Your Acting Career: Why You Aren’t Going To Make It

You aren’t going to make it. 

The career in acting, the one you dream of, you aren’t going to make it.

How do I know? I just do. And you know it too deep down, don’t you?

Deep down you know that you’re going to fail because you don’t do anything about it. You set no targets, so you have no goals, and you take no actions. So you’re not going to make it.

Why you don’t set targets, goals and take action, I’m not sure, lazy, distracted, afraid? But you don’t, so you’re not going to make it.

And when you are confronted with this, you’re going to create a whole lot of reasons why. We can’t help ourselves, we have to create reasons, or excuses, there has to be reasons why we didn’t make it. Taking the blame ourselves is… well, it isn’t human.

It was too hard. The industry is too tough. The casting directors are unfair, there’s no parts for someone like you, you couldn’t get into drama school, the course wasn’t for you, you didn’t have a famous family member, you didn’t live in London, or Paris, New York or Hollywood, you’ll find a reason – you will, because to admit that you were lazy, distracted or afraid is crushing.

Or you will settle for less. You will work small paid jobs where you work your ass off, but aside from the money, you get nothing and no show at progression in your acting career.

“Ah, I saw you in that wonderful tour of schools in North Berwick, I thought your Lear was marvellous, I wonder if you’d be interested in auditioning for the Royal Shakespeare Company.”  said No One, ever. 

Here’s a tip, there are ALWAYS jobs where you work your ass off and you get paid, but you go nowhere and get nothing. And in the acting industry, we are climbing over each other’s dead corpses to get them, and the funny thing is, they aren’t going to help you  make it, they sap your energy, take up your time, pay a little, and leave you less inspired, less passionate, less driven to achieve your bigger career goals as an actor, because you didn’t become an actor to tour schools. But how grateful you are to tour schools, and so you aren’t going to make it.

• Because you’re scared

• Because you’re waiting for permission to succeed in an industry that isn’t going to give you permission if you stand waiting for it for the rest of your adult lives.

• Because you didn’t get into drama school first, second, third time and you’ve accepted that’s a reason why you should stop.

• Because you don’t have an agent, or the right agent

• Because your head-shots suck

• Because you can’t get out of your own way

• Because you’d rather whinge about how unfair it is than take the action necessary to achieve something, because whinging costs nothing and has no risk involved, whereas actually attempting to make it as an actor includes the risk of failure and that would be too too painful for your frail ego.

• Because feeling like an actor is easier than being one, so you stay in acting class and never get out there.

• Because doing murder mysteries and corporate role-plays pays the bills and is-a-kind-of-acting but is far away from being a professional actor in theatre and film as fly fishing is from boxing.

• Because relying on the myth of talent allows you to let yourself off the hook for the auditions you didn’t properly prepare for, because the myth of talent allows you to point and say the reason I didn’t make it was that I just wasn’t talented enough. Even that painful admission is less painful than the risk of failure should you attempt to achieve it.

• Because we use the myth of talent to justify our cowardice.

• Because we all have responsibilities, but they make really good excuses.

And here’s another thing:

One day, after you’ve settled, when you realise you didn’t make it, someone is going to come to you asking for advice. And you will say, don’t do it, it’s too tough, the industry is unfair, I wanted it too like you do now, but take my advice and save yourself a lot of heart-ache and wasted time, and go do something that actually pays the bills.

They won’t listen, but just like you, they won’t do anything about it, so… you wasted your breath either way.

But at the same time, you could do it. If you chose. If you choose to do it, if you choose to set a target, make goals and take action.

The reason you aren’t successful, the reason you haven’t made it, has nothing to do with talent or luck or opportunity or being in the right place at the right time.

Lazy. Distracted. Afraid.

Or choose to have the acting career you want. Choose it. Now. And do something about it now. A few people will now go on to do something about it. But most of you will get a little bit fired up, and then go back to being lazy, distracted and afraid, and doing NOTHING about it.

And that’s okay, that’s okay, because the rest of them, the one that will do something about it. They will take the good jobs, and have your acting career.

You are going to look back on your life, on what you’ve achieved, one day, it won’t be too far in the future, even if you’re only 20, it will come much quicker than you like, and you will ask yourself silently, in moments of grey and painful contemplation, why you didn’t become the actor you always dreamed you could be.

Or you could choose to do it now.

Or not.

Prove me wrong.