I’ll keep this blog short and I’ll keep it sweet (okay maybe it’ll be a little long, and a tiny bit savory, but only in a couple parts). If you have special skills on your resume, you MUST be able to actually perform said skill!!! (Okay savory part is over). There is no reason to put a skill on your “special skills” section that you cannot actually do, and it will in fact work against you if you are ever put into a position where you are asked to do this skill. It is unprofessional and puts a bad light on you as an actor.

      A casting director, looking at your resume, may assume that because you have on there “horse riding” as a skill, that you can actually ride a horse. If this is not the case, when you arrive for your audition and he Casting Director asks you about your previous experience with horses and you have no idea what they’re talking about, it will look bad for you! It shows them that you are just putting things on your resume for the sake of putting them up there, and THAT is not a good sign.

      Your agent or manager is submitting you for auditions and will actually believe the things on your resume (because they are supposed to be the truth), so they will submit you for things that have your skills on them! If you get an audition for a rollerblading trumpet player who also speaks French, check your resume for these things before yelling at your representation that you cannot do any of them! More than likely, you yourself have put those on your resume, and that is what they are basing this audition off of.

      So there you have it, that was the long and the short of it all! I hope you take a piece of advice from little old me and refrain from putting talents that you do not possess on your resume because, in the end, it’ll only bite you!