Actor Aaron Marcus credits two phrases for transforming his career: "I get to" reframes auditions as privileges instead of obligations, while "no doesn't mean never" keeps him motivated after rejection. He recently replaced a Law & Order clip on his reel with a $125 grandfather role, prioritizing authentic material over famous credits.
I want to share with you why these 2 words changed my life and tremendously helped my acting career. Also, if you watch this video to the end, I want to share with you my latest updated film and television reel. I hope you enjoy it. Okay, let's get started. Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. There are a lot of things that can change your life and help your acting career. What I want to share with you are 2 words that actually changed my life and really helped my acting career tremendously. Look, we all get incredibly busy. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. If you're anything like me, I'm juggling 10,000 things at one time. And so sometimes when something new comes along, it can feel a little overwhelming. Like, I don't know, maybe you have to drive a long distance to get to a job. Used to be auditions, but I don't really drive to auditions anymore. That might change, but not for right now. But maybe, maybe it's just shooting a bunch of auditions. Maybe you had your fortune enough, you get like 2 auditions one day, maybe you get 3 auditions another day, and you're starting to think, oh man, I can't believe I've gotta, I've gotta do another audition. I just did an audition earlier. It's gonna take time. I'm gonna have to study and try to memorize it as best I can, and then I have to shoot it and follow all the instructions, and whoa, it just feels Feels overwhelming. So instead of thinking, yeah, I've, I've got to do this, how about I get to do this? So when you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed and say, you know, I have to shoot another audition— I get to shoot another audition. That is incredible. It's, it's a really small thing, but I'm telling you, it really changed my life. And I'm not saying there aren't times I feel frustrated and feel overwhelmed, of course, but sometimes I'm also able to step back and think just how fortunate I am. I get to do another audition. That's incredible. So And actually, there's, there's one other little thing that, that I also find very helpful and kind of live my life by, and that is no doesn't mean never. And it's really true. And that has happened to me in various situations, whether it's trying to reach out to other agents and, you know, not hearing from them and You know, or they're saying, you know, they're not interested at this time. No doesn't mean never. And that's also been something that's been very helpful to me. So look, if you have any thoughts about little things that might make your life better, maybe making work better for you, your acting career better, please share it here on the channel so that way we can learn from you. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget to subscribe, click the notification bell. That way you always know when a new video has been uploaded. And if you like it, give it a thumbs up. That actually is very helpful. And share, share the link with your fellow actors. So all throughout your social media platforms or through your emails, just so we can continue building a great channel with actors Helping each other. I did say I was going to share with you my latest film and TV reel. You can see it up here. And on a really quick note, something I just wanted to mention. So I decided to cut out— it was a very old clip from Law and Order: Criminal Intent where I had a scene with Vincent D'Onofrio— and I replaced it with something I just did recently. And here's the interesting thing. I played this This, this older grandfather who's just like screaming his head off at a game. It's a medieval kind of game, and I know the rules, and people just don't get it. The reason why I'm mentioning this is because, yes, and I don't want to get into a whole other discussion about turning down work, but yeah, sometimes you want to turn down work. This one, and I'll let you know It was a very low-budget contract for this TV series, and I decided to do it. It was something I'd never played before. I thought it would be fun. And I don't mind telling you, it's $125. That's what I earned for, for the day. And I liked it so much, I'm using it in my reel, and I replaced, you know, a famous NBC TV show with it because it's something very different. Sounds great, looks beautiful. And so I hope you enjoyed it. And if you, if you like the reel, please leave a comment about that as well. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
