If you want to stand out from the crowd you need to form the intention of being the most important person in the room. Your intention is to draw attention to yourself. On stage, you have the same intention to draw eyes towards you.
Developing Charisma as an actor means you need to have the correct mindset first. You also need to be likeable, use open body language, appropriate eye contact, have an articulated voice, utilize bad boy characteristics (males), use the power of makeup (females) and have an appealing if not attractive appearance.
1. To Develop Charisma as an Actor you Need To Develop the correct Mindset
You will find that many actors are very intuned with their need for public attention. It could stem from their childhood in which they may have wanted to have become someone else to get away from the stresses which they faced. That they didn’t measure up in some way and they now want to make up and prove that they are worthy and needed.
Certain celebrities, stars, and performers, have built up a need, persona, and personality which requires people to admire, notice and want to be like them.
It also verges on celebrity narcissism, which Hollywood well-known pscyhologist Dr. Drew Pinksky coined in his book; The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America. If you are interested in this very interesting book please buy here which is an Affiliate product.
Often people, in general, look up to celebrities not only because they demand attention, but because they throw themselves out there. They are more likely to see themselves as important and therefore convince those around them that they are a cut above the rest.
This confidence may well seem contrived and could well be a facade to cover for major insecurities. But in many cases with our A-list stars it works well.
2. Charismatic people have at Least one Talent in Singing, Dance or Acting on Stage
Most people who want to develop their charisma will do well if they have at least one strength or talent as listed in the title. It would bode even better if they had two or more talents from which to draw from.
Many charismatic performers know that they are talented in at least one area for the stage or screen. They’ve usually had years to work on their talents and highlight them often in their careers. That’s why these types of people tend to land the top roles in shows.
The Triple Threat. If you have three talents which you are exceptional at, you are basically onto a winner. You’ve probably spent years perfecting the talents and enjoy using them on stage or on screen. Those who have more than one talent are often in demand.
People admire those who have fabulous talents in one area, let alone in three. You can capitalize on this by showcasing your talents as much as possible, on your own social media, on stage, and taking opportunities that arise. Of course, you have to pick and choose which gigs are right for you, in terms of revenue and correct exposure.
3. Develop Your ‘Voice Talent’
Those of you have are fantastic at acting, singing and dance, have a distinct advantage over other performers with fewer strings to their bow. But did you know that the Voice is increasingly becoming a talent with which to utlize, gain work and revenue.
By voice, I am not meaning singing, but the cadence, tone and uniqueness of a voice which can be used in a variety of media including; puppetry, voice overs, radio characters, podcasters, audiobook narrators, video game actors and presenters, Stage presenters, teachers, and demo adverts to name a few.
There are companies who hire people based on the voice alone. Those who have various skills with their voice and or who are blessed with melodic intonation such as Denzel Washington, the late James Earl Jones, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet and Maya Angelou gain attention due to their beautiful sounding speaking tone.
Not only could you develop your voice as an actual talent, but you could develop it in your everyday life to your advantage.
Develop the Tone and Resonance of your Voice
Develop your natural resonance and tone. By that, make sure your voice is even, not shrill, nor pitched too high or low. Find your natural voice and articulate the voice. People much prefer to listen to well spoken people than those who mumble or speak with a croaky voice. An good example of a well intonated voice and tone is Cate Blanchett who is a master of accents and voice in general.
Slow down your voice so you can be heard more clearly. Work on listening to yoru voice and use a voice recorder, from your phone or computer. Read some poetry out and reflect back to yourself how you sound. Be honest. Work on your articulation, intonation, and speaking deliberately and slowly.
4. The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Roles – Confidence is King
Too often many talented people who’d be perfect for certain roles get overlooked for those who are more attention-grabbing. The quieter less experienced performers tend to think that their talent will win through and that alone will win them major roles.
But very often charismatic people win roles due to the way ‘they’ make the casting directors, directors, and producers feel. Are they confident, talented, and good-looking, those attributes do get the foot in the door.
Get rid of the idea of meritocracy. Just because you got an A in Drama at High School doesn’t mean you’ll get the main roles onstage. It’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Some people know that they can win roles, by charm, and who you know. Some win through flattery, and good old-fashioned nepotism. However there are times when their talent and including relevant physicality wins through for a particular role.
Some actors are better at self promotion than others. Many have photos and resumes ready to go on hand at any given time. They find out who the local directors and producers are and send resumes and headshots all the time. This is good for self promotion.
Some people may see this as arrogance, but often these performers employ great marketing techniques to highlight who they are and what they bring to the table. These performers may be wrong for a particular show, but are ‘noted’ by those in the know and could win a role in a future production.
