The Money Trap

You may have noticed in a few of my previous blogs, such as Serious Actors Take Classes, that I really dislike lazy actors.  But, I know there are other reasons why actors may not be taking classes or be prepared for their auditions.  Sometimes life gets in the way. 

One thing that always pops up is money or the lack of it.  The rent and bills are always there needing to be paid and the truth is that you won't audition well if you're worried about how you're going to eat this week.  You need money and most of you are not making enough from your acting career alone. 

The number one solution to this problem would be to find a sugar daddy/momma.  But, for those of us who don't have the ... um ... assets required to get a sugar-something we are stuck having to find a survival job.  

Then life happens - your car breaks down or you get sick and suddenly that survival job you got so you could go to auditions and classes gets in the way of doing those very things.  You've lost sight of why you even came to LA in the first place and instead of acting you are living your life shift to shift in a crappy job you probably could be doing back home.  You've become too busy living whatever life you've built for yourself instead of pursuing your dream. 

Not long ago I went to a Q&A with the cast of The Office.  John Krasinski talked about his life as a struggling actor in NYC.  He said he would always take any acting opportunity offered to him, whether it be a film or a staged reading or a play, no matter what, even if it meant walking out in the middle of a restaurant shift.  If they fired him he would just find another job.  It sounds harsh but I think he had his priorities right.

I know you need money to live and that jobs are hard to find right now.  But, you have to prioritize what's important.  Money is important, but in my experience you can survive on less than you think.  Don't get stuck defined by your survival job because you're so busy working that you've forgotten to follow your dreams.
  

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.