Jeff Greenberg, the casting director for the hit TV series, Frasier, was interviewed for Back Stage West/Drama-Logue, the Hollywood casting newspaper, and told a story that illustrates this. He was working with a prominent actor who had been nominated for an Oscar. Nevertheless, the actor felt it was time for him to look for a new agent. He had been nominated for an Oscar, was starring in a hit play, had received wonderful reviews; yet felt he needed to get a new agent. "Some things never change," said Mr. Greenberg, noting "there are great and glorious things and rewards to acting, but it's also a very tough lifestyle."
Tony Award winning actor, Frank Langella, wrote an article for the New York Times in which he spoke of the "demon seesaw actors ride." He told of a veteran character actor who had told him that he is so excited when a job comes to a close that he takes himself and his family on vacation and for a few days is in bliss. And then, every time the phone rings, he runs "like an old fool" to catch it, saying "Oh, God, please don't hang up. I hope it is work."
So for the new comer and veteran alike, there is always the process of getting started.
In acting, as in any other extremely competitive situation, certain basic criteria apply. Known as the "five D's," these are: desire, drive, determination, dedication, and discipline. It is necessary to possess all of these qualities in large quantities if one is to succeed as an actor.
What this really means is that a person planning a career as an actor has to want that career more than anything in the world and be willing to make considerable sacrifices in order to achieve this goal. Particularly in the area of family life, this degree of commitment to career can be a source of great problems, unless everyone involved understands and is able to support the commitment.
Entire lives are spent getting and keeping started. But the big question is. "How do you do it?"
To answer the important question, "How do I get started?" I have imposed upon some friends--people who either are actors themselves or who hire them or who run the unions they belong to, or otherwise represent them importantly in vital aspects of their careers.
Let's begin with a dialogue between the former star of a daytime TV series and Theodore Bikel, the prominent entertainer, star of Fiddler on the Roof and former president of Actors' Equity. In this conversation, Mr. Bikel was asked questions on behalf of aspiring actors. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:
Question: How does one become a "professional"?
Answer: By behaving like a professional. One must work, study, and starve like a professional. Performing requires great discipline. A professional must be on time and feel on time.
Question: How does a young person know whether to become a performer?
Answer: You should become a performer if you can't live without performing, if you would die spiritually if you didn't become a performer, and if you would be happy with nothing else.
Question: Should a young actor go to New York or California or stay home to get started?
Answer: Today, it is possible to stay home. The theatre has gone where the people are. Major casting still is done in the large production centers, but smaller parts are cast from local talent.
Question: Should an actor get an agent or manager early in her or his career?
Answer: An agent usually doesn't get an actor a job; once an actor has the job, the agent negotiates the terms. Actors have to hustle for themselves. Agents are franchised by the unions; managers are not recognized officially by anyone. A newcomer should be careful about signing with managers.
In short, said Mr. Bikel, there are "no shortcuts" to becoming an actor. Training and work, and work-to-find-work are what count.
Several prominent members were asked by AFTRA Magazine, the official publication of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, to offer some advice to people just starting out in their careers. Here's what they had to say.
Anne Archer, film (Fatal Attraction) and TV star: When you are a young actor getting started--study, study, study! Do theatre, especially in New York. Learn how to keep in friendly positive communication with your agent, always telling him/her the good news--something positive someone said, a great project you heard about, etc. Make him or her feel like you're a team. Be helpful and take responsibility for creating a warm and helpful relationship with your agent.
News broadcaster Ed Bradley (60 Minutes): What worked for me was hard work. Being the first one in and the last to leave; looking for something else, something more to do. I'd say, "If this is my task, what else can I do?" For example, when I started in radio, I was ostensibly a disc jockey. That was not all I wanted to do. So, I looked for other things to do, as well. But, you know, it was fun. I enjoyed it. I did news, I did sports, I did play-by-play of basketball games; I did anything I could to get on the air. So, you try to expand your horizon to see how much you can do.
Popular talk-show host, Kathie Lee Gifford (Live with Regis and Kathie Lee): Make every opportunity work for you. I can't tell you how many benefits I sang at, how many supermarket openings I sang at, how many Girl Scout meetings I attended. Even though in the eyes of my industry, it might have seemed like small potatoes, each one of those experiences builds on the next. And each one of them is invaluable in its own right. If you're always looking forward to what's in the future, you'll never learn today what you need to learn. I'm a firm believer in building on the past and your experiences. And if you want to go straight to the top too fast, you're never going to have the foundation you need to stay at the top. You won't have the emotional or creative foundation you need. Frankly, you just won't know what you're doing. I look back at the people who made it real fast and very few of them are still around. The ones who are still around are those who worked hard for a long time until, all of a sudden, they're on top of a mountain--but they built that mountain, mound of dirt by mound of dirt. I'm a firm believer in doing it the long, hard way. So my advice is not to be in too big a hurry to be too big a success.
