Paul Russell – author, director & casting director
What was your first role as an actor?
Were you a chorus member in a school musical? Were you costumed in a cardboard carpet roll representing an elm in a grade school pageant? Did you find yourself running towards the glowing circle of a spotlight’s beam cast upon the boards?
Or were you dragged, like me, unwilling, shy, and scared to place yourself before the public?
However you evolved into an actor your journey was soon propelled by a simple four letter word; love. Passion births idealism. Grasping firmly onto that fascination invokes our individual desires for success.
And with idealism, like the early romances of our youth, comes expectations of how things will be.
We see golden auras in each pursuit. Flaws are diminished by our doting on the excitement of the positives. As reflected when Sondheim scored: “Everything was possible and nothing made sense” when he wrote of elders reminiscing upon youthful aspirations in the musical Follies.
Holding onto that initial wonderment of freedom and barriers be damned is the greatest challenge to an actor. Lose your idealism and you lose yourself. Game over.
Idealism is both a burden and burro in our journeys as artists. We must lug the load of enthusiasm upon our backs when the trail rises. And we ride idealism’s joys on leveling plains and gentle rolling downgrades. The latter is the easier. The struggle to haul idealism over forbidding pathways is the swiftest and most destructive potential to ending one’s travels.
Dismissive civilians, un-supportive family and friends, and criticizing peers often weigh down our idealism by loading on our backs disparaging comments:
“What’ve I seen you in lately?”
“How come you don’t have an agent?”
“Why don’t you have a better agent?”
“Why aren’t you famous?”
“When will you grow up and get a real life?”
I endured those doubts dropped upon me when I was an actor. I still hear similar in my current work as an author, director and casting director. But mostly the damaging comments that lead to self-despair come not from others but from within ourselves:
What is my career? Where am I going? How much longer until I reach… wait… what am I reaching for? Do I know? I think so. But my sight is sometimes blurred by a blizzard of doubt.
Doubt from and to you kills idealism. You must murder the assailing dissent before it murders your dreams. Kill the doubt. To keep your idealism alive—that joy you had when first beginning your career—you must bring death to thoughts, words and actions that plot to annihilate your wonder for obtaining your goals.
If any of us are to succeed we must stop and recall during times of doubt why we first began our journey. What was the lighted joy that sparked our imagination so that we could see ourselves forward beyond perceived limitations? You need to shield that light close to you. Nurture its wick. Protect the flame from crosswinds that threaten to extinguish its glow. Once the light puffs out leaving a thin tendril of gray trailing there’s little chance of a rekindle. The flame may flicker during gales of despair. It’s then that idealism’s glow must be most guarded. Idealism is a beacon within your heart.
Often I’ve been battered by professional and personal tragedies. And with each new assault that leaves me nearly in fetal position I sort through the dark doubts and discover a tiny light flickering its glow upon a thought; ‘You’ve no other choices discovered yet that bring you the same happiness… get up, push forward and find the fourteen year-old you who was pulled unwillingly onto the stage and found a home.’ That adolescent’s discovery was and remains my idealism.
What’s yours?
Do you still have it?
Is it flickering? If so, guard it.
No one else but you will lantern the light that is your idealism.
My best,
Paul
For many, many more actor marketing tips plus audition room technique, and how to best find and keep agents get that vital information from the people who know it best: Broadway and Hollywood actors, agents and casting directors speaking to you from the pages of the book the casting director for Hamilton, The Intern, The Wiz – Live hails as:
“Actors everywhere who are trying to succeed in the business, young or old, on stage or on camera, anywhere in the world, take note:
This is your roadmap!”
— BERNARD TELSEY, casting director – CSA
(The Intern, Hamilton, NBC’s The Wiz – LIVE!, Wicked)
Get Paul Russell’s best-seller for actors; ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistake & Achieve Success as a Working Actor
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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned over thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.
Casting Directors, Talent Agents, Directors & Actors
Love Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book for Actors
ACTING: Make It Your Business!
“All the right questions asked and answered…
and with a generous portion of good humor.”
— SUZANNE RYAN, casting director, CSA
(Law & Order, Unforgettable)
“I love this book!
Paul’s book tells you what you don’t want to hear but really need to know
EVERY actor should read this book!”
— DIANE RILEY, Senior Legit Talent Agent
Harden-Curtis & Associates
“Paul’s book made me proud to be a part of this community we call ‘show!'”
— KAREN ZIEMBA, TONY & Drama Desk Award Winning Actress
“Paul Russell’s words are not only blunt & accurate they zero in on all the questions every actor wants to know but is afraid to ask!”
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Bret Adams, Ltd.
“I had my Business of Acting, BFA Seniors, class do book reports on a variety of “business of acting” books and ACTING: Make It Your Business came out a clear winner—considered to be essential for their bookshelves!
— Dr. NINA LeNOIR,
Dept. Chair – Dept. of Thtr.
Chapman University
Get smarter on the business of acting from legendary Hollywood & Broadway actors and talent agents in a casting director Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book ACTING:
Make It Your Business!
Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.
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Answers for Actors 
Paul, your post about keeping our idealism alive has me in tears. You are a true inspiration – both in words and in your teaching. I’m truly grateful for everything I learned from you while in your class, and for the wisdom you offer in each of your posts.They often apply to my life in general, as well as being an actor. Thank you, beyond any measure of what those two words really mean, for everything that you do for those of us chasing what so many consider impossible dreams. The past 6 months have been a difficult time with losing family, and thinking I would be homeless. But your post just rekindled that light of idealism I’ve felt fading…THANK YOU so much for that!!!
Forever your grateful student, with love and appreciation,
Saskia Lynge
Paul, will there be a musical theatre version of this series as you had last time. Still going strong, Paul, albeit no agent as yet. Reading your book again, about the 4th time and still find new tidbits. So glad you’re on the actor’s side. Marilyn