ABSTRACT
Commercials can be the lifeblood of many an actor’s career. Two of the five basic types of commercials are what the author call ‘Food’, which means anything that is food and drink, and ‘Products’, which is anything else that is handheld and is a product (a bottle of Tylenol, an iPhone, makeup and the like). When actors do practise commercials, whether running dialogue or simply in front of a mirror to get camera focus, practise with products that they really do use in real life and that they like a lot. A great exercise to help actors take the product love into their auditions is to write a commercial themselves, about a product they absolutely love and use themselves. National calls are geared to only pick out the biggest, loudest, most gorgeous actors/singers who submit or show up. It is also very rare that anyone is discovered in a national call.
