When do I start getting paid for this?

Last year I made a grand total of $110 as an actor.  Not for lack of work, just a lack of paid work.  Gotta love working those short films and webseries.

Are all these free films worth your time?
The short answer is: YES. 

DEFINITELY YES, if all you were going to do was hang around the house checking Twitter. 

PROBABLY YES, if all you were going to do was work your survival job. 

OBVIOUSLY NO, if you are working a paid acting gig.

What do you get out of acting for free?  That would be the famous payment of Copy, Credit, and Meals.  Sounds glamorous, like at least you’ll get free food, right?  Let's define these terms: 

Copy of the movie, if it ever gets finished and they remember to send it to you.  Generally, you'll beg and plead with them and then perhaps a year later you’ll finally receive your copy and once you watch it, you’ll probably wish you hadn’t.

CREDIT on IMDb, again only if it actually gets finished and then only if it gets submitted to the right festivals or gets a public screening.  If the movie is on IMDb and they forgot to give you credit then you can take it up with the IMDb gods and hope they will give it to you.

MEALS consisting of bagels, pizza, and Redvines.  Heavy on carbs; light on nutrition.

And my favorite of all: DEFERRED PAY, which means if they ever make money on the project (and they never do), then you will get paid.  Yeah, good luck with that.

So, why does anyone do this work for free? 

BECAUSE IT MEANS YOU GET TO GO SOMEPLACE AND ACT.  You are doing what you came out here to do, not waiting tables.

Plus, you are meeting people with equipment and a desire to create, even if they aren’t going to be the next Scorsese or Coppola or Fincher.  Maybe this project will end up terrible, but eventually they might make a decent film and remember the people who struggled through these early films with them. 

It’s all about getting out there and doing something for your career everyday.  And remember, WORK BEGETS MORE WORK.  (Even when it sucks.)

Why should you listen to me?

First off, you probably shouldn't.  In this town, anybody who says they know anything is probably lying and trying to sell you something.  In Hollywood there are no hard and fast rules and when there are "rules" you can always find someone who has broken them and made it.  I am just an actor who has done this long enough to have made most of the mistakes an actor can make and for all the mistakes I haven't made, just give me time.

I once read (and I don't remember where, so this is me trying to quote it as best I can) that "anyone can act, that's why you see so many people getting off the bus in Hollywood trying to be an actor and so few people getting off the bus in Houston trying to be an astro-physicist."  I think that is one of the amazing things about this business, anyone can "make it."  But, for every fresh-off-the-bus-actor who is offered a series regular role on the next "Friends" there are literally thousands who go home after two years of waiting tables, never knowing how to even get close to being in that small circle of working actors.

Just to be clear, I am not one of those people who gets to make a living being a "working actor."  I have a survival job, but I have gotten paid to act on rare occasions and it's like heroin, I work the survival job in order to pay for my few hits.  That's why you have to love it more than anything else you could possibly do.

There are ways to slowly chip away at the inner circle of Hollywood elite and after a lot of work you might find yourself among them.  You have to understand that it is a life long process.  If you are willing to sacrifice and put in the time, you can make it - whatever "making it" means.

I am starting this blog to share with you the bumps I have hit along my journey, in hopes that you can learn from the mistakes I've made.  In return, I only ask that when you are accepting your Oscar that you give me a shout out.