Gatekeepers: A Secret about the Acting Industry

Anyone can act. I know it pisses actors off to hear that, because we all want to be special, but it is my sincerest belief that anyone can do it. Not everyone can do it as well as everyone else, and quite often some people are predisposed to excellence in a particular field due to ‘an accidental gathering together of molecules and atoms’ as Sean O’Casey has one of his characters say in Juno and the Paycock.

Now, I’m not suggesting that anyone, or everyone SHOULD act. But I am saying it’s possible for anyone to learn the basic skills and put them into action. However, it is a unique set of characteristics and criteria that make that person able to become a professional actor.

It takes a lot more than the ability to kick a ball to become a professional soccer player. It is a particular combination of skills and personality (character) to produce someone that can play professionally. Some people just have it, some people do not. Most people that are excellent are obsessive, there’s little real ‘effortless’ success. Obsession means hours, weeks, months and years of practice. So even if you’re gifted, it takes obsession and character to take you to the position of being worthy, but then you have to be lucky too.

Likewise, the actor needs more than just the capacity to ‘play’ to be an actor. They need obsession, practice, luck and character, and most of all, will. The desire to succeed no matter what. Most of the actors that I know that didn’t give up after being rejected found success and those that were instantly successful probably gave up when they found the going went tough. It is the strugglers, or should I say – the grafters that make it.

In order to become a professional actor, you must combine ‘a talent to amuse’ along with certain aspects of character that will ensure success. These characteristics are personal, but all are learnable with time, effort, experience and the capacity to organise oneself sufficiently.

But here’s the secret, if anyone can act, and if the rest is learnable? Won’t everyone become actors in an already tiny marketplace. No, because the gatekeepers will keep you out.

The secret is that the industry has many gatekeepers meant to trip up those that aren’t going to make it. But I believe that it usually only favours the instantly fabulous and forgets the struggler, the grafter, the one that has the character to succeed. I remember a friend of mine Kirstin, who auditioned for an acting course and was knocked back by the gatekeepers, so she took a different route, and now is an award winning actress. Why? Because her will to succeed was stronger than any gatekeeper’s will to keep her out. Kick the doors in. As Hannibal (the one with the elephants, not George Peppard) said ‘We’ll find a way, or we’ll make one.’ If you want to succeed, this must become your new motto.

Gatekeepers include Drama Schools, Agents, Producers, Creative Programmers, Directors, Committees, Panels, Casting Directors, Actors and actors that didn’t make it, university lecturers (not to be confused with the former) and of course, acting teachers.

Now I don’t think that everyone should become an actor. Just like everyone could learn to fly a plane but not everyone will or should become a pilot. But it shouldn’t be the gatekeepers that decide our future for us.

The real secret is that the industry will always, at all times, try to protect itself from the hordes, the barbarians at the gates, the thousands of people that want to make it in the business.

My advice is: patience is a virtue, and time brings the gates tumbling down.