An Anniversary
The month of May is a celebration for me. Five years ago this month, I left what turned out to be my last long-term, professional employment. Four years ago, I secured my first Agency representation and my first theatre lead in almost 30 years (See picture). It is memories like this that keep me going during dark times like this May.
Last September, I filmed my first multi-scene movie role, the third Union job in a row that led me to full membership. After a very busy year that had pulled me up the professional acting ‘ladder’, I was extremely confident of a good year in 2017. Instead, work opportunities have fallen off dramatically, and I have done nothing since on film. What on earth has happened?
After four years of promoting myself, working for free, working toward a full page resume I could be proud of, getting a decent Demo reel, building my website, and the rest of the marketing an Actor in the digital age has to do, I finally felt that I had ‘arrived’, and actually earning a living from acting was just around the corner. This, after all, is my goal.
Now, having only appeared in two theatre shows since autumn (satisfying, and paid, I’ll be honest.), my daily fears that I’m ‘not good enough’, that I’ll never work again, have re-surfaced. If there are any days that are truly challenging to any performer, it is these. I have realised that, far from continuing on a solid track forward, I have simply moved from the top of one ‘ladder’ to the bottom of the next.
On the same subject, I have been reading a lot of online complaining, lately. It appears that it’s not just me that’s suffering. Of course, it doesn’t take much to make an actor complain; we even do it when we are working! In these days of online communication, though, it appears that everyone hates something: The marketplace, union membership regulations, favouritism, casting practices, the state of the industry in Vancouver, the ‘enemies’ are rife and seemingly unbeatable. If it’s any consolation, things were exactly the same for me in the mid 1980’s in the UK. The obstacles never change, despite how many different ways the industry appears to. How did I get over these challenges, then? I quit. This is not an option this time. So, on the occasion of my anniversaries, perhaps I can offer some advice, and cement some positive thoughts in my own mind:
You can’t do anything about these issues - they are out of your control. The only thing you can control is how you are in the room. Go, get cast. If you don’t see yourself stepping off the ride, you have to keep working at it, readying your work for when the next audition comes along. It is the Business of show business: No-one is going to cast you simply because you are good – they expect everyone to be good. Being good at what you do is the most basic of baselines to measure. Network, get friends, people work with people they know and have worked with. I haven’t auditioned for a theatre role for a long time. Act professionally on set, be someone that people want back again.
One of the unexpected joys I have experienced in the last four years, it is how much I love working with younger talented people: Their excitement, fearlessness, love of their craft, working without cynicism. I need to put more of that work into my own everyday life. I still take a day every week to exercise, run audition monologues, try to master Standard American English, brush up on accents, trawl the net for auditions, send out CV’s to people that I haven’t contacted yet. I suggest the same: Work at what you need to do: eat properly, get a day job, be ready – this is your job right now. If I can get to the ‘next level’ so can you. However, even when you have a ‘full resume’, Union membership and a demo reel, you are still going to be unemployed.
The rules don’t change. Laurence Olivier’s advice is still true: An actor needs three things - Talent, stamina and luck. If you don’t have talent, you will be found out sooner or later. You need stamina to make it through life between the times when you can exercise your talent, and you need luck to be able to show what you can do at the right time. Our next Anniversary will be better.