Comedian and star of the Tonight Show, Jay Leno: The real trick is to try to get in as much stage time as you can--any place, any time. Doing comedy is like working out with weights--you have to do it every day or you will atrophy. Quit that second job as soon as you can and stay with show business. I've always felt that the worst thing for a show business career is to make $30,000 a year doing something else. You get to the point where you say, "I don't want to go to that audition, and the job doesn't pay anything." You have to do it because you like doing it. And you have to try to live on what you make as a performer.
I asked several other experts this question: "Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give someone who is determined to pursue a career as an actor?" Here are some answers:
Robert Morse, actor, musical comedy star of films, stage, and television and Tony Award winner for Best Actor in the Broadway hit, True: I hate to give advice. Things aren't the same today as they were when I was starting out. Everybody has to make his own decisions, like I did, and must make his own mistakes. For example, I have no idea whether it's right for a person to go to New York or California. My feeling is that there are good things about all places. I guess the one piece of advice I can give in all honesty is to first get a good education, because some sort of wisdom helps one in this day and age. There is always the very strong possibility that acting may not work out, and later in life, if you don't have certain capabilities that only education can provide, it might be difficult to survive.
The late Milton Goldman, once vice-president of the world's largest talent agency, International Creative Management:
Go where the work is, if the work is good. Don't be locked into the New York scene. It's a big country and there is wonderful theatre to be found in Washington, D.C., in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut; in Dallas and Houston, Texas; in San Francisco, in Seattle, in Chicago, and almost everywhere in the country. It seems to me the fulfillment for an actor should be the work and not in the applause and attention he might get on Broadway.
One of the healthiest things that has happened to the theatre in the last few decades is the decentralization of theatre and the willingness of actors to work in repertory companies throughout the States. Another very healthy sign is the fact that many stars are now willing to tour, as they used to do in the old days, and bring the best in theatre to the vast American public. It is so important that an actor have continuity in his career so he may grow and realize his full potential. This growth can best be achieved by playing a variety of important roles in the repertory theatres. Broadway too often results in Saturday night closings or long runs that rob an actor of the chance to develop to the fullest.
Jerome Lawrence, playwright (with Robert E. Lee, Inherit the Wind, Auntie Mame, The Gang's All Here), director, teacher, and author of Actor: The Life and Times of Paul Muni:
Prepare. Study, appear before audiences wherever and whenever you can. Stretch yourself. Become multi-men or multi-women, if possible. There are places where actors can still do this: ACT (American Conservatory Theatre) in San Francisco, Dallas Theatre Center, and Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven...
Actor Christopher Reeve (Superman) was asked by Equity News, the official publication of Actors' Equity Association, if he had any advice for young actors. Reeve responded:
I think the more time you can build up playing important roles, wherever, the better. I would think it's better to get to play Edmund in Long Day's Journey at even a non-Equity theatre. It's better to play parts. If somebody can actually show up on a Friday night, sit there and see you being good in something that is the best.
Asked about his decision to become an actor Reeve said:
I never wanted to do anything else. I don't think being an actor is a decision you make in a rational way. You don't say, "I think I really might try being an actor, but if I don't do that I could just as easily work in a bank." It's not an either/or proposition. I think people who are actors really have to be actors.
Lucie Arnaz, actress and musical comedy star: It is important to learn and develop basic skills. The actor is an instrument; it must be cleaned, toned, and tuned, or it will not play right.
Anne Jackson, renowned actress, stage, and television star: It does no good at all to say to the aspiring young actor, "It's tough, it's filled with heartbreak, disappointment, and ego assaults; it's just not a proper profession."
If you have to do it, you do it. If you have the talent and you stick to it, you eventually will be recognized. It's a profession for the fanatic. You can never stop working, and I believe that it takes more than it can ever give.
Philip Hayes Dean, playwright, actor: Workshops are an important training ground. Making the rounds is a waste of time. An actor just starting should spend his time in workshops with others-actors, directors, designers, writers, etc.-who are also just starting out. Then if one of them gets a break, he can help his friends, since friends are what count in this business.
