We recently connected with Jason Buyer and have shared our conversation below.

Jason , appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Five years ago, I had an idea to create an app for actors. I didn’t know if it would work, but I knew it was needed. As an acting coach, I would always ask my students if they had anyone to work with. The answer was usually the same. “I couldn’t find anyone”, or “I had to read with my boyfriend or girlfriend, or roommate – or even a parent.” I always recommend that my students find other actors who could help – actors who understand the importance of pace and genre – someone who could rehearse a scene or do a self tape and actually understand what was needed. I wanted to fix the problem, Not knowing the cost of creating an app, and having a team in India bring my vision to life was indeed a challenge. Back and forth notes five days a week for five years. Finally, the Need A Reader Actor App was born, and I feel it will revolutionize how actors self tape. The industry has completely changed since Covid, and the app now makes it possible to rehearse when you need to, self tape when you have to, or meet actors when you want to. Creating an app is very expensive, and I got frustrated when test versions of the app did not work. I know it would have been easier to just give up, but I kept telling myself that I would get through it, and I did. I was creating something that had never been created before. I had an idea and sketched it on a sheet of paper and brought it to life. Huge risk.

Jason , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I received my B.A in theater from Columbia College, Chicago and moved to Los Angeles a week after I graduated college. Soon realizing that being in front of the camera was not what I wanted to do, I pursued a career in film and television casting. My first casting job was with Mary Jo Slater (Christian Slater’s mom). I worked for a handful of casting companies, including Ulrich Dawson Kritzer as a casting associate, Warner Bros. casting as the senior casting coordinator, and Weber & Associates casting – as well as casting a few of my own projects along the way before starting my own company called Marketing The Actor, which focused on consulting with actors and how to sell an actor’s “product”. It was during this transition that a talent manager reached out to me to ask me to coach one of his clients, which is how I started coaching actors for auditions and teaching on camera group classes. After spending about ten years coaching and consulting actors in Los Angeles, I moved to New York City, where I have been teaching film/tv audition technique ever since, under the Jason Buyer Coaching umbrella. My class is one of the few acting classes in the city that teaches from the casting perspective. Upon arriving in NYC, I was hired to run the Semester In LA Acting Program for Columbia College, Chicago, which I did for ten years. I am known in the industry for my ten step on camera audition technique “formula”, creating the “feel down to the page” method, which allows actors to stay in the story regardless of what they know (or memorized). Besides creating the Need A Reader Actor App for iOS and now Android, I am the author of “Inside The Audition Room”,
and created the very popular “Strongest Choice” acting game. My coaching clients are extensive, including multiple series regulars, social media influencers, and academy award nominees.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I have a very unique perspective about the entertainment industry as a whole, and learned a lot from my own mistakes. I was a theater major at Columbia College, Chicago, and decided about two weeks before I was going to graduate college that I didn’t want to be an actor, but moved to LA a week later to pursue acting anyways. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to be involved in the entertainment industry in some way. I was green – completely inexperienced on how the business of acting operated. If you are an actor, I would recommend interning at a casting office for a few weeks to learn the process. Casting always needs help – especially free help. It was during my casting days that I learned that your success as an actor was not just about talent – which is the only part of the business I learned in college. Acting was a business too. I learned about breakdown services, and the hierarchy of agents and managers. I learned about the ladder of opportunity, from pre-read to producer session to studio – if we were casting a television show, or pre-read to producer to studio to network – if we were casting a television show. I learned about being offer only, and how casting still sets up casting sessions even if an offer was out, just in case the offer is not accepted. Sitting in casting sessions, I was able to identify what makes a really strong audition, and what to do (and not do) in the audition room. I also learned about the valuable resources that actors need in order launch their careers – from Breakdown Services, Actors Access, Now Casting, Cast it, Sides Express, Whorepresents, IMDB, Backstage, and now Need A Reader Actor App.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

As an acting coach, there is nothing better than when an actor gets great feedback in the audition room. The best feedback, however, is when the actor gets called back or books the job. It’s especially rewarding when I can work with a client and together – find the very best, most creative choices, based on genre and story. I love when actors are able to adapt to new ideas, and implement these new choices into the work. It’s trial and error – not every brilliant choice will work. The actor, however, needs to be willing to take a necessary amount of risk in the work in order to see if the choice can be implemented honestly, truthfully and successfully. I don’t like when acting coaches tell actors what to do, or that it has to be a certain way – it’s all subjective. It’s about finding someone you trust that can bring out the very best in you and your work. It’s very commendable that actors have not lost sight of their dream. Most adults stop dreaming, but actors, continue to follow their passion, which inspires me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jasonbuyercoaching.com / www.needareader.com
• Instagram: @jasonbuyercoaching / @needareaderapp
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonbuyercoaching?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: Need A Reader for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/need-a-reader-actor-app/id1329677465
  Need A Reader for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.needareader

Image Credits

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