In September Aaron Tveit '05 returned to the IC campus to talk with current students. He offered these tips to budding actors.
 

1. Be a person

It’s simple. Life’s too short to be an asshole. Don’t be an asshole and people will want to work with you. “I was on a show once and people told me I was the nicest actor they had worked with. I was like, ‘All I did was say thank you for bringing my costume!’” Say “please” and “thank you.”

 

2. Get your ass in class

Even when Aaron was working on Broadway he still went to acting classes, sometimes three different classes at once. When he was out of work for a six-month stretch, he said the classes kept him moving forward as an actor. You only get to be a better actor by acting every day, he said.

3. Be yourself

 
In an audition, don’t be who you think they want you to be. Be yourself. When Aaron was auditioning for Catch Me If You Can, he realized he was up against many of Broadway’s leading men. He looked himself in the mirror and said “F*** it.” It took away some of his nerves and allowed him to do his own thing, since he couldn’t compare himself to the other actors. Obviously it worked.

 

4. Don’t bare it all on social media 

 
Aaron didn’t get active as an actor on social media until last fall. Even now, he says he keeps much of his life private. “There’s so little mystery left in the world,” he says. “When I go to auditions, I want casting directors to be able to put the character on me. That’s hard if they already know everything about me.”

 

5. Take care of yourself

 
When you’re onstage for three hours, running up and down three flights of stairs while singing, like Aaron did in Next to Normal, you gotta work out. “I work out like I’m training for the Olympics,” Aaron says. “I eat healthy, and when I’m in a show I don’t drink, and I don’t go out.” He said yelling over speakers and other ambient noise at a club is a surefire way to kill your voice. And don’t underestimate the importance of sleep.