Laura Cayouette Helps Actors KNOW SMALL PARTS | 039 - Actors Talk - Come Inside The Acting Business

Turning Minutes Into Moments AND Moments Into A Career

In "Know Small Parts - An Actor's Guide To Turning Minutes Into Moments and Moments Into A Career" Laura Cayouette approaches the acting business with the viewpoint and insight that can only come from experience. In this case, experience with auditioning for and booking scores of 'small parts' over a career that now spans more than twenty years. Some actors may turn their noses up at the prospect of acting, nevermind embracing small roles for more than 'a year or two', or 'just to get started.'

Get Know Small Parts - An Actor's Guide To Turning Minutes Into Moments and Moments Into A Career Here

During our conversation for this episode of Actors Talk, Laura offered this:

The book is predominantly for people trying to 'figure it out' so those are the ones that I really want to reach...the actors who are in the first five years of their career. And you know actors of course think that the first five minutes of their career is all they need to suffer through...or the first five weeks or months or whatever...they don't realize that in the first five years if you're working at all, that's pretty good progress...

You've definitely heard the expression,' there are no small parts only small actors,' right?

My favorite reason to know how to make the most of a small part is that they deserve it.

There are no small parts, only small actors - Laura Cayouette turns that phrase on its ear a bit with the title of her excellent new book: "Know Small Parts - An Actors's Guide To Turning Minutes Into Moments & Moments Into A Career."Laura takes her 20+ years of experience as an actress in Los Angeles and now in New Orleans and her work in films and television shows like Django Unchained, Now You See Me, Kill Bill, The Evening Star, Friends, Treme, etc. and offers actors a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with auditioning for and booking small parts.

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Small Parts - Big Opportunities

One reason small parts are a big deal to me is that I make a living playing them

I began our conversation by asking Laura Cayouette if there were any common questions she was hearing from classes and workshop students when she was out promoting her book. Inevitably, among the first questions, she says is something about Quentin Tarantino.

That hardly seems surprising. Cayouette has one of the best roles of her career as Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly in Tarantino's Django Unchained. Lara Lee, you will remember is the sister to Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie.

Although Cayouette had worked with Tarantino previously - a small role as Rocket in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - and though both had been on board Hell Ride, he as Executive Producer, she as Associate Producer and Actress, Cayouette was surprised and excited to read the script for Django Unchained.

Upon reading the script, she realized the character of Lara Lee Candie Fitzwilly had been written for her.

It was one of the most enriching experiences of my life...that thing of feeling that you are part of something ...very few directors when you walk on their set do you know in advance that you're making something that will last

You Don't Go There To Suck

Quentin really does make it [a film company] feel like a family... you'll never work harder...partly because you'll put so much pressure on yourself to deliver a Tarantino quality performance...you don't go there to suck, you go there to deliver ...everybody's bringing their A game, or else.

Shirley MacLaine

You can turn any minute into a moment. You can be unforgettable with no dialogue and nothing to do but clap.

Ms.