The following excerpt is from author Michael Viner's book Tales from the Casting Couch:

I am a character actor, originally from Alabama. I came to Los Angeles in 1977, after college and a year of waiting tables in New York City. My goal was to be in the movies and, to that end, I began a ritual of working in Equity waiver showcase theater, hoping to attract the attention of an agent who could turn me into the sort of marketable commodity that Hollywood could accept. I played heroes and villains and clowns and demons and rednecks and fops ...but nobody was buying. Then, in 1985, I worked with director David Kaplan from New York on his production of a Gertrude Stein play called Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights for the West Coast arm of the Ensemble Studio Theater. We made Miss Stein herself a central character and it was then decided I would play the part. I had long been fascinated by the life and art of Gertrude Stein and her years in Paris with her lover Alice B. Toklas. Together, in the 1920's, they created at their salon at 27 Rue de Fleur a unique gathering of artists and writers that included Picasso, Hemingway, and F.Scott Fitzgerald. Miss Stein was a large, somewhat masculine woman who had piercing blue eyes, crew cut hair, and always wore sensible shoes. In the Paris of 1920's she was something to behold. 

I was thrilled with the opportunity to portray such a dynamic and exotic personality ...Somewhat less thrilled was my agent at the time. "What do you mean you're playing a dead lesbian writer? I've been hired to sell you as a character man." He was convinced that this was a huge mistake and that I was just doing a nonproductive exercise in local theater. Well, my love for the project and this wonderful character overruled my agent's misgivings and I decided to cut my hair, don the dress, and live with the consequences.

As it turns out, the play was quite successful. There were great reviews and we played to packed houses. I won an L.A. Weekly Award for my performance as Miss Stein. And among the audience one evening was young director Tim Burton, who was about to begin work on his second feature Beetlejuice. Several months after our play closed, my agent got a call and I met with Tim Burton. I was cast as Otho, the psychic interior designer. I have since appeared in over a dozen movies including Heathers, Demolition Man, Love Affair, and as the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

There are many ways to break into this business and my only advice to those willing to try is, follow your instincts, damn the torpedoes ...and when dressing as a woman, always wear sensible shoes!