!function(w, a) { let isInitializing = true; eventBuffer = []; w.dataLayer = w.dataLayer || []; function gtag(params){ if (!params[Symbol.iterator]) { return; } if (isInitializing) { eventBuffer.push(...params); } else { Array.isArray(w.dataLayer) && w.dataLayer.push(...params); } } const activeDomains = ['.wix.com', '.editorx.com', '.base44.com', '.codux.com', '.hopp.co']; const isActiveDomain = activeDomains.some(domain => location.host.endsWith(domain)); if (isActiveDomain) { setConsent('default', { advertising: false, analytics: false, functional: false }); } w.document.addEventListener("consentPolicyChanged", ({ detail }) => { setConsent('update', isActiveDomain ? activeDomainPolicy() : detail.policy); w.dataLayer.push({event: 'consentPolicyChanged'}); }); w.document.addEventListener("consentPolicyInitialized", ({ detail }) => { const config = w.wixTagManager?.getConfig(); if (isInitializing && config && Object.keys(config).length) { onDoneInitilizing(); } }); w.addEventListener("TagManagerConfigSet", ({ detail }) => { if (isInitializing && w.consentPolicyManager?.initRan) { onDoneInitilizing(); } }); function onDoneInitilizing() { isInitializing = false; setConsent(isActiveDomain ? 'update' : 'default', evaluateConsentPolicy()); w.dataLayer.push({'site_id': w.wixEmbedsAPI?.getMetaSiteId()}); w.dataLayer.push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'}); w.dataLayer.push({'developer_id.dYzMzMD': true}); eventBuffer.forEach(args => gtag([args])); } function activeDomainPolicy() { const allowAll = w.consentPolicyManager.getCurrentConsentPolicy().policy.advertising; return { advertising: allowAll, analytics: allowAll, functional: allowAll }; } function evaluateConsentPolicy() { if (isActiveDomain) { return activeDomainPolicy(); } const { gdprEnforcedGeo } = w.wixTagManager.getConfig(); const { policy, defaultPolicy } = w.consentPolicyManager.getCurrentConsentPolicy(); return defaultPolicy && gdprEnforcedGeo ? { ...policy, advertising: false, analytics: false } : policy } function setConsent(action, { advertising, analytics, functional, waitForUpdate }) { (function() { w.dataLayer.push(arguments); })('consent', action, { 'ad_storage': advertising ? 'granted' : 'denied', 'ad_user_data': advertising ? 'granted' : 'denied', 'ad_personalization': advertising ? 'granted' : 'denied', 'analytics_storage': analytics ? 'granted' : 'denied', 'functionality_storage': functional ? 'granted' : 'denied', 'personalization_storage': 'granted', 'security_storage': 'granted', ...waitForUpdate ? { 'wait_for_update': waitForUpdate } : {} }); } w[a] = (w[a] && w[a].filter(c => c.name !== 'googleTagManagerConsentMode')) || []; w[a].push({ name: 'googleTagManagerConsentMode', report: gtag, config: { trackingId: 'GTM-59JW3PZ5' } }); (function(w,d,s,l,i){ w[l]=w[l]||[]; var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s), dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:''; j.async=true; j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl; f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-59JW3PZ5'); }(window,"promoteAnalyticsChannels")
top of page

Why Your Headshots Aren’t Getting You Called In

  • Mar 24
  • 2 min read

What casting is searching for in your photos




Acting Students in Los Angeles Scene Study Class
Photo Credit: Adam Chambers

Every actor I know is thinking the same thing: 'Should I get new headshots?' (Maybe with that expensive photographer you saw on Instagram?) Listen, if your headshot is several years old, several hair colors ago, or in black and white, then the answer is yesterday. But if you recently shot new ones, and they still aren't working, then something is missing. Yes, the photos are well-shot, professionally lit, and look like the actor. That’s usually the frustrating part, because it feels like you’ve done what you were supposed to do. What gives?


What Casting Sees

When casting looks at your photos, they’re not analyzing them the way your best friend did when you asked them to choose one from four hundred options. (Not cool by the way, narrow that down next time, mkay?) They don't have time to study it in great detail with imagination and nuance. They’re trying to place you. Quickly. In a sea of hundreds of other headshots.


They want to know whether you fit the world of the project. Can they see you walking into that story, saying those lines, and existing alongside those other characters? If that connection isn’t immediate, they move on.


Why Yours Got Skipped Over

A lot of headshots sit in a kind of middle space. They’re well-shot images of people looking nice, but they don't tell a story. There's no clear sense of how the actor reads on-camera or their natural wheelhouse. The picture is asking casting to do too much to figure it out on their own. The picture might as well come with a caption that says, "You decide who I am!" And most of the time, they won’t.


How To Catch The Eye

Things start to move when your materials line up in a way that feels cohesive.

Your headshots, your reel, the choices you’re making in your work, they all begin to support the same story of who you are as an actor. We're not saying wear scrubs and a stethoscope to book medical shows; we're saying tell the industry who you are with your materials. Don't throw together a mishmash of recorded clips and pictures of you looking vaguely nice in different shirts. Don't make them guess. Make it easier to place you. Easier to remember you. Easier to bring you in.


If your photos feel slightly disconnected from the work you’re trying to do, it’s usually not about needing better (or more expensive) images. It’s about getting clearer on how you’re coming across and building from there so that all of your materials are aligned.


It’s a big part of how we approach headshots at LACAE. The focus is on walking away with images that make it easier to understand where you fit.

Comments

bottom of page