Are You Doing Enough?

Last weekend at the Playhouse West Film Festival, Scott Caan did a Q&A about his career.  One thing he said really struck me: he always feels like he should be doing more for his acting and for his career.  Here is a guy who is a regular on two television shows, writes and directs his own films, and is starting his own production company and he doesn't feel like he is doing enough.

If this guy doesn't feel like he is doing enough, how can any actor feel like they are doing enough?  Well, maybe James Franco does, but I assume he has Hermione's Time-Turner in order to do everything.

At the acting school I attend, I've seen some newbie-super-gung-ho actors come through who want to do everything right away.  They'll audit every class they can and want to constantly rehearse.  It is commendable, but what often happens with these actors is that they burn out quickly and end up leaving LA.

The trick is finding the right balance.  Of course you should work on your acting and your career, but there are more ways to do that than just going to class.  For me, I help out at my agency once a week, read at casting offices, go to class, write, and produce my own stuff.  But, don't forget that there is more to life than just your career, so don't beat yourself up when you are tending to your personal life as well.

As actors we chose a career that is more like a vocation or calling.  We don't have office hours, so our work is constantly with us.  When we aren't in the middle of working on something it is easy to feel bad about ourselves.  The hard thing is that this chosen career tends to have more downtime than working time. 

Here Michael Ian Black on SadSadConversation talks about the panic he feels when he is not working on something (around the 50 second mark):

Oscar winner, Michael Caine says he would always say yes to any role offered to him because he never knew if it would be the last role he was offered.  That's why he agreed to do Jaws: The Revenge.  He wanted to work and was afraid that could be his last chance.

Is the lesson here that no matter how many Oscars you've won, how many shows you've been a regular on, or how long you've been in the business you'll always feel that you aren't doing enough? 

No, it's more about acceptance. 

If you know you are doing as much as you can: if you are going to class, rehearsing, writing, reading, actively making new contacts, then accept yourself and don't beat yourself up every time you are without an acting job.