Being Typed (or A Fun Actor Activity)

This past week, I was invited to a Type Party. If you aren’t familiar with a Type Party, it’s something for actors to do to understand what their type (or who they would realistically play) is for film/tv. I had been typed before when The Actors’ Network still had a location, but it had been a long time since I had done it. I had also been typed during a SAG Conservatory event, but since there were so many people at that event and I was one of the last people to go, many people didn’t fully fill out the sheets.

A friend of mine was hosting the party and we were all encouraged to come dressed as you normally would for an audition. So I came in a simple top and jeans, since that’s something I wear a lot for auditions.

I got there on time, but was actually the first one there. Guess not everyone stresses about being on time the same way as I do. Everyone else arrived about 5-10 minutes later. There were about 10 of us there (all women) and we chatted and gossiped a bit before we got started.

I actually didn’t know anybody there except my friend who organized it, but that’s almost better. That way, nobody typing me would be influenced by things they know about me in real life. Everyone’s opinion was just based on superficial things (which is what you want).

The things we wrote down for everyone were things like age range, ethnicity, what jobs you could see the person in, how educated you think they are, celebrity look-a-likes, and any physical or characteristic adjectives you think fit the person.

Most of the things I got were as expected. My age range was between 22-28 (although there was one person who put 32-40). I was given bubbly, enthusiastic, friendly, helpful, and cheerful as some of my adjectives. As far as physical adjectives, they were all what I expected (plus size, full-figured, short), but one person wrote tan and dirty blonde. Maybe the lighting made me look that way? Because I’m not tan at all and I don’t think my hair could be described as dirty blonde (brunette maybe).

Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I wasn’t able to type everyone else, but I’m going to do it for some of them on Facebook. But I did get to take home all of the sheets people wrote things about me on so I could think about new ways to pitch and market myself.

I’m so grateful that a friend of mine organized this. Not only was it a great actor activity that will be super helpful, but I got to meet a ton of new girls that I probably wouldn’t have met without the party!

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