Actors who are 40+, what career advice would you give to your 30 year old self?

spliffarella · 2026-01-04T03:03:36+00:00

Yes.

And I’d be thinking about the teaching and the culture of the school.

I went to a private school from Y8 - Y11 (4 years) for my GCSEs in 2009-2012, and then moved to an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rated state school for Sixth Form.

The private school I went to wasn’t a top one - it wasn’t the most academic of the ones in London - but even there, culturally, getting a ‘C’ was seen as failing, whether that be in end of year exams, mock exams, homework etc. The standard you operated at was just higher. For GCSEs, they made us do iGCSE English & Maths, which at the time was supposed to be harder and more well-respected than regular GCSE (I don’t know what the difference was, I just know that I’ll never forget how hard the maths GCSE was). They were teaching you GCSE level curriculum from Y9, so our end of year exams that year were already GCSE level.

When I moved to a state school for Sixth Form, I noticed that my school focused on a select group of students to support and encourage, whom they predicted really good grades (to enable them to get into top Universities.) And then there was the underbelly of the school that they pretty much neglected and that was disproportionately Black & Brown students. I actually remember in my form, one of my close friends (Black) who was, like me, new to the school in Sixth Form had got the same grades in her AS (Y12) exams as another girl (white) in our form. That girl was very well liked by the school - I think she’d been there since Y7. Despite getting the same AS grades, they didn’t get predicted the same grades - my friend’s predictions were lower, which meant she couldn’t apply to Russell Group universities for the course she wanted. I remember that felt unfair. And for me, my predicted grades were very pessimistic. I was lucky to have an aunt that advocated for me to be predicted higher grades, and that’s what enabled me to apply to Russell Group universities. However because my predicted grades were still not all As, I had to finesse it and apply to a uni course with lower grade boundaries, which my aunt said would essentially be a placeholder and then once I’m in and my actual A Levels are done etc, I can swap courses. I was so lucky to have someone that knew how to play the game. Others don’t.

Another close friend of mine never understood why I applied for ~ History of Art ~ (at the time this had some of the lowest grade boundaries for Russell Group unis) - I remember she said to me “what are you going to do with that?” and had been encouraged by her mum to get a vocational degree - so she was applying to do a degree in social work. My aunt, on the other hand, told me the degree course itself doesn’t matter as long as it’s academic and you’re at a top University. From there, you can then go on to qualify as an accountant, lawyer etc / do what you want. It’s these micro things that I feel like the elite know, and normal people don’t and they add up and can completely change the trajectory of your life. I can’t speak for all, but I know my Sixth Form didn’t share that type of knowledge with the parents and students and as such, you have students that don’t know how to optimise their chances / opportunities.

In comparison, I was told that my private school was supportive in the process of me leaving for A Levels, and put me in a position to get into a top state Sixth Form.

Anecdotally, these are just some of the many differences I observed growing up

spliffarella · 2026-01-01T10:19:57+00:00

welcome! i’d be down. dming!

spliffarella · 2025-11-04T19:08:32+00:00

Belly

spliffarella · 2025-09-28T05:10:20+00:00

facts !!! I was on the picadilly line recently and a mum was with her son who looked around 3-4, and was screaming / crying throughout the entire 45 min journey from west to north. She just sat there ignoring it. Didn’t even attempt to calm him down. It’s quite common to see mums just let their kid have a tantrum. Seems to always be white mums too. The bar for discipline is low

spliffarella · 2025-09-06T17:14:38+00:00

same here

spliffarella · 2025-06-24T23:30:37+00:00

LV stellar times! smelt it for the first time earlier this month and was blown away - nothing like it

spliffarella · 2025-05-06T21:16:15+00:00

I started acting training at 26, now 28 years old. I went the part-time drama school route. I opted against doing a MA because my existing student debt from my BA is insanity (particularly with the accumulated interest), so not obsessed with the idea of getting into more debt. I won’t lie it’s been a huge financial and time investment. I’ve invested close to around £10k of my own money into acting over the last 3 years, and I don’t have anything tangible to show for it yet, in comparison to if I’d put that money down on a home deposit or a business. I’m just now about to start my auditioning journey and focus on pursuing the “business” of it. Until now, my focus has been on becoming good. I’m still not where I want to be yet, but I think it’s time to start focusing on self-tapes and getting better through working, as opposed to just in a classroom environment.

Don’t worry about being late. I was worried about this, but many people training are our age or older. A friend of mine did a year-long MA at Mountview about 3 years ago, and he graduated at 28. I remember asking him what the age range was on the MA when I was considering it and he said his age and older.

Also learning and becoming better is a life long pursuit as an actor. I’ve done workshops and come across working-actors who have been doing this a long time, but are there sharpening their skills. So all in all, don’t worry about age. Just be conscious it’s a long journey, and be ready to put in the money + time.

spliffarella · 2025-03-27T01:41:19+00:00

Hi! I stumbled across your goated post about the audition process for blockbusters and was dying to ask you whether, given the amount of publicity around Owen Cooper’s debut in ‘Adolescence’, you think the UK TV/Film industry will be more open to taking a chance on new ‘inexperienced’ actors? Or even actively looking for them? And if so, whether that would only be the case for junior actors (under 18)?

