Latest / Lydia Nicole's Acting Smarter Now Podcast / Your Generic Headshots Are Costing You Roles

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Your Generic Headshots Are Costing You Roles · Lydia Nicole's Acting Smarter Now Podcast

• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: What are maybe five mistakes that you see actors do constantly?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'll start with new actors.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That you, you know, you see new actors do this repeatedly.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the first thing is um uh resisting branding.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've again again I've been teaching branding for 15 years.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was one of the first people in New York to talk about branding for actors.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think branding gets a bad rap.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people talk about it in the wrong way and they talk about it in a limiting way.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think actors resist it.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it goes back to me at 21.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I can do anything, you know.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that's that's the big mistake is you're not defining who you are in the career that you want and leaving it up to the whim of the industry.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, first and foremost, it's branding because branding for me is not um an armor that you have to put on.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's not trying to be something that you're not, it's peeling away, you know, the layers of you to allow people to see it, to allow people to see all the sides of you and really understanding the stories that you want to tell and that you tell better than anybody else.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are those themes of stories that you're drawn to?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's branding for me.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think people think of it in the wrong way and negate it, and then their materials just aren't specific.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then they wonder why they don't have agents or they're not getting in the rooms they want, and then they then that just devolves into the cycle of blaming the industry, right?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And not taking that responsibility.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, first and foremost, I think rebelling against branding is the biggest mistake that I see, really.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: What about actors who have been in the business, say over 10 years, who've been doing it, but they too make certain mistakes.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I'm gonna say the same thing because like I think I think people come to me um when they've like, you know, maybe they they started in their 20s, maybe they're in their 30s, late 30s, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: They've been doing it for a while, they've had some success, but they can't break through.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's those are the people that come to me.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I would even say with those actors, like 99.9% of the time, we'll start with branding.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, you evolve.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: We all evolve over the years, you know, and of course your branding shifts when you age.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's an obvious thing.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think that, like, I've probably rebranded myself about three times already in my life.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that comes uh, well, for three reasons.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: One is age, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Two is um you experience something in your life that has changed you.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Trauma, something, right?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I'm I'm a breast cancer survivor, right?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: After breast cancer, I could tell different stories.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I could tell different stories after I lost my father, right?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: And was caring for my mother.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: I could tell different stories and I felt like a different person.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I did a slight rebrand to allow the industry to not just see me in this one way, but see me, see this other undercurrent that I could share.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, I think it's then it's as an as an artist, if you're like, hey, I'm not getting seen for these roles and I really want this thing, whatever it may be, then that's time for a rebrand to show people what you want them to see.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because you can't just tell the industry, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's show, it's always show, don't tell.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I think those are three different ways to rebrand.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I again, I think it's very similar.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you start off in this industry and you don't know who you are, then you're you're giving your power away and you're letting everyone else control it.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're letting your agent control it, your manager control it, directors, producers control it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: But then I think if you're been in the industry a long time and you're not getting in the doors that you want, you gotta look at branding and how you're packaging and positioning yourself because something isn't gelling, something is off.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: People aren't getting something.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And a confused mind will always say no, will always say no.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I think the bit that I mean that that's what I'm known for.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's what people come to me for is the branding.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because and again, that's so hard because we can't see it.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's interesting how we see branding in other professions, you know, like if we look at music, the the music acts are branded.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know, they're very specific in what they sell, to who they sell the music to, how they sell the music.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: We never question that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't look at Beyoncé and say, what is she doing?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's very on point in what she sells.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: We go into supermarkets, and the the product in the supermarket is packaged, it is branded.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: We pay, we do not think.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that ketchup bottle different than that ketchup bottle?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: We get it on a subconscious level.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: We get it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, uh a great coupon is different from French's, and Hyde's ketchup is different from Hunt's.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: We Coca-Cola is different from Pepsi.