Acting Is a Job: Real Life Lessons about the Acting Business

by Jason Pugatch

How to cope with the realities of life as an actor—if you don’t laugh, you'll cry • In-depth interviews with actors, agents, casting directors. In this hip, warts-and-all look at acting, author Jason Pugatch shares his insights as a working "day player" to give an unvarnished look at theater, film, and television: how to be "discovered," what to expect from training programs, the grunt work of starting a career, how to keep going despite constant rejection, and much more. Packed with myth-shattering anecdotes and told in an intriguing personal tone, Acting Is a Job is the backstage guide that every aspiring actor must read.

225 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Truthful. Honest. Does not pull punches.

[Hom Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful read, full of valuable and thoughtful advice.

[Colie! · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fantastic for terrified MFA students entering the world for the first time and thinking "what the hell am I going to do with myself?" It's more NYC-based, but it really helped me get a first-time grasp on what I was getting myself into. Which is so important... you spend two years learning "process" and "truth" and shit and then you leave and have no idea how to get the jobs to use this craft, nor how you're going to not starve to death or where you're going to live. Though a hard life, it's one lots of people do. This book made me feel less homeless and overwhelmed in the face of a hugely difficult life-shift. And it even talks about taxes!