Conrad Bain, actor, star of the TV series, Different Strokes: I would advise newcomers to believe that their constant and never-ending duty is to prepare and then maintain themselves so that they get the absolute maximum use of whatever talent God has given and to believe that finally their success, both financially and artistically, will only depend on what they have to offer as an artist. I would advise them not to waste their time and effort in pursuing what really doesn't matter, like connections, approval of this person or that person socially, gaining personal acceptability, and so forth, but to prepare their mind and body to the maximum degree possible for the work. To do this, they should find a school which offers maximum preparation in acting, body discipline, dance, music, and mime. I would suggest they not trust luck and always remember that each person possesses the ability to make a contribution which is unique, his and his alone, and that his sole duty is to develop a mind and a body properly disciplined, so that whatever that contribution may be-however great or small the talent-it will find its maximum expression when the opportunity arrives. Having done all that, then I believe it is necessary to understand that the opportunity may never come, but still have the commitment to go on anyway.
Micki Grant, actress, author, composer, and lyricist: First of all, you have to be a glutton-- A glutton for hard work and disappointments. Unfortunately, no amount of training will give you talent, but, if you have talent, training will give you craftsmanship as well, in-creasing your chances of turning that "lucky break" into some kind of career, be it stardom or simply successful. The two are not necessarily the same. When a director shouts "dress right" or "share the scene," he doesn't expect to have to explain what he means.
Above all, be sure it's the only thing in the world you want to do, but, at the same time, make sure it's not the only thing in the world you know how to do.
Actress and teacher Uta Hagen said in her book, A Challenge for the Actor: I believe that when you have achieved great skill, a point of view, and the power to communicate, an audience no matter how small, will re-ward you with the respect that makes it all worthwhile. If you are willing to make a true commitment to the making of theatre art, like a dedicated priest or nun, you will have to accept the likelihood of poverty in exchange for inner riches. It is the only trade-off you can hope for.
Actor Frank Langella: I would never discourage anybody, ever. Never give up and never give in. It doesn't matter what the odds are. You really can do whatever you want to do and if you don't succeed it's because you didn't try hard enough. I think it's much better to go down in flames.
Donna Rosenstein, Senior V.R of Talent and Casting at ABC Entertainment had this advice for the readers of Back Stage West/Drama-Logue: You have to believe completely that absolutely anything is possible in this world. I believe with all my heart that people who are talented will eventually succeed no matter how long it takes. So take the day as it comes and do the best you can. I remember when I had to do a job search, I made a list of all the people I was going to contact to help me get a job and every day I took at least one action to advance my goal.
Casting director Mike Fenton: A true actor must love acting above all else. If you love acting, you'll find a place to act-even in a park or a street corner. And the fact that you get paid to do what you love to do is the icing on the cake.
Three-time Academy Award nominee Morgan Freeman: The only advice I have for any actor is keep acting. Just keep working. And keep your mind on what you want. It's bound to happen if you keep working. One thing leads to another and if you have a goal, you're bound to reach it, if you just keep going.
Actor Michael Keaton (Batman): As for acting, I'd urge anyone interested in the profession to keep doing it. Any time you can get on the stage in front of people--or not in front of people--just say words off a script. Just talk. Express yourself; start from that. Start from the basics and keep on doing it. And do it for the right reasons. Do it because you kind of need to do it, or really want to do it.
Actress Kathryn Grody in an interview in Dramatics advises that "before you consider going into the professional theatre you should really examine your creative spirit and ask yourself, 'Is there anything else that gives me creative satisfaction?'" If the answer is yes, she says to pursue that interest as a vocation and to join an amateur community theatre group to satisfy the desire to act.
"But," she says, "if acting is the only possible thing you can do to make yourself feel alive, that's what you should do. Just don't forget that only about one percent of the people who make that choice are ever going to live a decent life doing it, and by that I mean earning an income at what you're trained to do."
Ms. Grody further advises young actors to consider making a career working in resident theatres outside of New York. "They're in nice cities. They give you steady work." Even though she and her husband, award-winning actor/singer Mandy Patinkin, have been able to make a living as actors, she says they sometimes think of moving to a city like Minneapolis or Seattle, where "you know your schedule. You know where you work. You wouldn't have to be separated from each other. You are part of a community." Ms. Grody encourages young actors she meets in New York to consider two things: "One, do I have to do this to satisfy myself in my life? And two, do I have to do it in New York or Los Angeles?"
