Portraiture over Caricature
Your most important look isn’t a “look” at all. It is you being you, with your inner-life shining through.
Occasionally, I have acting clients coming to me and requesting specific and fairly extreme “looks.” They mght want to wear a doctor’s smock so they can land doctor rolls. Or a police badge so they can book cop roles. Or wild neon green shirts with because they’re told it will help their headshot “pop” on the online casting sites.
This isn’t a “look.” It’s a look inside.
When I get request for extreme looks, I remind my clients with kindness and directness that it is better to look like working actors, not actors desperately seeing work. If not, you risk becoming a...
car·i·ca·ture
/ˈkerəkəˌCHo͝or,ˈkerəkəCHər/
noun
noun: caricature; plural noun: caricatures
a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect.
A caricature is an exaggeration, or an imitation. And when an actor does that, they look false and are perceived as either desperate, inexperienced, a fringe character, or simply not good enough of an actor.
Remember, you will not play a doctor because you have a headshot where you are wearing a stethoscope. You will play a doctor when your headshot shows reveals that you have inner qualities like gravitas, avuncularity and intelligence. That isn’t something you wear, that’s something you are.
Come from the inside out, not the outside in.
Your inner life is what we are capturing, not the external things like props and extreme wardrobe. As an example, below are a couple shots of my client Chris Parnell, the great comic actor from Saturday Night Live fame. Chris and his team chose a simple closeup in color, where his is wearing black, against a clean white background. The mirth in his eyes and on his face are reveal his dry every-guy wit. The other shot is slightly more mischievous, yet doesn’t need crazy color to show that. It’s black and white, and yet the color of his spirit shines through.
Remember the Following to Get the Best Shots.
Here is what I remind my clients when they get too focused on more extreme “looks:”
Look like a working actor, not an actor desperately seeking work.
If you look like you’re trying to hard, you are perceived as lacking confidence or experience.
Nobody has ever been cast based on the color of their shirt.
No respected actor who you really admire would shoot extreme looks, they shoot extreme self.
Neither Meryl Streep or Denzel Washington, even when starting out, would wear a cop badge.
Neither Timothée Chalamet or Anna Taylor Joy would wear big fake glasses to show their quirky sides.
The qualties that casting director are looking for are inside you.
I’m not photographing the color of your shirt, I’m photographing the color of your spirit.
I’m not photographing the fabric on your back, I’m photographing the fabric of your soul.
“Today you are you this is truer than true, there is no one alive, who is YOouer than you.” ~ Dr. Seuss
You are enough. …YOU. ARE. ENOUGH.
You don’t need over the top colors to show the colors of your spirit.
Brightness of spirit is not a background, it is your color.