Local and regional theater experience may help in obtaining work in New York or Los Angeles. Modeling experience may also be helpful. Actors need talent, creative ability, and training that will enable them to portray different characters. Training in singing and dancing is especially useful. Actors must have poise, stage presence, and the ability to affect an audience, plus the ability to follow directions.
Physical appearance is often a deciding factor in being selected for particular roles.
Many professional actors rely on agents or managers to find them performing engagements, negotiate contracts, and plan their careers. To become a movie extra, one must usually be listed by a casting agency, such as Central Casting, a no-fee agency that supplies all extras to the major movie studios in Hollywood. Applicants are accepted only when the number of persons of a particular type on the list for example, athletic young women, old men, or small children is below the foreseeable need. In recent years, only a very small proportion of the applicants have succeeded in being listed. There are no specific training requirements for directors and producers.