How to Stop Someone Becoming an Actor

How do you stop someone becoming an actor?

People genuinely ask me this question.

You may be a concerned loved one, a friend, a sister, a parent, a husband or wife.  I understand, it’s a sensible reaction to hearing that they are hooked on performing.

You don’t want your loved one to experience the pain and rejection, the reality of the tough life that being an actor, and you want to save them from it.

People ask it all the time.

And the answer is simple. You can’t.

It’s a runaway train. It’s a feeling that comes alive inside us when we are performing, when we are in front of an audience or camera. And it’s addictive, it triggers dopamine release and we are literally addicts for it.

And all the sensible concerns in the world aren’t going to stop it feeling that way.

And your attempts to save them will seem like attempts to stop them.  And they will not thank you for it. And parents force their kids off to sensible degree courses and spouses try to push their significant other to something a little less risky. I don’t doubt the sincerity of your concerns.

But you cannot stop a runaway train. If you get on the tracks, it’s going to flatten you.