How to convince your parents...

...to support your wish to become an actor?

Question: How could you give yourself a chance at a career in acting when your parents don't like the idea?

I have a friend who is really good at singing and acting and she would really like to try a career in acting but knows it's not what her parents want and thinks it would disappoint them. But it's her dream and she doesn't want to spend her whole life thinking she should of given it a go. How could she do this without support from her parents and not disappoint them?

ANSWER:

At her age it will probably be very difficult for her to do it all on her own without the support of her parents. One of the biggest mistakes people make in just about any area of life is to try and convince someone of something that they themselves know very little about.

One of the keys to being able to convince someone is to be very knowledgeable on the subject. If your friend is anything like most younger aspiring actors, she probably doesn't know very much about what it really means to be an actress or a singer other than what she sees on television or at the movies.

So, she has to do a lot of homework. Think about a lawyer who goes to trial with his client. That lawyer, in order to convince the jury that his client is innocent, has to do a lot of studying of the facts, do research, investigate, read, ask questions, talk to experts AND he/she has to be a really good communicator able to get the key points across in a compelling and convincing manner.

Have a look at this page on my site for new and aspiring actors. On it you will find a lot of different links about various aspects of starting an acting career that might be helpful to your friend. Among the very first links you will see are two that have to do with how to convince your parents to support your acting career and the second actually will take your friend through how to conduct the conversation with her parents to have a better chance of convincing them. The other links will get her well on her way to learning about what it means to be an actress and what will be expected of her if she hopes to be successful. http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/teen_acting.html

But like I say at the end of one of those pages, this is not a guarantee that it will work, but one thing is for sure. After doing the work, your friend will definitely and without a doubt, know more about what it means to be an actress than she does right now.

Good luck to her!

Tony