Can you put a price tag on a rapt audience? An unforgettable performance? A stellar, five-star review? Turns out you can, actually: and it’s generally not as small as some would hope. An acting career comes with many start-up costs that you’d do well to be aware of. If you’ve got any queries or doubts on the subject, you’ve come to the right place.
Acting career start-up costs vary widely depending on a number of factors, least of which is the kind of career you’re hoping to pursue. Would-be actors must consider training (both initial and ongoing), their self-tape kit and self-promotion, social and lifestyle factors as well as the sacrifices an actor’s life asks of long-term work stability. An acting career does not need to be financially taxing, but it does require planning to ensure one isn’t surprised by unexpected costs.
Whether you’re an acting hopeful, early-career hustler, or an established thespian looking to take hold of their finances: power to you for reading up on this! Actors can always stand to be more financially literate and comfortable. Put yourself in a position where you not only have the tools to survive, but to pursue your artistic goals safely and comfortably.
Acting Career Start-up Costs: Overview
To take you through the costs of an acting career, we’ve broken down an actor’s life into several areas in which you might part with your hard-earned cash. We’re going to focus on the where, when and why of these costs, rather than the question of how much—as there are simply too many variables for us to give you an answer.
Your age, location, upbringing, family and financial situation will all determine how much money you’ll need to sink into starting up your acting career. And it’s also dependent on what kind of actor you want to be: if you’re happy doing amateur and independent work, for example, you’re likely to have less costs than somebody looking to study and then work full-time.
As with any financial decision in your life, treat acting sensibly. Especially as you are likely passionate about your craft. Research, compare price tags and don’t spend beyond your means. No matter how good you look in those one-of-a-kind Shakespearean tights…
Is Acting Expensive?
It can be. But it doesn’t have to be. Again, it depends on your personal goals and circumstances.
Acting, if we’re being honest, is more expensive in the sacrifices it calls for rather than the costs involved. The art form costs effort, time, stability and (occasionally) your mental health. Don’t get us wrong: it’s rewarding and exciting and fulfilling, even in the leanest of times. But it’s far from easy, and the ‘doing it tough’ end of the industry spectrum is a very populated neighbourhood.
However, it’s also a career that can see dramatic reversals of fortune. I remember a dear friend of mine relaying this lesson from a first-year drama class: “They told us never to take a job we couldn’t walk out of in the middle of a shift if the Big Opportunity showed up.” He stacked shelves, worked in bookshops … and one morning I woke up to a message that he was headed to West End in an acclaimed musical.
So let’s return to the task at hand and get you to a similar place:
Training
Associated costs: drama school (full- or part-time), short courses, acting classes.
Financially speaking, you’re likely to drop the biggest amount of money in your acting career on training. A year’s training at a top-tier drama school—say, the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale—will set you back around $38,000. And that’s without textbooks or related costs.
Other institutions will be kinder on the pocketbook, but all will require a significant commitment. At this point, you may ask yourself “do I really need training?”
To which we say: yes. You don’t need to go to the best drama school in the world, but it pays to have some kind of structure to how you learn and hone your craft. A drama school, or even a year-long part-time course, will give you discipline and skill that will set you apart from so many actors who haven’t made that investment of time.
One last thing: drama schools can be extremely taxing places that demand long, draining days of their students. An unexpected cost of studying acting is often the limited ability to support yourself with a day/night/mugle job. Don’t forget to factor the cost of living into your budget if you’re planning to study.
Skills Development
Associated Costs: short courses, acting classes, acting coaches, masterclasses.
Just as a dancer warms up, a boxer punches a bag or a pianist practices scales, actors need to keep their skills honed. While there are free alternatives to this (such as starting a scene study group), many of the best methods require some payment.
While nowhere near the cost of a full-time degree, a part-time course or one-off masterclass with a noted acting teacher can still set you back a few hundred dollars. Actors sometimes like to employ coaches to help them with things like script analysis or audition prep, or simply to work through bad habits in their acting.