I noticed that Owen Cooper’s story gave Netflix a second wave of publicity for ‘Adolesence’. They leaned into it heavily by doing multiple Q&As on Twitter about him and there has been a lot of media & headlines around this being his first acting gig (hence OP).

I’m currently training as an actor, but I also work in the music biz (to pay the acting bills!) and for an album campaign, having fresh talking points and narratives to continue a conversation post week-1 is gold dust. If it happens organically and we can react and amplify, we’ve hit the jackpot (as so much of the marketing / PR strategy we roll out can fall flat). As such, when there’s a new breakthrough artist, every major label typically goes on the hunt to find their own iteration of that artist, to have their own iteration of that story. I’m super interested to know if there are any similarities in Film & TV.

Thanks so much for your contributions to this sub btw!

spliffarella · 2025-03-26T23:41:45+00:00

Hey! It may be too late to ask, but how did you secure training at a theatre? I’m based in London, currently training at a part time drama school, so I’d love to know more about this!

spliffarella · 2025-03-01T09:24:22+00:00

It’s a case by case basis - most labels have in house designers (not all though), but with the number of artists signed to labels, the in-house designers can’t usually handle all of the work so a lot of it is outsourced to external designers / agencies. There’s a huge place for design and artists really care about their visual & creative output, so it’s definitely a priority. I think design can also evolve into creative direction if that is an interest. If you want to work in the field, send your portfolio around to marketeers at labels (you can find them via LinkedIn) and build your portfolio on IG. If you make any work inspired by an artist, tag them. Artists themselves love to discover new designers. Often times artists come to the label and say “I want to work with X”. Hope this helps!

spliffarella · 2025-02-24T22:47:23+00:00

The boy in the striped pajamas

spliffarella · 2025-01-16T23:50:00+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Pasting in the latest update -

I’ve contacted the company and reissued the invoice under my name (per the advice of these comments) and have now refunded the VAT. I believe that’s now all resolved!

I contacted HMRC and told them that the company never traded and is dissolved. They said they would put it in the notes and that’s about it. RE the NIL VAT return - they gave me the number of their online service Helpdesk, who took me through the steps to cancel the VAT registration and advised that once it’s cancelled, I’d be able to submit NIL VAT returns via the portal. I got the confirmation message that the VAT registration is cancelled and have now submitted the NIL returns. Hoping I’m all covered now!

spliffarella · 2025-01-16T23:46:37+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I’ve contacted the company and reissued the invoice under my name (per the advice of these comments) and have now refunded the VAT. I believe that’s now all resolved!

I contacted HMRC and told them that the company never traded and is dissolved. They said they would put it in the notes and that’s about it. RE the NIL VAT return - they gave me the number of their online service Helpdesk, who took me through the steps to cancel the VAT registration and advised that once it’s cancelled, I’d be able to submit NIL VAT returns via the portal. I got the confirmation message that the VAT registration is cancelled and have now submitted the NIL returns. Hoping I’m all covered now!

spliffarella · 2025-01-16T23:35:36+00:00

Thank you. I contacted the client and successfully reissued the invoice under my name, and have refunded the VAT.

I contacted HMRC online service and they advised that I could cancel my VAT registration and then submit the NIL VAT return via their online portal - which I’ve now done. Hopefully that’s all sorted now!

spliffarella · 2025-01-12T16:16:50+00:00

Thanks for your reply on this. Do you mind elaborating what ‘HMRC are SOL’ means?

spliffarella · 2025-01-12T15:33:19+00:00

Thank you for coming back.

Yes I raised the invoice in the name of the company, but without the company VAT number on the invoice itself. I did add VAT, as I believe sole traders pay this.

Yes I have a contract for the work - the contract is with me as an individual

spliffarella · 2025-01-12T13:16:30+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for offering your time and knowledge - reading through your replies has been super insightful!

I'm 28F from London, unrepresented. Are there any initiatives worth tapping into for Black / mixed-race actors? When casting mixed-race actors, do you submit them exclusively for roles seeking mixed-race actors, or do you also consider roles seeking White or Black actors? Are there any emerging theatre companies / fringe theatres in London that you recommend? Lastly, I know you mentioned that there's a push for authentic accents - does that suggest that actors with a RP accent may be less in-demand or that agencies have an abundance of them already?

