• 17:45
  Aaron Marcus: Like you were saying, it's difficult for actors because we are constantly being told no.
• 17:51
  Aaron Marcus: You know, right.
• 17:52
  Aaron Marcus: Look, if we are selling computers and I'm selling a MacBook Pro and I knock on your door and I say, Hey, are you interested in the new MacBook Pro?
• 18:01
  Aaron Marcus: You might say, you know what, I'm really a PC guy.
• 18:04
  Aaron Marcus: And I go, okay, that's fine.
• 18:05
  Aaron Marcus: Then you move on.
• 18:06
  Aaron Marcus: Nothing personal.
• 18:07
  Aaron Marcus: However, for us, what people are saying is, we don't want you.
• 18:13
  Aaron Marcus: You.
• 18:14
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 18:14
  Aaron Marcus: You.
• 18:15
  Aaron Marcus: I don't want you.
• 18:16
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 18:17
  Aaron Marcus: And here's the thing, and this has been helpful to me as well.
• 18:21
  Aaron Marcus: You can't take anything personally in this industry.
• 18:25
  Aaron Marcus: Once again, these are business decisions.
• 18:28
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 18:28
  Aaron Marcus: It's not a statement about who you are.
• 18:31
  Aaron Marcus: You're a nice person.
• 18:33
  Aaron Marcus: You don't book any jobs.
• 18:35
  Aaron Marcus: You're still a nice person.
• 18:36
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 18:37
  Aaron Marcus: You know, you don't book the job.
• 18:38
  Aaron Marcus: You come home and your pup is still loving you and licking you and so happy to see you.
• 18:44
  Aaron Marcus: It doesn't make any difference.
• 18:46
  Aaron Marcus: You're still a nice person.
• 18:47
  Aaron Marcus: So if you can, and I'm not saying don't feel bad if you don't get something that you really want.
• 18:54
  Aaron Marcus: We're human.
• 18:55
  Aaron Marcus: I get it.
• 18:55
  Aaron Marcus: And if it means going out and getting some ice cream to make yourself feel better, but but the thing is, you had the audition.
• 19:03
  Aaron Marcus: Right.
• 19:04
  Aaron Marcus: That to me, that's winning.
• 19:05
  Aaron Marcus: Because you know, you throw out a number of, you know, 100 people, you know, had their headshots, you know, and resumes submitted.
• 19:12
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, sometimes it might only be a hundred.
• 19:14
  Aaron Marcus: I've heard of over a thousand, depending on the project, depending on the role.
• 19:19
  Aaron Marcus: And they invite a small percentage of those people to actually read.
• 19:24
  Aaron Marcus: So if you get an audition, that is something to celebrate over.
• 19:29
  Jeff Ornstein: Right.
• 19:30
  Jeff Ornstein: Good point.
• 19:30
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, interesting actors need to remember casting agents get paid when they cast.
• 19:37
  Jeff Ornstein: So if they're calling you back, they recognize you're gonna be right for someone.
• 19:43
  Jeff Ornstein: You know, it might not be in the cards immediately or or long term, it might not be.
• 19:48
  Jeff Ornstein: But it it there's something, there's a reason why they're saying, come in for this role.
• 19:53
  Jeff Ornstein: They have a belief that you're going to fit somewhere.
• 19:55
  Jeff Ornstein: The other thing is that gives always inspired me is when you see a a film and you're like, this casting director was brilliant.
• 20:04
  Jeff Ornstein: All of these people fit so perfectly together.
• 20:08
  Jeff Ornstein: The personalities, the looks, the mannerisms, the acting skills, and that is like to me, an amazing part of a film that captures you when you just feel like you're seeing a little slice of reality that just you were invited to view, and somebody put that together, and that was cast, you know, to a large degree was a casting director.
• 20:28
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, and and like you said, uh once again, it was a really good point.
• 20:31
  Aaron Marcus: Look, even if casting directors don't have hearts and they don't care about actors, which I haven't really run into too many that feel that way, but even if they didn't, it's their job to find the right people to fill the needs.
