The winners and finalists from the Spotlight Prize 2024 each share the best piece of acting advice they were ever given.
While we progress as actors, we’re surrounded by those who offer us advice. Whether it comes from actors with more experience, actors with different experience, famous actors we admire, or those who come from different parts of the industry, every piece of advice has value. It’s up to us to decide which advice we’ll take to heart and apply during our careers.
At the Spotlight Prize 2024, we asked the winners and finalists about the best acting advice they’ve been given – the advice that has shaped them as an actor and will likely continue to influence the rest of their career. Here’s what they shared:
Advice for Growing as an Actor
Jaden Asha Evelyn: “We are the vessel. We’re literally pumping life into a vessel. So you need to bring life to what you are doing all the time, wherever, whenever.”
Katie Shelley: “You can know as much as you want, but if you observe people, you look at everyday life. That’s where you’re going to learn.”
Dúa Roberts: “Don’t overthink it. Just let go. Just do it.”
Trudy Akobeng: “Don’t be afraid to eat it or else it’ll bite you. Which means go for it or it will literally come back to bite you.”
Scott Bowden: “It was the Brian Cranston interview and he goes, ‘If you go into an audition room, just go into the audition as if it’s just the same audition that you’ve been doing, or like it doesn’t mean anything really to you.’”
Lara Dailey: “Everything that you sing, speak it first. I have gotten used to doing monologues out of all of my songs and it gets me to grips with the character on a completely different level and gives me new acting choices that I wouldn’t really have thought of if I was just thinking solely on the music.”
Cindy Chawula: “Don’t play the emotion, play the truth.”
Adam Hashmi: “Don’t play emotions. If the writing’s good enough and you are connected, it’ll come.”
Advice for Working with Other Industry Creatives
Callum Alexander-Smith: “Be kind. I think that’s such obvious advice and I think you should be that anyway. Always lead with your best foot forward and be excited to be there, turning up and wanting to collaborate and work.”
Penny Morris: “Be really kind to people in the rehearsal room because that’s the only way you’ll make amazing work with other people: if you’re nice and you’re kind and you’re sound to other people.”
Emma Symmonds: “Treat every interaction, whether it’s with a casting director, a director or any other actor, like you’ve already got the job. You’ll bring your fullest self to it. There isn’t this weird barrier between the two of you.”
Gabrielle K. Appiah: “Bear in mind that everyone is on your side. Everyone wants you to do well. Everyone wants you to get the part right. Everyone wants you to get the part or whatever right means even. So just maintain that and stay excited and stay happy about things and life in general.”
Advice for Keeping the Joy in Your Acting Career
Niamh-Ella McCann: “This is a piece of advice for after you’ve been acting, which is you are allowed to feel sad about it – the audition or performance that you gave – just for as long as it takes to drink a pint of Guinness or your favourite alcoholic beverage or, if you don’t drink, fruit juice. And then you let it go. You move on to bigger and better things.”
Alfanso May: “Believing in yourself is one of the most important things. Once you have that self-belief, everything’s just going to work itself out.”
Tsen Day-Beaver: “Do pieces that really speak to you and don’t try to be someone that you’re not.”
Alyssa Thabisile Sibanda (Stage Prize winner): “Play. Once I’ve been told to play there’s a freedom I like. Just enjoy the discoveries and allow yourself to surprise yourself, as well as the people watching.”
Alyson Handley: “Remember, it’s fun.”
Georgi Arthur: “Just let go, have fun, play. Be yourself.”
Senam Akpokavi (Screen Prize winner): “Be you. There’s a unique element that everyone has within themselves, influencing how you approach a character. Acting is reacting. I feel like that summarises it all.”
Zannie Benfield: “Meditate. If you’re able to meditate and be present with yourself, then you can calm your nerves in any situation, whether that’s on set or on stage.”
A massive thanks to our Spotlight Prize 2024 winners and finalists for sharing their best advice!
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