One Less Bitter Actor: The Actor's Survival Guide

An invaluable reference for anyone who is a working actor, or wants to be. Learn how to make it in the day-to-day business of acting and stay sane and focused while attempting to merge art and commerce. This book covers everything the author wishes someone had told him about how casting decisions are made, what rejection really means, how to behave on a set, the two factors the business is built on, and much more.

Filled with practical nuts-and-bolts information, this is a terrific book for any man or woman brave enough to take the plunge into show business. It's also a terrific book for anyone who wants to know what it truly means to be an actor. Markus Flanagan puts it all down with clarity, empathy and humor. --Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of Friday Night Lights

I wish I had this book when I was swimming upstream at the beginning of my career. The advice about on-set behavior is especially useful. This book will help anyone who reads it. --Carol Burnett, Actress

One Less Bitter Actor puts down in writing every good habit every actor should have. I have seen bitterness sour the best of them. It might also be titled One Much Better Actor because if you take this book to heart you're sure to put your best work out. --Denise Chamian, casting director for Saving Private Ryan

Hollywood is a vicious dog eat dog world and surviving in it can be difficult. This is where One Less Bitter Actor: The Actor's Survival Guide comes in, and grants aspiring thespians great and sage advice such as how to combat being typecast, bad habits to avoid, the deadliest questions to be asked, and dealing with the crushing disappointment of rejection. Written by Hollywood veteran Markus Flanagan with over two decades of experience, One Less Bitter Actor: The Actor's Survival Guide is recommended for actors everywhere and needs a place on every community library shelf devoted to the art of acting. --Midwest Book Review

There are scores of books designed to offer new actors a little tea and sympathy, along with some tricks of the trade; One Less Bitter Actor: The Actor's Survival Guide by Markus Flanagan is the best book on the current market, essential reading for students and professionals alike. An experienced film, TV, and stage actor, and acting teacher in L.A., Flanagan provides invaluable and dead-on info and insights on headshots, resumes, reels, agents, managers, casting directors, and auditions. There's an especially thorough procedural about working on a film set, personal career anecdotes, and powerful advice and inspiration. A chapter on NY vs. LA makes fun reading, but I think will actually make a lot of young actors prematurely pack up for some California dreaming! Over the years I've seen a goodly number of NYC-trained actors head straight for Hollywood after school and fall off the career tracks, not because of lack of talent or drive but inexperience and no representation, the town's permanent vacation atmosphere or just life itself (marriage, kids, steady employment outside the business). I always advise new actors to stay in New York after training, do as much theatre and as many indie films (feature or short) as possible in this capital of indie moviemaking, build up a reel, contacts, representation, then start doing the LA thing if they haven't been noticed already. Examples of this route include some of the workingest actors in show biz - Adrian Brody, Tom Hanks, Mira Sorvino, Amanda Peet, John Leguizamo, Zach Braff, Michael Imperioli, Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Denis Leary to name just a handful. Regardless of what path a new actor chooses, Flanagan's book will save them blood, sweat and tears, and serve them knowledge and encouragement in their artistic and/or commercial quest. --National Board of Review

With One less Bitter Actor, Markus Flanagan continues his legacy of generosity to his fellow actors. His book demystifies the rigors of 'making it' in Hollywood and delivers tried and true advice for dealing with the obstacles actors face in the auditioning process and on the set. Essential reading for every actor on their way up. --Doug Savant, actor, Desperate Housewives