Start with the words the day the deal locks in. Get the current draft, learn your lines neutrally until they are muscle memory, research the project, build the character from the inside out, break every scene down line by line, then run it in front of one live human before you get to set.
Kym here. I have more than 80 film and TV credits, and this is the order I work in between the offer and day one.
It is a toolkit, not a rule book... picture a garage wall full of tools, and pick the ones that match the job in front of you.
Print your scenes and highlight your lines. The minute you book, they stop being sides and become scenes.
Then ask for the script again. Screenplays get revised a lot in the weeks before a shoot, and productions often forget to send the new draft while they are doing your deal.
Ask the production manager for the current version and every update after it. Then give yourself false deadlines, like reading a scene with a friend tomorrow.
Neutrally. No intonation, no choices.
Memorising choices at the same time locks you into them, and that makes you hard to redirect.
Monologues go first, because they are the chunk that scares you. I learn them in blocks of four or five sentences, and the last line of one block becomes the first line of the next, so the chunks connect.
My other tools:
The numbers: about 30 runs on the first pass. Most people get sick of a scene after about 15, so bring two and switch between them.
Across a whole preparation, any scene I have performed and not been terrible in has had 70, 80, maybe 100 runs.
When your brain wants to scroll, you are done. Break for at least an hour, and nap if you can.
The full method is in how to memorize lines.
Read the script once for fun, with no analysis. Then read it again for your character's journey: where each scene falls, what it is for, and the pace and energy around it.
Learn the genre. Something terrible in a comedy leaves you devastated in a comedic way, not sobbing on the floor.
If the genre is new to you, watch other films in it.
Know the medium too. When a single camera comedy director says "faster", they mean pick up your cues, not speak faster.
Ask the filmmaker for reference projects, and watch the director's, writer's and cast's previous work. You never want to be on set having forgotten the director's name.
Character is the most important thing out of everything. Do not make big choices until you know who this person is, or every choice is a stab in the dark.
Start with the breakdown, then mine the action lines. One character of mine plucked a long red hair off another woman's jacket and dropped it in disgust.
That told me she invades personal space, she is judgy and she is dismissive.
Then build three things:
For the outside, walk around the room as the character saying "I am one who..." and keep going. Work out how they stand, sit, listen and speak from their job, money, self image and background.
Animal work is my favourite. Watch the animal online first, then spend five minutes at 100 per cent animal, five at half animal and half character, then drop to 20 per cent.
Music is the quickest way back into a character's vibration, so make a playlist for the trailer.
If the role needs a skill, book your own lessons as soon as the offer comes in. With a sport you need about three days to recover between sessions.
Every line gets four things:
Then write the objective and the obstacle at the top, and find the turning point. Without it you can accidentally play the end of the scene at the beginning.
Write what your character was doing before each scene and where they go after it, because you rarely shoot in story order.
Have a friend run the scene for words only, as monotone as possible, with no notes.
If you can afford one session with an acting coach, use it once you are fully off book. Otherwise it turns into a memorisation session, which is a waste of money.
Your vision sits above the coach's, and the director's sits above both.
Run the scenes at least once in front of a live person at home. Your first read in front of an audience should never be on set.
Keep heavy emotional scenes well under full in rehearsal so you do not wear them out. It also costs nothing to ask for a rehearsal:
Hey, any interest in doing a rehearsal or a workshop of the scenes before production begins?
Then visualise the whole first day going well, sleep, arrive early and breathe. For the day itself, read your first day on set as an actor.
The full class, Performance Preparation, walks through every tool here with worked examples. It sits in our auditions and self tapes hub, next to how to prepare for an audition.
You can watch it, and the rest of the Journey, with a 7-day free trial.
The day the deal is locked in. Print the scenes, highlight your lines and ask production for the current draft straight away, because scripts change a lot in the weeks before a shoot.
Start the words that day, since character work does not function until the lines are in muscle memory.
No. Learn them completely neutrally, with no intonation and no choices.
If you memorise choices along with the words, you lock yourself into them and become hard to redirect. Get the words automatic first, then build the performance on top.
About 30 runs on the first pass, switching between two scenes when one gets boring. Across a whole preparation, plan on something like 70 to 100 runs of any scene you want to be good in.
Once you are fully off book. A lot of actors arrive not knowing their lines and the session becomes a memorisation session.
Keep your own vision above the coach's, and remember the director's preferences come first.
Music. A playlist that matches the character's vibration is the quickest switch, played on the way to set and in your trailer, so you do not have to stay in character all day.