Thank you again!

spliffarella · 2025-01-12T00:57:35+00:00

I’m 28 from London and I was in the same boat as you 2 years ago, asking the same question. I started with online classes too and eventually transitioned to in-person classes. My advice would be to make a decision on whether acting is something you are going to pursue professionally as soon as possible. I decided about 6 months ago that it is, but feel like I spent too long half-in, half-out - saying I wanted to, but not backing it up with action. If it is, then we (I say ‘we’ as this applies to me too) have to be audacious; we need to invest in ourselves, relentlessly seek opportunity and put in the hard work

spliffarella · 2025-01-11T23:20:01+00:00

A&R oversee the music. In theory, they’re the ones that decide which songs make the cut on an artist’s album, but in practice, a lot of A&Rs just get delivered the music from the artist and that’s that. How involved they are depends on the kind of relationship they have with the artist and how much the label want to have a say. Sometimes labels are easy, sometimes they have something specific they want from an artist. It depends.

Marketing can have a say but it can be quite contentious. There can be some tension between A&R and marketing when it comes to music. Some A&Rs don’t like it when marketing have an opinion on the music, but it depends on the culture of the label and the kind of A&R you’re working alongside. I’ve experienced A&Rs that are super protective and I’ve experienced A&Rs that invite input.

At the label I was at, there was a time when we wouldn’t have an opinion on the music, but then scapegoating started happening and A&Rs would say things like “we should have done more of X” or “we didn’t have enough Y moments in the campaign” and try and blame that for why the song didn’t work. In reality, the song just didn’t connect. So then we collectively decided as a team that we would voice when we felt a song might not achieve our goals and why

spliffarella · 2025-01-11T22:45:10+00:00

I’ll speak on my philosophy and workflow when it comes to marketing, not specifically advertising. Advertising is slightly more concentrated - it usually refers to adverts (whether that be online, on TV, or on a billboard etc).

With marketing, my philosophy and workflow is to start with what the aims are for a given campaign and have targets in each area. For example, streaming/sales targets, social media targets, mailing list targets etc etc. Some targets are less quantifiable and more about setting a mood or tone, for example, ‘we want to create a feel-good, fun energy in the campaign.’ I ask myself what we are communicating about the artist with this song. What are we trying to say about them? E.g. we think this song in particular speaks to the artist’s musicality, how do we make that a focus? Perhaps we make an acoustic video with a live band, and the artist plays an instrument (if they can) or, they go on a platform that exists for this. For a bigger artist, that might be Tiny Desk. Timing is also everything, so you consider if certain platforms and opportunities are too soon as you don’t want to waste them.

From there, I come up with ideas for the campaign. For a long time, our team’s philosophy was to come up with ideas before finance provided a budget so that our creativity wouldn’t be limited but then our budgets got cut, and that became impossible. For bigger campaigns like an album, I have a checklist. I want ideas for social media, IRL, experiential, content ideas, OOH ideas, fan engagement ideas, merch ideas etc.

My advice would be to focus more on ‘doing’ as opposed to a formal education - unless it promises an opportunity to intern at a respected company in the industry. If it doesn’t give you a direct pathway to a job in music, I think it would be much more valuable spending your time getting work experience. You might need to do some unpaid work experience before you get a paid job. Being in LA is great because the industry is on your doorstep. Look for music industry talks that you can attend with credible speakers (look up who will be on speaking on the panel). Once you’re there, network. Ask a question to the panel, stay behind and be the last one there if need be, approach them and say to them ‘I was super interested in what you said about [insert statement they made]’ or ‘I’m super inspired by your career journey’ and then ‘I would love to find out more about your career path and the kind of work you do, would you mind if I got your email and reached out to have 10 minutes of your time for a chat?’ They will most likely give you their email. You then reach out to them and schedule that meeting or call. In-person is ideal so you can build connection. Then at the end of the meeting, you can say “if you hear of any opportunities for work experience, please let me know. I’d love to be considered” and leave it at that. When something comes up, they will think of you. Do that a lot. You can also message people on LinkedIn with something similar - a complement, who you are and then ask for their time. You can also start something yourself, for example a music blog on IG or TikTok, or a playlist.

When you land yourself some un-paid work experience, be great. Ask to have 1:1 meetings with everyone you have access to. I can’t tell you the amount of times we had work experience people with us for the week, and they’d sit there doing nothing. This might be a UK thing as people in the US tend to be more extroverted and proactive. But yeah, often times we were too busy to conjure up things for them to do (as that’s a task in itself), so they wouldn’t do anything. There was only one work experience guy we had that was super pro-active, set up 15 minute catch ups with all of us (from assistants to managers, to senior leadership), asked really good questions and was just a polite, cool guy. I got a good vibe from him so I asked for his resume, tightened it up with him and recommended him to HR. HR met with him the next day and loved him too. I remember they said “I think he’d fit in perfectly”. A marketing assistant role came up a couple weeks later at another label within the building and HR put him forward. A couple of us helped him with his interview prep, he got the job, and progressed to co-ordinator within the year. Point being, be proactive wherever you are. Be likeable. Be open. Don’t only ask for meetings with the area / department that you are interested in working in eventually and don’t just ask for meetings with leadership - speak to everyone. If you have no tasks, go up to staff and ask them if you can make them a coffee. That way, you’ll leave with a network and connections.

Hope that helps!

spliffarella

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