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.
Johnny Carson once asked Bette Davis "the best way an aspiring starlet could get into Hollywood," Ms. Davis replied "Take fountain!" In traffic-packed Hollywood this is still good advice. I don't pretend to know as much as Bette Davis, but I've been around Hollywood long enough to make tons of mistakes and learn lots of lessons. So, this is my advice to actors trying to make their way in Hollywood. www.MichelleCoyle.net
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Prediction: your blog will be so successful that they'll hire YOU to play Amy Adams in a movie about her.
ReplyDeleteI humbly submit the link to my blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://richsteeves.blogspot.com/