Questions, answered

Membership is one price for everything the membership includes: live classes, self-tape feedback from working professionals, the recorded-session library, the two self-tape challenges each month and the self-tape certificate course. You can pay monthly, quarterly or yearly, and the longer plans work out cheaper per month. See the current prices on the pricing page. There are no hidden extras and no per-class fees. One-to-one coaching with a tutor is the one thing that sits outside the membership: it is booked and paid for separately.

We do not offer a free trial. Membership is one price with all membership features included, and you can cancel any time from your settings: no fee, no notice period, and your access runs to the end of the period you have already paid for. If you think a trial would help your situation, get in touch through our contact page and we will talk it through with you.

Yes. If you are filming, travelling or just need a break, you can pause your membership from your account settings rather than cancelling. Pausing stops your billing and holds your place; you keep your history and pick up where you left off when you resume. It is the simplest way to step away without losing progress on your development plan or certificate.

You can cancel whenever you like, from your account settings, in a couple of clicks. There is no cancellation fee and no notice period. Your access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for, so nothing is cut off early. If you only need a break, consider pausing instead so your progress is kept.

Yes. The Actors Gym is online and open to actors anywhere in the world. There is no geographic restriction on signing up, booking a class, submitting a self-tape or taking the certificate course. The Reel Scene, the acting school behind the platform, is in London, and that is where the tutors and the industry experience come from, but nothing about your membership requires you to be in the UK or to travel here.

Pounds sterling (GBP), wherever you live. That is the only currency we charge in.

If your card is issued in another currency, your bank or card provider converts the payment at their own rate and may add their own fee. We never see that rate and cannot quote it, which is why any conversion shown on the pricing page is marked approximate: it is there for a rough sense of the cost, not as a figure to budget against. Your bank statement is the accurate number.

The price you are charged in GBP does not change with exchange rates. If you joined on a particular price, that is the price you keep.

Every class is recorded, so a live time that does not suit you costs you the room, not the class. The recording goes into the library, where you can watch it whenever suits you and keep coming back to it. What you do miss is the chance to ask a question and to be worked with on the night, and that is a real difference rather than a technicality.

Class times are shown in UK time and, on most pages, in your own local time beside it, so you can see at a glance whether a session is realistic for you. UK time is always the one that governs when a class actually starts.

The parts of the membership that are not live have no timezone at all: the two self-tape challenges each month run to a deadline, the certificate course is taken at your own pace, and the library of past sessions is there whenever you are.

The Actors Gym certificate is our own. It is not a government or industry-accredited qualification, in the UK or anywhere else, and we would rather say so plainly than imply otherwise.

What it shows is that you have completed a structured, graded self-tape course and had your work marked by a working professional. Actors use it on a CV or profile the way they would any other training credit, and it carries the same weight in Berlin or Los Angeles as it does in London, because it is the work behind it that is being judged.

The training itself is the point: casting is a self-tape business now, in every market.

Accounts are for people aged 18 or over. A parent or carer can create an account on behalf of an actor under 18. The parent or carer holds the account: it is in their name, they accept the terms and they pay for the membership. They are responsible for supervising how it is used, including the community and messaging, where other members can see and contact the account.

No. The classes and the certificate course are built to meet you where you are, whether you have drama-school training or have never been on camera. Beginners start with the fundamentals of self-tape and screen acting; experienced actors use the same library to sharpen specific skills and keep match-fit between jobs. Book a class that matches your level and build from there.

Yes, and nerves are the most common thing actors bring to us. Nerves on camera almost always come from unfamiliarity, not lack of talent. The fix is repetition in a low-stakes setting: taping regularly, getting specific feedback, and learning where to put your attention so it is on the scene rather than on yourself. Most members find that a few weeks of consistent practice changes how camera work feels.

Start the moment you get the brief, even when the deadline is tight. Read the sides several times before you make any choices, then work the scene rather than just learning lines. In practice you often have a day or two, sometimes only hours, so a repeatable preparation method matters more than a long runway. Our guide on audition preparation walks through a method you can run to any deadline.

Suggest the character without wearing a costume. Choose plain, solid colours that sit away from your background and your skin tone so you do not blend in, and avoid busy patterns, logos and bright white, which can pull focus and confuse the camera. Unless the brief asks for a specific look, simple and neutral is safest. The clothes should hint at the role and then get out of the way.

Clean, simple technicals and honest, specific acting. Casting directors want to see your face and eyes clearly, hear you without strain, and watch you make real choices. They are not scoring your kit or your background. A well-lit, well-framed tape with a truthful performance beats an over-produced one every time. The craft is in the choices, not the camera.

Consistency and readiness. Casting directors see actors through agents, through casting platforms and increasingly through self-tapes sent at short notice. The actors who get seen are the ones who can turn a strong tape around quickly and reliably. Building a dependable self-tape setup and practising to deadline are the two most useful things you can do; both are covered across our classes and the certificate course.

It is the set of unwritten professional habits that make you easy to work with: arriving early, knowing your lines, staying quiet and ready near camera, taking direction without fuss, and respecting every department from the runner to the director. Good etiquette is not about being timid; it is about being reliable. Actors get re-hired for their professionalism at least as often as for their talent.

Do not touch equipment that is not yours, do not move into someone else's department without asking, and do not give notes to other actors. Keep your phone away when you are near camera, never hold up the shoot because you are not ready, and do not repeat what you see or hear on a closed set. When in doubt, ask the assistant director. Discretion and readiness are the whole job off camera.