article by E.R. Womelsduff
The Don’ts
- Don’t tweet privileged information about the show you’re working on.
- Don’t give yourself a time limit after which you’ll give up and get a “real” job.
- Don’t go into an audition without your sides.
- Don’t piss off the people who do your lighting or your make up.
- Don’t leave everything to your agent.
The Dos
- Respect the crew.
- Pick an eye and stick with it.
- Hit your mark without looking.
- Use every moment on a project as a learning experience.
- Let the director direct you.
- For the love of God, tell someone if you’re leaving set.
- Understand that everyone in the audition room is on your side.
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| Troy Rudolph |
Actually, his first love was space and he wanted to be an astronaut, but his second love was definitely acting. “I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t want to [act]. You get to be other people and exist in other places and live in other times and on other planets and do things no one gets to do in real life. It’s the most completely fulfilling thing I can imagine doing with my life.”
His favorite memory is the first day he worked on Battlestar Galactica. “I grew up watching the original series, so putting on the uniform and stepping onto the deck of the ship was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.” There is a pause as he thinks about it a moment longer. “I guess working with Halle Berry was cool, too.” This last in reference to the scene he shot with her in Frankie & Alice.
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| Rudolph opposite Halle Berry in Frankie & Alice |
His worst memory was from his time working on a show that he’d prefer remain unnamed.
I had the opportunity to audition for the show and I booked the role and there was some indication that the role might recur, nothing was said for sure, but there was the hint that it might. A couple months later I was brought in to audition for what appeared to be a completely different role. A few days later I’m doing my regular background work and I see the call sheet and my character’s name and another actor’s name next to it and I realized that they’d auditioned me twice for the same role and then cast another actor. I didn’t find out ‘til I was on set. I had to continue working on the show that day with the other actor there and try and bottle it up as best I could.
I ask him about the worst mistake he ever made on set. I can hear the bark of laughter over the phone.
Oh that’s easy. When I was working on Smallville as a stand-in I was tweeting about it, and I was trying to be very careful to never give anything away in regards to plot or story. Every time I posted about Smallville I would gain 30 new followers, it was strange. And I guess I said a few things that I possibly shouldn’t have and it came to the attention of certain people in power and I got in trouble for that. I could have been fired but they fortunately liked having me around and I owned what I did and apologized, so I ended up getting suspended for a week, and really it was just me using poor judgment. It was probably the stupidest thing I ever did, professionally. I’m a lot more careful with my Tweets now. Nobody was really prepared for how to handle this new social media phenomenon. We didn’t really have a lot of rules in place for it. I probably became a case study. I’m sure I come up in meetings for other shows when they talk about confidentiality.
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| Troy Rudolph watching Bella Swan receive her diploma in Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 |
As a veteran of background work, extras work, and the endless audition process, Rudolph tells me of a piece of advice he got early on that ended up ruining his shot at a few roles:
My friend once told me, ‘When an actor goes into the room to audition, they shouldn’t have their sides. You should go in there, you should know it, and you should impress the hell out of them.’ I made the argument that in DVD extras, actors like Guy Pearce have their scripts. He reminded me that I’m not Guy Pearce. So I felt that I had to go in without the sides, and it...well, it backfired. A friend of mine who is a well-known, established actor told me he goes in with his sides all the time. So now whenever I go into an audition, I always have my pages with me.
When I ask Rudolph what upsets him about the film and TV industry, he laughs. “Oh so many things. It can be so frustrating, especially as an actor, trying to get your foot in the door and break in and you keep seeing the same people over and over and over again getting these opportunities and you cannot for the life of you seem to break in no matter how hard you try.”
But perseverance seems to be Rudolph’s middle name. In addition to his usual round of background work (“apparently I’m going to be on Fringe a lot this season”), he is tentatively attached to a science fiction series that is in development in Vancouver. “I can’t tell you a lot yet, it’s in the very early stages. I’m just hoping it happens.” He has also written several features and is currently working on two separate web ideas, one an original and one a six-part Dr. Who series. In his spare time, he makes elaborate costumes. “My mother taught me how to sew because she didn’t want to make anything for me anymore and I took to it like a fish to water. I’m working on a renaissance costume, a Death Eater costume from Harry Potter, and a Batman costume.” He has promised to Tweet a picture of his living room for me, which doubles as a sewing room.
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| Rudolph wearing his Battlestar Galactica uniform on set. |
When I ask him what he would tell people who are waiting for their big break, he gets serious.
If this is the only thing you can imagine doing with your life, you have to be patient. You have to self-promote. Your agent can only do so much. You have to be very hands-on. Keep trying. I honestly believe that people who give up on their dreams were never really that serious about achieving them. I had a friend recently ask me, ‘Have you given yourself a time limit?’ And I said no, I’m going to keep trying ‘til I make it or I’m dead.
And he has kept this promise to himself. From 2007 to 2012 he worked on Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Defying Gravity, Eureka, Psych, and Fringe, not to mention the dozens of films and shows he's worked on as crew. He’s quick to remind me that actors like Alan Rickman didn’t get their big break until they were 45. But a big break doesn’t just “happen.” When people tell him they’re “aspiring” actors, he asks, "So what restaurant do you wait tables at?" I can almost hear his smile turn serious over the phone as the real issue surfaces:
Honestly, though, what are you doing to be an actor? Are you doing student films, webs series, stage, classes, are you getting an agent, are you watching movies and studying performances, what are you doing to better yourself? Or are you just sitting on your ass and every now and again calling your agent to check in? If you don’t actively pursue it, it’s not going to happen. No one is going to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
Rudolph also believes that every moment is a learning opportunity, even when you’re on set for twelve hours a day as background.