5. Remembering People in the industry Says You’re Special
If you want to win a role, you need to learn about the role, but also the people behind the scenes as well. You need to treat all people as though they could be pivotal to your next role. Respect and honor those who are in the industry. Treat them as though they count.
Project confidence but not arrogance, and it’s a fine line to walk, but once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll be in the know.
Whenever you see someone from a previous show or an audition, acknowledge them and remember their names. It’s always a good idea to ask people who such and such is before they make mention of their names if you can. By the way, according to Dale Cargnegie, people love the sound of their own names, so make sure you learn them and remember them.
Find different strategies to remember the names and jobs that they do. Word association, rote learning in your head, or simple tricks such as repeating people’s names as you meet them. These will all help you remember who they are and put names to faces.
6. The ‘Bad Boy’ Factor Wins the Ladies
If you are a straight female, you ‘may’ understand how the ‘bad boy factor’ can win the women over. This is also a form of charisma. They have a penchant for not giving two hoots about what other’s think of them. They also have an appearance that is pleasing to the eye. They can give the impression that they will take care of the more vulnerable female. They also have a very good first impression. Plenty of actors on the big screen also ooze this appeal.
For instance, Marlon Brando in a StreetCar Named Desire, was smoldering hot. He had the I don’t give a hoot attitude, which makes some women want to be the one to win him over. This type of charisma is appealing because it makes others work for approval and most humans have a throw back to their childhoods trying to please adults left right and c
James Dean in a number of his movies and in real life had a similar persona. Which was very appealing to men and women.
These types of personalities are exciting, thrilling and also dangerous. The appeal comes in with women wanting to tame him and win his affection.
The Extremes of Charisma
Women are attracted to confident men, who tend to take ‘care’ of themselves, hence another reason why women prefer the ‘bad boy.’ Bad boys are verging on narcissism however.
If you are a narcissistic male you have more chance of gaining short term relationships compared with your regular personality male. These men seem funnier, entertaining and well adjusted with their overly confident personality.
Narcissistic males tend to build up their muscle mass more to be more appealing to men and women. Narcissistic women tend to wear more makeup than the average woman.
If you are an actor vying for a role which has narcissistic tendencies, you’d do well to learn about ‘bad boys’, and of course what narcissism entails. By researching the background of characters with these tendencies will help you nail this type of character.
Many actors play-role a part in the real world, some people may fully immerse themselves into roles such as in Method Acting. But taking on a personality out in the real world may give you a unique insight into the workings of naturally charismatic people and or the extremes of this which is narcissism. Work it as though you have the ‘it’ factor and see what happens. Why not see it as a social experiment.
7. Work on Your Body Language
When you walk into a casting office, or an audition or meet with a director etc, you need to use body language which appears confident, but not arrogant.
Confident people tend to have deliberate body mannerisms. They don’t overly fidget their fingers, feet or legs when they are stressed. In Fact they tend to cover their anxiety or find outlets to release it in ways which suggest confidence.
Confident characters on stage, walk with a stride which suggests, I am a force to be reckoned with. Imagine Tom Cruise walking with small steps with his head down and very awkward, no you can’t, because he’s got major charisma happening with his body language. Even though he’s short, he oozes confidence and is very appealing.
If walking into a casting office or audition for both men and women and especially if you’re going for a lead role, you need to develop a strong walk which doesn’t include tip toeing around. With a slow, but strident walk with open arms and chest, you’ll appear more trustworthy and confident.
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Female Counter-Part
If a woman walks into a scene and all eyes are on her, it could be because she is oozing sexy body language. She is ‘working’ it. She is making it known that she wants people to notice her assets. This is a sex appeal with which Marilyn Monroe worked with. She used to turn it on and then off whenever she wanted to. She even demonstrated it to her friend when standing in the subway. Of course natural beauty combined with makeup and form revealing clothing all work well with feminine charisma.
If an audition for a character calls on you to have sex appeal, dress to suggest the role and find a walk and mannerisms which suit. Also if your role calls for makeup to wear it, as it could make or break your way to that role.
If this is what you want to do, you need to practise and slow walk with your hips swinging and your pelvis slightly tilted outwards. Open your body up as you walk with your head held high. Don’t touch your hair as you walk into a bar, and all steps should be deliberate.
Body language needs to be analysed, worked on and presented for it to work consistently for you.
Signs of attraction when using Body Language:
- Leaning forward to the person of your desire
- Smiling
- Holding eye contact
- Speaking with a lower pitched tone
- Flirting
- Touching especially if you are a female
- Flexing your leg if you are a female
- Pointing your toes towards a person you’re attracted to
A fantastic book which follows, gives you guidance in how to detect other people’s body language. Caveat; I have a Youtube site called the Dialogue and it is a body language reading site. I know it inside and out and love reading celebrities, criminals and everyday people’s body language.
