How can I retrieve a unique list of actor names from a MySQL database, sorted in descending alphabetical order?

To retrieve a unique list of actor names from a MySQL database and sort them in descending alphabetical order, you would typically follow these steps using SQL:

1. **Write the SELECT statement**: First, write a `SELECT DISTINCT` statement to get only unique actor names. The syntax is:

   SELECT DISTINCT actor_name

2. **From the table**: Specify the name of the table where the actor names are stored, usually something like "actors" or "movies_actors".

   FROM actors_table

3. **Sorting by name**: Use the `ORDER BY` clause with the `ASC` keyword for ascending (alphabetical) order, but since you want descending order, use `DESC`.

   ORDER BY actor_name DESC

The complete query will look like this:

SELECT DISTINCT actor_name
FROM actors_table
ORDER BY actor_name DESC;

This will give you a list of unique actor names sorted in descending alphabetical order.