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: They spend bazillion dollars to make sure that their branding is on point and that they're catering to a specific audience or a specific customer.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We are the same.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think uh and I learned this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I started in the music business as a teenager.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I worked at a radio station in New York from 13 to 18, and then came out here and worked at a record company.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it was always about what is it that you're selling?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that informed me as an actor.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I had that.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, you got to sell this.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then I studied with a man named Roy London for nine years, and Roy would make me give branding classes to the actors.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime we had a bunch of new actors, he would say, Okay, Lydia, it's time for you to teach them.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was doing I was doing that in the 80s only because I learned that, you know, just coming to Los Angeles to be an actor at 18 years old, that I had to uh stand out from everybody else.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That it wasn't about my talent, it was about what I was selling.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that before looking at breakdowns.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I was like, okay, I have a friend, she's Latin, but she's different from me.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So how am I gonna stand out so that they don't confuse me with her?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, and and branding to me is similar to rehearsals.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We need rehearsals as actors, yeah, and a lot of times actors want to bypass rehearsal and get to the performance.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's the same thing with branding.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You want to bypass branding so you can get the job.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you can't get the job if you didn't uh brand yourself.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can't get to the performance if you didn't do the rehearsals.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love everything you just said.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you are speaking my language.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I, you know, it what what starts to drive me crazy is when I hear, and I've been hearing it a lot from certain certain casting directors in the social media sphere of it's not about your brand.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about your brand.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Just come in the room and do good work.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just want to pause and go, but how am I gonna get in the room?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: How are you gonna get in the room?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's branding.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: You don't walk in the room and go, hello, casting director, this is my brand.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, you are your brand, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it has to be clear to get in.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Part of it is that when they recognize an actor who is very specific, they don't get that that actor did a lot of work to get to that specificity.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So they see the, they're just as taken in the bit.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like publicity.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh, even though it's Hollywood, we buy publicity.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if we see somebody in the trades, oh my God, look at what they're doing, and we're not paying attention to the publicist behind the scene who made sure this actor got in front of uh, you know, got on the front cover of a magazine or got all these accolades.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that there was a publicist when they when people put out uh, you know, the the best looking uh man in Hollywood, there was a publicist.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: There were there were publicists vying for that spot.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like the the magazine said, let's look at a bunch of actors and see who the best.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, those were publicists, but that that's exactly what you're talking about.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes casting directors, they want the best actor, and they're not thinking in terms of how we have to think about it.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not their job.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they're not gonna focus on, hey, what's your brand?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna say, hey, are you good?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't get good if you don't know what you're selling.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because if you're doing Shakespeare and they're looking for a thug on the street, Shakespeare is not going to help you.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh uh, you know, it's like Denzel Washington, who is a phenomenal actor, yeah, um, was doing Shakespeare before we knew he was Denzel, but he couldn't get a job doing Shakespeare.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until he became famous from doing the roles that fit him that he could then say, Hey, I want to do King Lear, I want to do uh uh this person and that person.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and that he was bought, but he wasn't bought until he was famous in Shakespeare.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we as actors have to be uh on top of it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I am with you.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I am a big believer that you cannot be a working actor if you don't know what you sell.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you know, you can't.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what anybody says, I'll take it, you know, I'll I'll bet them the house.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna happen if they don't know what they're selling.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every now and then you get an actor who comes already uh organically knowing what they sell and they're in that lane, but most don't.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm thinking of of uh Vin Diesel.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you ever saw his short uh multifacial.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is a great story.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: I share it all the time.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um I worked on uh a film called Hollywood Shuffle, which opened the doors to a lot of people.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: From the beginning, I was part of it.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years, I've seen actors and directors and other people take a page from Hollywood Shuffle.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh uh Vin Diesel took a page from Hollywood Shuffle.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: He saved up about$50,000.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay um and then he did a short.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in the short, the short was basically the life of an actor, the day-to-day of an actor.