Learning From Your First Day on Set

There is something unforgettable about the first day you step onto a real film set. Not a class. Not a rehearsal. Not a school project. A real set, with a real crew, real cameras, and real stakes. For me, that moment came when I was cast in my first feature film, Don’t Run, a horror project that would later earn me a Best Actor award. At the time, I had no idea how important that experience would become. I only knew that I was about to spend two full weeks learning what professional filmmaking actually looks like.

Young actor Danny Irizarry in an early dramatic scene from the horror film Don’t Run

The first lesson came before I ever arrived on set. Packing sounds simple, but it is one of those details that can catch you completely off guard. I brought my wardrobe and almost forgot to bring regular clothes for the rest of the day. When you are working long hours, you are not always in costume, and you need something comfortable to change into between setups and after wrap. It seems obvious now, but at the time it was a reminder that preparation is not just about your performance. It is about thinking through the entire day.

Once I arrived, I learned something that every actor needs to understand as early as possible. Films are almost never shot in order. You rarely film the first scene first and the last scene last. Instead, you jump all over the story depending on locations, lighting, and schedules. That means you cannot rely on the order of the script to guide your emotions. You have to know exactly what happened before the scene and what happens after it. If your character just experienced something terrifying or traumatic in the previous scene, you cannot walk into the next setup emotionally neutral just because it happens to be the first day of shooting.

That awareness becomes even more important when things change, which they almost always do. Schedules shift. Scenes move. Lines get adjusted. Locations change. One of the biggest lessons I learned on Don’t Run was flexibility. If you are rigid, frustrated, or resistant to change, you will struggle on set. The actors who thrive are the ones who can adapt quickly and stay grounded no matter what gets rearranged around them.

But more than anything else, I learned the importance of enjoying the moment. It is easy to become so focused on doing everything right that you forget why you wanted to be there in the first place. That first day was exhausting, confusing, and full of surprises, but it was also one of the most exciting days of my life. I was finally learning by doing, not by imagining.

Looking back now, that film did more than give me my first feature credit. It taught me how to think like a professional actor. How to prepare beyond learning lines. How to track a character across a story that is filmed out of order. How to stay flexible when nothing goes exactly as planned. And how to appreciate every opportunity, no matter how small it feels at the time.

Winning Best Actor for Don’t Run was an incredible honor, but the real gift came long before the award. It came on that first day, standing on set, realizing that this was the beginning of learning how to tell stories for real.

If you are an aspiring actor reading this, my advice is simple. Be prepared. Know your story. Stay flexible. And above all, enjoy being there. Those early days on set shape you more than you realize, and the lessons you learn in your first projects often become the foundation you build your entire career on.