It’s important to know what the camera guys do, what the grips do, because everything they are doing affects what you are doing. Everyone is on a film set to capture what the actors are doing. Don’t be a diva. Don’t be a dick. Respect the crew. Respect the other actors. Respect the background. It’s a team effort. You spend more time with these people than you do with your own friends and family.”
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| Smallville season 8 |
When I ask if there are any practical tips he can give to new actors, especially those coming from a theater background, he says, "Learn how to hit your mark without looking at it,” but quickly laughs as he thinks of a better, if more bizarre piece of advice. “When you’re doing a scene with another actor and if it’s a two shot and you’re both in profile (or any shot when it’s on you) pick the eye of your co-actor that’s closest to the camera and stick with it. Otherwise it looks like you have crazy eyes."
Having a degree in film production, Rudolph has also worked as an assistant director on shows. I can hear the capitalized letters when he says, “If you leave set, LET SOMEBODY KNOW. If you walk away from anywhere, let an AD know, for the love of God, where you’re going.” He recalls times when production was held up because an actor had gone to the bathroom and forgotten to tell anyone, and the entire crew went looking for them. He adds, “When you get called to set, go to set, don’t sit in your trailer for twenty minutes.” That is, assuming you’re important enough to have a trailer.
He thinks for another moment. “What I really hate is when the union background make it really obvious to the non-union background how much better they have it. Because everyone starts out as non-union background and they know how much it sucks to sit there eating a hot dog when everyone else is eating steak and prawns.”
He stresses once again to use every minute on set as an opportunity.
Having a degree in film production, Rudolph has also worked as an assistant director on shows. I can hear the capitalized letters when he says, “If you leave set, LET SOMEBODY KNOW. If you walk away from anywhere, let an AD know, for the love of God, where you’re going.” He recalls times when production was held up because an actor had gone to the bathroom and forgotten to tell anyone, and the entire crew went looking for them. He adds, “When you get called to set, go to set, don’t sit in your trailer for twenty minutes.” That is, assuming you’re important enough to have a trailer.
He thinks for another moment. “What I really hate is when the union background make it really obvious to the non-union background how much better they have it. Because everyone starts out as non-union background and they know how much it sucks to sit there eating a hot dog when everyone else is eating steak and prawns.”
He stresses once again to use every minute on set as an opportunity.
Watch other actors, watch them on screen and on set and how they go through their process. I have learned so much from watching other actors making certain choices that may not have occurred to me and trying to figure out why they made that choice. Or if they’re not doing well, how I would do it, how I would fix it. I worked on a movie with Al Pacino once and seeing him deliver these amazing performances, it was like a year’s worth of acting classes.
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| LEFT: Clark Kent (Tom Welling) MIDDLE: Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) RIGHT: Jonathan Kent (John Schneider) |
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| LEFT: Boomer (Grace Park) RIGHT: Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) |
Having worked extensively as a crewmember as well as an actor, Rudolph has no tolerance for ego.
He also says to make friends with the script supervisor and the AD, as they can “insulate you from all kinds of crap.” As always, don’t piss off the make up artist or the guys who light you, for obvious reasons. But the biggest revelation for Rudolph was not about set protocol or crew interactions--it was about auditioning. It finally dawned on him one day that
Be open to what other people have to say. Never take direction personally. Sometimes the actor will be correct. But y’know what? Sometimes you’re wrong. And you have to accept that maybe somebody else has a better idea how to do it. I worked on a film where I was the most experienced person on set and nobody knew how to say no to me and I had free reign and sometimes it worked and sometimes it was a steaming pile of crap. Let people help you mold a good performance. That’s what a director is there for.
He also says to make friends with the script supervisor and the AD, as they can “insulate you from all kinds of crap.” As always, don’t piss off the make up artist or the guys who light you, for obvious reasons. But the biggest revelation for Rudolph was not about set protocol or crew interactions--it was about auditioning. It finally dawned on him one day that
when you go into an audition you’re nervous and scared, but everybody from the casting director to the reader to the producer, they all want you to do your best, they want you to get this part. You wouldn’t be there if they didn’t. That can be so liberating. Because if you do an awesome job you make them look good. They want you to succeed. Casting directors are so awesome, they’re not going to try to make you look bad; they’re going to do everything they can to get you that role.
In the end, Rudolph asserts again that you have to love what you do. “Whenever I hear that people want to be an actor, I always ask them if there’s anything else they’d rather do, because they should do that instead.” He points out that corporate work has both structure and security, whereas the arts have very little structure and no security. But for the people like Troy Rudolph who can’t imagine doing anything else with their lives, who find purpose in their work, who constantly push themselves to learn more and hone their talent, it’s the most rewarding career in the world.
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| Rudolph on Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, and Once Upon a Time |
Troy Rudolph lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. His IMDb page can be viewed here:
His acting reel can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
www.erwomelsduff.com
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