The good thing about skills development is that you don’t have to make any long-term commitments, or opt in to things beyond your budget. As we’ve already said: there are plenty of things you can do completely free, such as reading a good play, practicing a monologue or doing vocal warm-ups. Even auditioning can help you keep your skills sharp—albeit in a public, slightly stressful context.
One last thing: if you’re looking for a reasonable way to keep your skills sharp or maybe work with an acting coach: why not join us here at StageMilk’s very own Scene Club? Every month we invite members to submit their work for feedback, offer one-on-one coaching sessions and provide more resources than you could shake a skull at…
Self-Tape Kit and Promotion
Associated costs: camera, microphone, tripod, lights, backdrop, casting networks, headshots.
Before you start pursuing professional jobs in your acting career, there are a couple of expenses you’ll need to sort out your actor’s toolkit. This includes:
- Your CV.
- An up-to-date headshot.
- A showreel.
While the CV won’t set you back a dime, headshots are something that require a little investment to get looking professional. They are the first thing that a casting director will look at, and so they have to sell you well without looking cheap or thrown together. There’s really no way around paying for good headshots, but they are an excellent investment to make.
Used to be showreels contained clips of the screen work you’d done to date. Then people would film these strange, franken-scenes shot to look like real projects but were purpose-made. Stop paying people to shoot a fake scene for your showreel. You can get by on self-tapes shot at home, as per our ultimate showreel guide (and one of many free articles on the subject).
Buy a tripod for your phone, wrap it in a ring light and film in front of a backdrop or a blank background. This ensures that all eyes are on your performance rather than the scene/project itself. And you won’t break the bank doing so.
One last thing: don’t forget joining casting networks and social media to promote yourself and keep an ear to the ground about job opportunities. Premium subscriptions to casting networks may cost you a buck or two a month, but the bigger sites are worth it, and can project a sense of confidence and legitimacy to the industry.
Social and Lifestyle
Theatre tickets, festivals, films, subscription services, fingerless gloves, cheap red wine.
This category doesn’t fall into the ‘startup costs’ category per se, but it is important for your burgeoning acting career. Be ready to pay for theatre tickets, film tickets, all kinds of tickets. You need to immersing yourself in the art and work of others in the industry; you really can’t afford to stay home and not get involved.
Luckily, the more you find yourself known in the industry, the less you tend to pay for tickets. People are always looking for bums on seats at theatre previews and opening nights, so if you establish yourself as a warm and generous audience member, you may find yourself invited along to the night where the hard work pays off and the glasses of wine are free!
One last thing: this tip might sound counter-intuitive in an article about financial literacy and smart choices … but be as generous as you can. Pick up the bill, do favours, work in indie projects for free and cook for friends and buy them tickets to shows. The actor’s life is one that rewards generosity, and the more you can make your creative community feel supported, the more they’ll be there for you in the leaner times.
Contingency: Rainy Day Fund
Finally, a very important point about some very unexciting topics. Tax bills. Accounting. Health insurance. Rent. Groceries. All of these things are givens for grown-ups. For actors, they can sometimes feel like the thing that you fudge on in order to get through the next brilliant (if unpaid) opportunity.
Always factor in the cost of a rainy day fund. Ideally, you want a few months worth of living expenses should an amazing job come along that can’t pay you … or no job seems to come at all. Actors don’t often enjoy things like holiday benefits, retirement plans, health insurance. These are all things you should expect of yourself and work hard to maintain—even if it means having to say no to a role that sounds fantastic every now and then.
Basically: you help nobody by starving yourself and living in squalor. You receive zero Actor Points for putting yourself in such a position. If you find your career too hard to maintain, take a break and return when you’re feeling a little more stable. You’ll act better, too.
Conclusion
So there you have it: our breakdown of acting career startup costs! Before we wrap this up, let’s acknowledge something true of every acting career, every artist’s journey.
All paths are different. And they are forever in flux. When it comes to the investments you make in your acting, don’t compare yourself to another performer you know. The choices others make won’t necessarily benefit you in the same way. Plan as best you can, plan within your means and strive for comfort and safety. It’s never a sprint.
Good luck!
