There is no "right age" to start acting

Did you know that there is no “right age” to start acting?

Of course, many people do start acting when they are a child or teenager, when there are opportunities like Perform Australia or school drama classes.

But many don’t start till way later.

Often, when people see our Acting 101 course advertised, we get a swathe of messages from people asking us, “Am I too old to join?”

(Funnily enough, some people asking the question have been in their 20s, and some have been in their 60s!)

The answer is emphatically, “No!”

You are never “too old” to start acting. (The oldest person to complete our ‘Acting 101’ course so far was 76!)

In Canberra, there are, in fact, many opportunities for people of all ages to perform, whether on stage or screen.

It may first appear as if the acting industry is youth-oriented, or for the young and beautiful, but the reality is that that’s not the case. All kinds of faces, young and old, grace our stages and screens – humans of all ages are required for modern-day storytelling. So that’s good news for actors!

But if you’re an older actor starting out, a course is a great place to start. Get some of the basics and see if acting is what you imagined it to be.  

Then, you can look further afield. In Canberra, amateur theatre, in particular, offers many opportunities for the mature age actor. Since amateur theatre tends to focus on classic plays, there are often some fantastic roles available – for instance, any mystery story, farce or Shakespeare has a range of older characters. What’s more, many amateur theatre societies are held together by their older volunteers, who take turns building sets, staffing the box office, and helping with promotions, as much as they are involved in acting. Being involved in a theatre company this way can make you feel a part of a community.

But even if you want to act professionally, you are not too old to start. What a lot of young people entering the industry don’t realise is that statistically, they are likely to get their first major professional screen role between the ages of 28-35. (That’s a bonus for people starting later, if you are already in that age group or older!) But it also means, if you complete your acting qualification as a 21-year-old, there are a few years of experience to clock up before you are likely to get a role of substance. So, what you need to do during your twenties is:

• Perform as much as possible – keep your skills up

• Do the occasional acting workshop to refresh and encourage yourself

• Audition, audition, audition – do commercials, guest roles in TV, featured extra roles; just keep auditioning and pick up whatever small, professional parts you can

• Actively build your CV – do short films or student films that are entered into festivals, and make your own if you can;

• Get work as an extra so you get some experience on larger sets

• Consider getting involved in theatre festivals or theatre in education, which may involve touring or repeating a work in different places; write your own piece, if you can.

Even so, some of today’s top-tier actors never got a “big break” until their forties or fifties.

Here are some examples:

• Samuel L. Jackson – known for such films as Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Phantom Menace, Avengers Endgame and many others

• Morgan Freeman – came to the world’s attention in Driving Miss Daisy, and has since been in so many films, with The Shawshank Redemption, Bruce Almighty, and London Has Fallen, among them

• Melissa McCarthy was a steadily working actor, but it was not until 2000 that she was cast in Gilmore Girls as Sookie, Lorelai’s best friend, and later in Mike and Molly, that her career really took off.

So… if you’re thinking about getting started as an actor, take a look at any of our courses at Perform Australia.

Dip your toe in the water and see if you like it!

Who knows where it will take you?