Casting directors want proof you can already work professionally. You can't get that proof until someone hires you.

Every screen career begins in that deadlock. Talent doesn't break it. A strategy does.

What newcomers rarely realise is that directors want them. A face the audience hasn't seen is worth something on screen. But the pull towards freshness is invisible from the outside; all an actor feels is the resistance.

Who wrote it

Andrew Higgs has spent nearly forty years directing British television drama, including Brookside and The Bill, and taught the screen workshop to final-year actors at Guildhall School of Music & Drama for a decade. Among them Hayley Atwell, Michelle Dockery, Freddie Fox, Lily James, Gwilym Lee and Jodie Whittaker, before anyone knew their names. This is the book he wishes he could have handed them at the start.

What it does

Written from the screen director's point of view, it shows how casting decisions are actually made and how to become the obvious choice. The acting, the camera, the casting room, and the business of getting hired are treated as a single problem and addressed in twenty-one steps, in order, from working out what you are castable as through to holding your first screen credit and building on it.

It's built for the industry as it runs now. Since self-taping became permanent, the barrier to entry is no longer geographic or about who represents you. It's technical, and technical barriers can be learned.

It works as well for an actor coming back after a break, or years in and stalled, as for someone starting from nothing.

If you've completed the training and the door still hasn't opened, here's how to proceed.

What readers say

"I have been an actor for fifty years, most of my work in television or film. I wish I had read this book when I started out, as it would have helped me on my first day on set, which is the most daunting. It prepares you for what is expected of you, both technically and artistically. This book should be on the shelves of every drama school in the country." 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
John McArdle, actor: Brookside, Merseybeat, Emmerdale

"Higgs's achievement is to fuse craft, technique, marketing and the mechanics of casting into a single, sequential method. The result is not another craft manual, nor a business-of-acting primer, but something closer to a curriculum in its own right. I will be recommending it without reservation to both my undergraduate and postgraduate Screen Acting students." 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Richard Goodwin, Programme Leader and Lecturer in Media and Performance, University of Salford, writing in Drama Research: International Journal of Drama in Education

"Few directors truly understand the actor's world. Andrew Higgs is one of them. This isn't a book to rush through in a weekend. It's a book to keep on your desk, return to repeatedly, and mine for the wealth of practical experience it contains." 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Colin David Reese, actor, fifty years and over 100 film and television credits

"This book should be required reading for all actors wishing to enter the profession. Lucidly written and brimming with intelligent and immediately practicable concepts, I wish I'd read it 30 years ago." 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Jeremy Levi, WAAPA-trained actor and screen acting teacher, Perth, Australia

"I bought this book a couple of weeks ago after reading some of Andrew's posts. It is full of incredibly useful information. I submitted a self-tape soon after and landed my first bit part!" 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Kate Murphy, actor

"Excellent step-by-step guidance. I am a 'returning to the industry' actor after a six-year break, post covid. Now self-taping is high on the actor's toolkit. Along with that is understanding and a need to know how to market yourself." 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Sue Kelly, actor: Coronation Street, The Monster Beneath Us

"This is a fantastic book and an invaluable resource for all actors and creatives. With honest and truthful steps to sustainability in getting and keeping a healthy, successful and sustainable career in professional screen acting. An absolute must!" 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Johnny Farrell, actor: The Passerby, Solid Venom

Where to get it

Direct from the publisher — paperback and digital. The digital edition is a single purchase that includes both PDF and ePub formats.
https://payhip.com/TheAlchemyofScreenActing

On Amazon — Kindle edition and paperback.
Buy on Amazon UK → coming soon
Buy on Amazon US → coming soon

The editions

Paperback: 373 pages, 152 × 229 mm (6 × 9 inches), perfect bound. First edition, 2026. Printed on demand in the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia, so copies ordered outside the UK are printed domestically.

Digital: one purchase, PDF and ePub.

Keep reading

Andrew writes weekly on acting, story, and how the screen industry actually works.

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