What child hasn’t watched Harry Potter or High School Musical and wondered how to become a child actor. It looks like fun, you will get to meet big celebrities, and get paid! The reality is, as with any career from the entertainment industry, it will take a lot of talent and even more luck.
There is always the possibility you can turn up to an open casting, the Director sees you like a young Olivier or Mirren and you are off on the way to stardom and riches. Unfortunately this is the real world where hard work and determination is what is needed.
When you consider the various soap operas, dramas just like Waterloo Road and comedies such as Outnumbered, you will see that the quality of child acting from the U.K. is within excellent shape. Just how did these young thespians get where they can be today?
In many instances they will have gone to a stage school or elocution teacher for lessons. For the majority this would have meant going after school or at weekends. Most start as young as five or six, and attend classes for several years. This is the foundation that many actors, young or otherwise, need to succeed and become an actor. Learning, not only to pronounce words, but also how to project the voice, put on regional accents and all the other facets of stagecraft needed to obtain a foot in the door.
As being the young actor progresses they might be offered an opportunity to attend a stage school. These highly coveted places are extremely limited therefore the competition is fierce and the selection process exhaustive. Just the best of the best succeed, and also this is why those after school lessons are very important.
Just how do young actors get those coveted roles on stage or in films and television? In most cases they’ll be put forward by their tutors who recognize they have the attributes necessary for a particular role. Others may have seen auditions advertised on the internet or in trade newspapers such as the Stage. A few of the more high profile roles could even have been featured on the national news. Who could forget the news footage of thousands of children queuing to become the next Harry Potter? Whichever of these routes are taken, at the end of the day they all have to audition. That is when the hard work will probably pay off.
If your kid wants to know how to become an actor for instance Daniel Radcliffe or Emma Watson the best advice you can give is “hard work dear”. There is no easy way to the top.