• 20:49
  Aaron Marcus: Right, you know, that's what's wanted.
• 20:51
  Aaron Marcus: And if they are bringing in people who are not talented, people who aren't right for it, they're not gonna get hired again by those people.
• 20:59
  Aaron Marcus: That's exactly right.
• 21:00
  Aaron Marcus: So of course, it's not like you're fighting with a casting director and I'm gonna show that.
• 21:06
  Aaron Marcus: They're bringing you in because they think you're right for it.
• 21:09
  Aaron Marcus: And what a great situation to be in.
• 21:11
  Jeff Ornstein: We are, as normal for me, because I'm a chatterbox and you're a chatterbox over time, but I can let you go before asking one last question here.
• 21:20
  Jeff Ornstein: Because you've spoken so much about how to get actors thinking about being an actor, becoming an actor, getting your career off the ground, focusing on how the machinations of career work.
• 21:30
  Jeff Ornstein: But if an actor only focused on one skill outside of acting itself, what would you tell them is the biggest edge?
• 21:38
  Jeff Ornstein: What would you suggest?
• 21:39
  Aaron Marcus: Be a good observer.
• 21:40
  Aaron Marcus: Watch people.
• 21:43
  Aaron Marcus: You can learn so much by watching other people in different situations, reactions, mannerisms, because we should be like sponges and pick up.
• 21:54
  Aaron Marcus: I say that all the time.
• 21:56
  Aaron Marcus: Use sponge, be sponge.
• 21:58
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, pick up what other people do and use it.
• 22:01
  Aaron Marcus: It's not illegal to do that.
• 22:03
  Aaron Marcus: And and I've watched, and I still do.
• 22:06
  Aaron Marcus: I'm I'm a people watcher, and I love doing that.
• 22:09
  Aaron Marcus: And I find it interesting, and I've also found it to be very helpful.
• 22:14
  Jeff Ornstein: A source of growth.
• 22:15
  Jeff Ornstein: Aaron, before we go, what's the name of your YouTube channel?
• 22:18
  Jeff Ornstein: I'm sure the viewers would love to in.
• 22:20
  Aaron Marcus: Yeah, it's a kind of a long one.
• 22:22
  Aaron Marcus: Here's the simplest way to get to the channel, and probably the best thing for people to do.
• 22:26
  Aaron Marcus: Just go to my website, how toactandmodel.com, and you can do a bunch of things there.
• 22:32
  Aaron Marcus: One, click on the YouTube icon, and that will take you to the channel.
• 22:36
  Aaron Marcus: And you can subscribe, click the notification bell.
• 22:38
  Aaron Marcus: You can also follow me on Instagram.
• 22:41
  Aaron Marcus: And by the way, I only put business related things there, industry-related things.
• 22:46
  Aaron Marcus: I don't talk about what I had for lunch or anything.
• 22:48
  Aaron Marcus: And that's just Aaron R Marcus.
• 22:50
  Aaron Marcus: You'll find that on the website.
• 22:52
  Aaron Marcus: And also my actor career program.
• 22:55
  Aaron Marcus: Uh, and you can read, I don't want to spend the time doing that here.
• 22:58
  Aaron Marcus: Just go click on career program.
• 23:00
  Aaron Marcus: And there's also private mentoring if that is of interest to you.
• 23:04
  Aaron Marcus: Or my book, you can find all that stuff.
• 23:05
  Aaron Marcus: So just go to how toact a model.com, explore.
• 23:08
  Aaron Marcus: And if you ever have a question, feel free.
• 23:11
  Aaron Marcus: Click the contact button and send an email to me.
• 23:15
  Aaron Marcus: I'm really good at getting back in touch with people.
• 23:17
  Jeff Ornstein: Okay, so you'll remember me.
• 23:19
  Jeff Ornstein: Absolutely.
• 23:20
  Jeff Ornstein: Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein.
• 23:23
  Jeff Ornstein: Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nextpodcast.com.
• 23:31
  Jeff Ornstein: Keep chasing your next act.
• 23:33
  Jeff Ornstein: The best is yet to come.