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he took us through five different auditions, okay, and he showed Hollywood how to buy him.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: He played uh, and and they all were in wife beaters, so his signature was there from the beginning.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he showed us how to, he was the action hero, he was the the um Italian, he was the Latino, but it was he still had that swag.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was the rapper, he was the sensitive guy, and he basically took us through all his auditions from commercials, oh well, you know, I can't get that because I'm this kind of actor, blah, blah, blah.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: He took us through it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Steven Spielberg saw it uh through um uh Sundance, somehow within the Sundance Festival that that a short circulated.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Steven Spielberg saw it, wrote a part for him in Saving Private Ryan.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The rest is history.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: But Vin Diesel packaged himself on how he wanted the industry to buy him.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: He was not um waiting for somebody to open the door, he pushed the door open saying, This is what I do.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he's a great example of somebody saying, This is what I sell.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: If he had not done that short, we wouldn't know who Vin Diesel is because there were a lot of black actors that were uh uh biracial out there at the time, but he had the business savvy to say, wait a minute, I want you to see me this way because this is what I know how to do.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the other thing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as actors, we think we could do everything, but we gotta know what it's like wearing a suit, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to branding.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: You there's certain suits that fit you to a T.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how you want to present yourself.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to put on a suit that you're gonna need to have tailored, that you're gonna need to have refitted, uh, that no longer suits you.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to you, yeah, you have to change your uh uh what you sell every maybe four to seven years because you change.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and going back to the the idea of the well, as you live, your well gets deeper, right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your emotional well gets deeper, you lose people, you go through uh certain traumatic events, which then um which then uh uh state what it is that you now have.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the beauty of being an actor is that it we're never too old because our experience just keeps adding and we keep adding to the experience.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anyway, I could talk about this forever because this is the best.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but let's go to the marketing.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: How you help actors with their marketing because now they know what it is that they sell, right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're clear on this is what I sell, these are my pictures.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how do they they market that?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but we well, you you said the word already uh as we were chatting.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: You said packaging, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: We we've been we've been packaged to since we were little kids.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: We understand the concept of like you said, great poupons versus um Dijon Mustard.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, you forgot the yeah.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I forgot the you know what I mean.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: We understand it.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it's helping people because look, I think there's a lot of branding workshops out there, right, that are that go, okay, well let's get let's get some you know um feedback on how you're perceived, right?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Great, that's fine and well and good, but I have a lot of actors come to me and go, I had got all this stuff, but I don't know what to do with it, you know.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I really help actors distill information, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So when I work on branding with people, we really create a branding chart, right?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this branding chart is how you're gonna build all of your marketing tools.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's everything is gonna get built off that because your marketing tools are an extension of your brand.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do we take this brand and how do we manifest it in all your marketing tools?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, like, you know, that's headshots, websites, resumes, reels, everything, right?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really looking at how can you subliminally get people to understand who you are, your vibe, your essence, your energy through color schemes, fonts, the packaging that you're using, and everything.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really what we do.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and headshots are the biggest thing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, I love my headshot prep system so much that I've refined over the years.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Every actor who does my headshot prep system after they do my branding work gets the headshots they need, like a thousand percent.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're so clear, they're so specific, they have fun doing it, and that's what makes the difference with all these little thumbnails on these casting sites.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how are you gonna pop on that?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really getting really specific and clear on your essence.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh headshots drive me baddie.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, I had a client recently even say, Well, you know, I need to get my dad shot and my professor shot and this shot.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, please, like, let's stop thinking about it in that way, please.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, please, right?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, I know that I need a mom shot, right?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in that age bracket.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I need a mom shot, but my mom's shot's gonna be different than your mom's shot because we have different energy, different essence.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: We tell different stories, and that has to come through.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of my favorite things in helping actors with is getting that brand specific and then really manifesting it into the headshots because that's the calling card.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's getting you in first, right?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: The headshot is making them click and then they'll look at your reel, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So those headshots have to be great.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: They have to be great.