This book is called What Everybody is Saying by Joe Navarro. It goes deep to what people are actually saying with their body language. It may help you develop knowledge and ability to utilize various body language for the different roles you’d like to audition for.
Check out the Amazon Affiliate links here:
Another very good book which gives you tips and tricks in how to increase and work on your own personal Charisma is the book; The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane. These books are very popular on Amazon and have high ratings, so you know they are worth their weight in gold.
8. Use More Eye Contact to Appear Confident
Studies have shown that people who make strong eye contact when meeting new people, tend to appear confident, compared with people who don’t. Because the eyes are the windows to the soul, people tend to avoid strong eye contact especially with strangers. Making eye contact is a form of invite, so understandably some people avoid eye contact so as to avoid the interaction with an undesirable person.
According to ‘evenesis.com’ people try to establish eye contact to develop trust. If you want to develop your trust with others, show you are a good listener and are focused on the speaker (this also helps build rapport). With acting, the most important reason to establish eye contact is to build a connection with the person you’re talking with.
One study found that interviewers “were more likely to hire and rate as credible and attractive interviewees who maintained a normal or high degree of gaze than those who averted their gaze.”
When meeting casting directors, potential managers and agents, it’s a good idea to make strong eye contact, listen and smile when appropriate. Your job is to build rapport and be in favor of the person you’re talking with.
Making Eye Contact to Appear Higher Status
People who have higher-status make more eye contact when they’re speaking, and less eye contact when they’re listening; this shows power. Those with lower-status do the opposite, and this shows submission. A high ratio of speaking to listening eye contact is referred to as visual dominance.
If you tend to have trouble making eye contact while speaking, your job is to rehearse it and even film yourself to see how you come across. This could be a valuable tool.
Having said that, making good eye contact with those you wish to impress is also important because you want to make them feel important. In Fact Bill Clinton and Ronald Regean had the ability (Charisma) to make people feel as though they were the only person in the room. It’s really a skill which can be learned and utilized.
By the way, the person who holds the gaze longer, is the person who has the higher status. So if going for the heart throb role try that. But if going for a minor character role or supporting role, try to give other people the higher status.
A great sitcom from England was called Fawlty Towers, with John Cleese who played a Hotel owner who was constantly fussed and bilegerant to his underlings. Andrew Sachs played the lower status waiter employee who constantly got things wrong. The antics and the comedy was over the top hilarious and very popular in Commonwealth Countries.
Try to see who the higher status and lower status characters are: See the mastery of Andrew Sachs who played Manuel to a tee.
9. Wearing Glasses Can Make you Appear High Status
It’s true that when a person is wearing glasses, they appear to have higher status, because they can see your eyes and read your facial expressions easier, while you can’t.
If auditioning for a role as a male for a high status position, you will likely be asked not to wear glasses, because agents want to see the full you in the role. But you could ask if you could do another take with glasses on.
When acting in a role, making eye contact with the fellow actor is also important. Sometimes we can overdo it and overstate, thinking it’s what we should do. But do try and find a place to quickly and naturally blink and flick a way from their gaze where appropriate. It’s more realistic.
Although apparently looking down may indicate a lower status, so flick a look to the side rather than downwards.
10. Women If you Want to Have More Power Add more Makeup
Social science has proven that women who wear more makeup are perceived as more confident and powerful than women who don’t. Women who wear makeup are more likely to be employed and appear attractive to both sexes. This is even so with women who wear glasses.
Makeup can have a psychological effect on the wearer, for instance a woman who wears makeup is more likely to feel more secure and confident. This isn’t so if you are wearing a full face of makeup ready for the night out though. In Fact ‘The Science of People’ indicated that straight men prefer women who wear about 60% of their full face of makeup ready for a night out.
If a role calls for you to wear a certain amount of makeup or none, try and present yourself according to relative expectations. But don’t overdo it if the role is for a maid. If going for a prostitute you’d probably want to wear makeup which is a little more strong than natural.
So In a Nutshell
If Charisma is something you feel you can work on as an actor or performer the following points may be for you:
- Create the mindset that you are important and command attention
- Be a squeaky wheel: stand out
- Develop your talents and keep adding to your bow
- Develop your voice by articulating and perfecting your tone
- Utilize different personas which tend to dominate in a real world situation
- Use Appropriate eye contact with all people. Make people feel special and listened to.
- Wear makeup to appear more trustworthy, confident and dominant (if a female)
- Keep researching and learning so your knowledge of acting/performance/people/situations can be utilized to your advantage.
Good luck on developing your charisma as an actor.
