It is never too late to become an actor. I’ve taught actors who start at sixteen years-old as well as sixty who went on to have flourishing careers in commercial, theater, television, and film. There is no age limit or threshold to becoming an actor. In fact, the only wrong time spent on the question are the minutes, hours and years wasted asking.

Indecision is the enemy of the artist. If acting is something you want to do, then get out there and do it! Don’t make excuses: I’m too old, I’m too young, I’m not experienced, I’m not creative, I’m not expressive, I’m no longer in my prime, etc. To be afraid is natural. We all fear rejection. We all fear the unknown. We all fear doing something new and not being good at it. But acting, like anything, is a skill that can be learned by anyone via proper training, common-sense and the most important ingredient: self-discipline.

Ryan Serhant & David Epstein
Premiere Party, While We’re Young

Since 2006, I’ve had the privilege of training media mogul, film actor, TV star and titan of the business and real estate world, Ryan Serhant. As a result of his taking acting classes at our studio in NYC for the last 17 years, there has been a never-ending flood of real estate agents and businesspeople in their thirties, forties, fifties and sixties who want to study acting in the hopes of following in Ryan’s footsteps. No matter the age, the ones that train the hardest and are the most disciplined, are the ones who successfully make the leap to becoming professional actors.

The main reason they can make this transition from the corporate world so fluidly isn’t a question of talent but rather, business skills. Acting for film, television and theater is obvious fun and everyone wants to do that part. But not many people are prepared for the business of acting which, more than most industries, can be cutthroat. Ironically, it is those who arrive late to acting who usually have strong business skills already in place, while those who are consummately trained actors, don’t know the first thing about managing or running a company. Being an actor means being the CEO of a brand of which you are the face. Turning that company into a career requires more than a good headshot and audition skills.

Even if you trained as an actor from a young age and cultivated those skills beautifully – art school does not teach anything about turning that into a viable business. It does not teach you how to make ends meet and find a way to pay for health insurance. Trained actors spend so much time building up their acting resume, that they are often ignorant to everything else.

I trained a wonderful actress named Jeanne O’Brien for many years. Jeanne arrived to me in her sixties after retiring from a successful career in education administration (she was the principal of a school in Massachusetts). At what many would consider to be a late age, Jeanne took our classes to learn acting and, at the same time, employed her decades of administration skills to scour the landscape for an agent and manager which she quickly found. Jeanne was not bogged down by the usual acting insecurities - am I good, am I bad, is it too late, etc. Instead, with perseverance and discipline, she made her way into professional commercials, often making more money in a week than she ever did in a whole month of being a school administrator. Why was Jeanne successful at the transition? Because she was able to use her business skills to find the necessary connections.

There are so many types of people that start late and build successful acting careers. I’ve had the privilege of training many high-level athletes, including Raheem Brock who, when he was 29 years old, helped the Indianapolis Colts win NFL Super Bowl XLIV. He retired from football, ran a few businesses, made investments, raised a family, and realized in his mid-thirties that he wanted to find a new outlet. Becoming an actor was something he always secretly dreamed of, and when he had security and tons of business savvy under his belt, he took a stab at it. There are many star athletes who want to transition into television and film, and for some, all it takes is their agent picking up the phone. But Raheem wanted to prove to himself that he could land roles without using his football career as a conversation piece with casting directors – he wanted his acting to speak for itself.

With that mindset, Raheem came through our acting studio in NYC and worked tremendously hard at scenes including Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, Moon for the Misbegotten, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Fences and dozens more. He learned to loosen his body, to work from his heart, to use empathy instead of adrenaline, and pushed himself for two straight years, showing up to every class we offered. His agents were able to get him marquee auditions, but it was Raheem’s acting, not his legacy, that helped him land roles on Gotham, Bull, BronxSIU as well as dozens of plays in New York City. Why was Raheem able to find success so easily? Hard-working athletes are so used to running the drills, so used to getting up early and working hard all day, so used to the repetition, so used to a coach screaming in their face, that it is easy for them to apply those same built-in disciplines to acting. The issue is not age. The issue is discipline.

If you finally make the decision to take a stab at acting, it can’t be a hobby. It can’t be a small choice. It can’t have stipulations. Many wannabe actors say to themselves, “I’ll do it for a year and if I don’t become a working actor I’ll quit and get back to my corporate job.” Putting this type of limitation on yourself is counter-intuitive and supremely unrealistic. The great Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad says, “if you are only going to give yourself a year to become an actor then let me do you a favor and save you that year by telling you this: don’t be an actor.”

Acting is not a summer job. It is not a fun thing we do occasionally. It isn’t something you get lucky at once by having a big break in Hollywood. A big break is comprised of a thousand little breaks that you cultivate and achieve over a long and arduous career. If you want to be an actor, no matter how old you are, ten, twenty, thirty or sixty, you must commit every day for the rest of your life. Acting is so much fun – but if you want to make money at it, it takes hard work, tons of determination, perseverance, and real business savvy.

Being an actor is a way of life. No one can tell you that you are or aren’t an artist. But you must be fully prepared. You can do it – the question is – will you have the courage? Will you have the devotion? Will you have the discipline? Will you enter the arena understanding it is a business?

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Is It Too Late To Become an Actor?