Thread by @Hansplat

There’s a lot of push for neurodivergent actors at the moment and I don’t think #agents realise but they’re already on their books. They’re just undiagnosed. The projected figures for NDs in acting/theatre is way bigger than general population

So how do you know if you’re already representing people who absolutely need more support and would benefit from more inclusive practises? I’ll tell you

Do you have an actor on your books who doesn’t keep up with contacts, who emails/calls sporadically and is generally very chatty in written form, shares a lot, gives too much detail and doesn’t talk in professional language but as if your friends?

Well, they’re probs neurodivergent
Do you have an actor on your books who needs to be reminded to update showreels, CVs and headshots, who turns up late, or ridiculously early, to the wrong address, or asks for a lot of confirmation about an audition?

Well, they’re probs neurodivergent
Do you have an actor on your books who is ridiculously talented but struggles to make a good first impression at auditions, is seen as rude or overly polite/deferential, or too quiet, not fearless enough, doesn’t talk much, or talks too much

Well they’re probs neurodivergent
Do you have an actor on your books who is often too forceful, loud, talkative, gets really upset when they don’t hear back from a job, needs a lot of reassurance and attention and asks a lot of questions?

Well they’re probs neurodivergent
Do you have an actor on your books who struggles with last minute auditions, and learning lines quickly, who finds the process of self taping incredibly overwhelming and spends hours recording a scene that should take them 10 minutes?

Well they’re probs neurodivergent

And by now you might be thinking, “but this is most of the actors on my books!”

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the unknown secret. Huge numbers of neurodivergent people are attracted to performance because

It is a really good use of their intuitive skillsets, when they’re allowed to actually #act, but 80% of an #actors job is not acting but networking, admin, organisation, consistency, interpersonal impressions, marketing, skills they are not intuitively good at

And in fact, they actively struggle with that 80%. Which is why, when they were young, they turned to performing as a way to process human behaviours and follow their own intuitive skills of perception, sensory overload, creativity

and they found this wonderfully safe place where they made sense of the world and could use their processing to help others understand themselves/the world, practise interpersonal skills. And it was joy. And then they tried to make a career out of it

and found all the same hoops that drove them away from an office/steady progression based working life

So if you want to be inclusive, start by being actor led in your processes and learning how to help the actors on your books to thrive 😊

Because they’re brilliant and will make you buckets loads of money, if you can help them past all the gatekeeping systems, which starts with auditions and all the materials that go towards securing and booking them - which are actually little to do with acting and lots to do

with first impressions, which NDs will always struggle with because very often the gatekeepers are NT, or use systems designed and set by NTs, and NDs won’t match the first impression criteria on that basis because they are different by brain design

Very very happy to chat about this practically to anyone who is interested.

In fact I’m available for workshops, presentations and workplace training as well as phone calls, emails, in-person meet ups.

If you want to help your #actors thrive, and drive profits back to you, then you need to know about what neurodivergence is, why the population is higher in creative industries, why the industry is putting barriers in the way of the people who (often) are the best for the job

and how you can drive change within the wider industry whilst helping your actors to book more jobs.

#winwin
#actorslife
#agents
#castingagents

Cameron Diaz beautifully demonstrating why people with ADHD love performing. Her reasons for not wanting to be a director/producer are some of the same reasons the admin/consistent/long term thinking part of getting work is tough for ND actors