We don't believe in arbitrary time limits, but at some point you'll need to examine where you are. Let's assume it's New Year's Day. Between toasts or kick-offs, you wander away for a mull. You have:
- Gotten a good amount of work;
- Gotten some work;
- Gotten work in the past, but somehow your career has stopped;
- Gotten nothing.
Congratulations. If you earned $15,000 or more last year, you're in the upper ten percent of the Screen Actors Guild. Think over what you've been doing right and plan to keep doing it. Then go back and toast yourself.
SOME WORK
Before you climb all over your own back, bear in mind that if you earned more than $5,000 last year, you're in the top 20 percent of your class. Make that a pat on the back instead.
Now: how to get more work? Look at the jobs you got. How'd you get them? What did you do right? Next, make a list of any career weak points and plan to solve them. Break that plan into weekly and daily goals. Need a new agent? Pictures? Are you showcasing yourself enough - especially in those cold reading showcases and 99-seat theatre? Are you keeping in touch with past employers? How about new contacts - did you nurture them? If you blow auditions, how about taking a cold reading workshop? A commercial workshop? A class in improvisation? Lost a role because you can't ride a horse? Or dance? Or do a French accent?
YOU WERE GETTING WORK, BUT YOUR CAREER HAS JUST "STOPPED"
We can't think of a more frustrating turn of events. If it helps, this is a phase all actors go through periodically. Everything is going swimmingly, then glub! Somebody pulls the plug out of the pool.
First, try figuring out what happened - unemotionally. Agent gone cold on you? Why? Been sitting back, waiting for him to do it all? Was your type "out" this season? Were there union strikes? Have you priced yourself out of the market? Maybe you need new pictures. Maybe you need to do a 99-seat theatre play. And maybe, just maybe, you've become, through no fault of your own…
Yesterday's mashed potatoes: Hollywood is addicted to the new. Producers go anywhere from East Bochaboora to South Wales looking for "new faces"; all the while there are thousands of better-trained "faces" sitting idle in their own back yard.
It's as though you're given an indeterminate amount of time to become a "hot item." Exceed it, or "merely" become a pro who consistently does good work, and you may wake up to find you're passe. Old news. "Out." And typed to boot.
If that's you, you'll need to do one of two things:
- Double your efforts: Especially to meet new people. You're not passe to them. Find a play that shows you being different. Done nothing on TV but scroungy villains? Play a doctor reeking with distinction. Typed as a bookish accountant? Buckle a swash or two. Tired of playing Miss Goody Two-Shoes? Don't just say it, try doing: Nuts. Get "discovered" by those who don't know you, and "re-discovered" by those who do.
- Turn bicoastal: "The place to go is New York," says personal manager Larry Fonseca. "There, they'll take shots on people. The talent is what counts. Out here, they'll go for a name, or the (casting) precedent has been set." Selling like cold pancakes and sensing that casting directors yawn, "Oh, him?' Head east. You'll be new to an entire city. Even better, if you've got film/TV credits, you'll find it easier to interest agents. (A lot easier. Just as Hollywood goes gaga over New York credits, New York - whether it admits it or not - at least goes "ga" over Hollywood credits.)
YOU'VE GOTTEN NOTHING
We don't have to tell you something's wrong. You're probably aching inside. Should you quit? Give it six more months? Keep going indefinitely? First, as voice-over casting director Andrea Romano puts it, "If you really want to do it, don't give up. There's always room for somebody new, if they're talented."
But, if you're beginning to feel, well, just not happy any more, note what theatrical agent Joel Rudnick has to say: "My biggest frustration is with actors who are unhappy. If it's always tense, and you always want to kill yourself if you don't get a job, and, when you do get a job you're unhappy with the dressing room... well, I mean, I just don't think it's worth it if it doesn't make you happy."
It boils down to one word: love. Still love it? You bet it's still worth it. As producer/director Buddy Bregman says, "After you've been at it a year or so, if you find it's totally negative and your ambition is metza-metza, it's time to think about whether you should carry on or not. Because sometimes persevering against a brick wall is a waste of time. But if you really think you've got the talent, and this is all you want, then don't stop; it would be wrong to stop."
If you decide to quit, happily quit. You're not a failure. If all you're doing is scratching, there's nothing wrong with racking your cue. This just wasn't your game. So what?
Besides, you took your shot. The rest of your life will be free from tortuous "What ifs?" That alone is an enormous gift to yourself - ask those who didn't try.
And remember, you're being relieved of all the problems, nonsense, and all those receivers being hung up in your ear. And, if you return home to another state, you'll be free from smog, traffic and gold chains. And you'll never again have to hear, "Let's take a meeting."
And one other thing. Leaving acting doesn't have to mean exiting the film industry. You tried playing second base; how about catcher or shortstop? How about becoming an agent, casting director, gaffer, makeup artist, producer, director, stage-manager, writer, personal manager, continuity person, editor, lighting technician… there are hundreds of other industry jobs. Ultimately, you may find far greater satisfaction wearing a different hat. That's exactly what former actor, now theatrical agent, David Westberg did. Here's what he has to say: "I had been struggling with that decision for a long time. I mean, I loved acting, but it was between the jobs that drove me up the wall. I found myself becoming very negative and cynical about things. There seemed to be so many decisions that were out of my control. Finally, I reached an age when I didn't want to sit around for two, three months between jobs. And I decided that I could do more with my brain than wait for calls to come in. So I stopped acting. And, as soon as that happened, it opened up a whole range, a whole spectrum of colors came into play that I had never seen because I had always been so tunnel-visioned about acting. I could make decisions. And, all of a sudden I found myself receptive to people on entirely different levels. It was very exciting for me as a human being. And I love what I'm doing."
Just remember, the industry can always use more happy set decorators, fewer miserable actors.
