The Acting Podcast
The Acting Podcast with Risa Bramon Garcia (director, casting director, producer) & Steve Braun (acting coach, communication consultant), founders of The BGB Studio, takes you inside the craft, the casting room, and the business- and bringing other Industry experts into the conversation- we dig into the work, pull back the curtain of the Industry, and show you how much power you really have as an artist.
Episodes
Change is the only constant and the changes have come fast and hard. So what is the Industry now? What does it mean to be an Actor right now? What does it take to make it today? Risa and Steve discuss the current state of Industry, what actors can expect from the Industry and the essential shifts actors need to make right now to position themselves for success. Listen in and let us know how this resonates with you.
“Script Analysis” is an often misunderstood term that can result in an actor robbing a scene of its art by reducing it to mathematical calculations. Some actors love the idea of script analysis so they can “solve” the scene and control it. Other actors abandon the idea of script analysis altogether because they are afraid of adding any structure to their art. The truth of Script Analysis is more interesting and dynamic. BG...
An actor who books work consistently is an actor who has the capacity to remain vulnerable in the face of intense rejection, to stay focused in a world full of distractions, and to stay sharp in one of the most competitive Industries around. The actor who books work consistently has found a way to stand out from hundreds of others. They have expressed themself in a way that makes them a singularity. In a hard industry and ...
2023 was a really intense year. Two strikes, wars, a contracting Industry, inflation, lingering effects of the pandemic, etc. And that intensity revealed some powerful lessons that every actor must hear and understand in order to be a working actor in 2024. Risa and Steve delve into the lessons of 2023 that point to the new reality for actors and light the path to success in the New Year!
Subscribe! And if you're loving th...
Ok, so the Industry is back. But it won't be business as usual. It can't be. Too much has changed. And if you want to book work in this new reality, you're going to have to change too. So listen in and let us know what speaks to you! You can meet this moment, but it won't be easy. Risa and Steve discuss where the Industry is at right now and the important first steps that every actor must take now that the strike is over.
S...
This is a new world for actors. And the Industry that emerges on the other side of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes will be different than anything we've ever seen.
The ways in which Actors have thought about their careers for over a century are, in many ways, no longer relevant.
So, what's an Actor to do?
Risa and Steve shed light on this strange new world, offer insight into what it might look like, and discuss the action that...
John Levey loves his job. He loves actors. He loves storytelling. He loves diving into the worlds each character inhabits. He’s been loving it for 40 years and is one of the masters of this passion profession, having won multiple Emmys and Artios awards, putting actors into groundbreaking roles on some of the most popular television shows of all time- E.R., The West Wing, China Beach, and Shameless, to name just a few. Lis...
Generative A.I. is not the future. It is here. Now. And as the technology gets better and better, and audiences become less able to discern whether or not the actor on their favorite TV show or movie is human or A.I., the Industry will choose A.I. generated actors over human actors. A.I. actors are cheaper, less demanding, don’t have a union, and don’t require inconveniences like air, water, food, physical space, etc.
But ...
We wholeheartedly support the writers as they fight for what they rightly deserve. And also, a strike means that the Industry is slowing/shutting down. For actors, that can mean fewer auditions and less hope of booking jobs. It can bring up fear and disappointment, especially after three years of pandemic-related uncertainty. In this episode, Risa and Steve offer tools to navigate it all, and reveal some of the incredible ...
As an actor, your vulnerability and emotional sensitivity are not only tools of your art. They are your products. But being a sensitive person in an often cold, emotionally violent industry can be a train wreck waiting to happen. Risa and Steve explore the kind of consistent healing necessary to stay open enough to bring the fullness of your talent to your auditions, and not compromise your mental health while doing it.
Y...
Actors can often see CDs as faceless, soulless gate-keepers with the potential to grant wishes or kill dreams. This perception is not only wrong, but it’s bad for an actor’s business. Casting directors are human beings who, like you, often struggle to do good work in an emotionally violent industry. In fact, the humanity of casting directors- their ability to be emotionally affected, to be moved- is often the reason an ac...
In a business this competitive, navigating the slings and arrows to find happiness is a revolutionary act. Pursuing an acting career is hard. Heck, just being an actor, an artist in a violent world, is hard. You can feel unseen, discouraged and lost. There are challenges at every turn. And yet, amidst all the challenges, there is a way to be an actor, to pursue an acting career, and be a happy, whole human being. It takes ...
Beyond the BS- mastering the latest audition/self-tape “trends,” getting the hottest agent or hiring the best personal trainer- there exist the real, less-talked about elements of success. After many decades in the business and a decade of guiding some of the best and most successful actors on the planet at the BGB Studio, Risa and Steve reveal the bad-ass practices that not everyone has the capacity for, but that are requ...
An artistic community is an essential part of your success. In order to do amazing audition/self-tape work consistently, you'll have to combat the isolation and inhumanity of the Industry with the collaboration, connection, and care that you only find from community. The right artistic community lifts you up, challenges you to be better, keeps you accountable, reinforces your values, reminds you that you are an actor, and ...
Risa sat down to talk about the Commercial Casting world with not one- but two incredibly talented commercial casting directors. Danielle Eskinazi (to whom Risa gave her first job decades ago!) and Renita Gale (see bios below) are both long standing CDs who are passionate and talented artists and truly care about actors. We are excited to have you listen as they share how they got into the biz, why they have stayed, how th...
Risa and Steve sat down to talk about the Self-Tape crisis- an actual creative and professional crisis that actors, casting directors, agents, managers, and others in our business are experiencing right now.
Self-tapes are here to stay. But at this point in their evolution, they have the potential to consume you; to pull the entire focus of time and attention as you navigate the technical elements, the lack of collaboratio...
Richard Hicks is a Casting Director for film, television and theatre (see bio below). He’s done it all, he loves it all, and his work is beautiful. We’re excited to have you listen to our conversation with Richard, and we hope that it humanizes casting directors even more, which is one of our missions- to remind each other and our community always that we are ALL dancing between art and commerce, and we are doing it togeth...
Jason Clodfelter is hardly whom you might think of when you imagine a big Hollywood Studio TV (Co) President. He’s sensitive, caring, personable, charming, thoughtful, and an artist - a fantastic writer, director, actor, and collaborator. Risa got to know Jason in class every week where the work was intimate and intense, and he went all in. And, as he tells us here, his job at Sony TV became an act of artistry, something h...
Nothing makes Risa and Steve happier than creating space and facilitating a path for actors to find their voices as creators: filmmakers, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, etc. When they started BGB, Risa and Steve brought their love of the process of creating from theatre, film, and television into the work that they- and all our teachers- practice in class. And out of that, they have nurtured the ...
Every actor will inevitably find themselves in the desert, struggling to make it all work. At many points along the way, you will look at yourself in the mirror and wonder if it's time to step away from your passion, your pursuit. Is it time to give up acting? Risa and Steve discuss this important… and scary question. Listen in- we invite you to ask the question and find some answers in this episode!
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