Hi Bonnie,
Although I’m not teaching acting and voice any longer, I have a Facebook group for my former students so we can keep in touch and they can help each other out too (sublets, etc.). I wrote this to them recently and thought you might enjoy it:
Dear lovely human beings,
I don’t use our list for this very often but wanted to mention something that I think is important. [Former student] posted a cautionary tale on his timeline about an actor who wrote an extremely petulant post on Twitter and is now out of a job AND has bought himself a reputation for being, to put it bluntly, an asshole. Tsk, tsk, indeed.
It got me thinking, though. I don’t see everything that everyone posts all of the time, but now and again I do notice this pattern: 1) an actor posts some bad news about work, maybe to get some sympathy or validation, 2) nice pats on the back and sympathy are indeed posted, BUT mixed in there are posts by some well-meaning friends that basically say some version of “you’re awesome, they’re stupid, f — – ’em.”
Regardless of whether the potential client, director, or casting director ever sees those posts, regardless of whether you even agree with that sentiment, I just want to speak a word of caution. Okay more than one word.
First, always assume that your social media posts are 100% public. If you are trying to get work as an actor (okay not even that… in any career), assume the boss, client, or audience is reading.
Since your posts are public, then EVERY post and comment = PUBLIC RELATIONS. What are you trying to get across? Who are you and what is the kind of energy you want to put forth in the world?
They are your posts, and you are the host of your Facebook salon. Set the tone and curate it carefully. If your friend says “you’re awesome, they’re stupid, f — – ’em,” and you say nothing, you have endorsed that post on your page, and tacitly agreed that someone’s business decision was a personal condemnation of you and your worth as a human being. It is so not. Especially if you have worked on the casting side of things, you know that there are any number of factors that go into those decisions, most of which are out of your control.
You know that.
If you post “poor me” news, you are participating in a self-reinforcing cycle, and you are actually inviting those “f — – ’em” posts. Am I saying we have to all be “Shiny Happy People” with only good-newsy lives? Nope. We all know that’s not real. But Facebook is PR, not reality!
So please please please all my smart beautiful people, think twice before you put up that negative post. Ask yourself: “What feeds me right now? Am I reading a good book? Saw a good movie? Took an inspiring class or heard a great song? Any good people-watching stories?”
IDEAS are the currency of the creative class, and I know you all well enough to know that you have no shortage of great ideas or the ability to express them in your unique way. Let’s have some oomph, shall we?
[Hops down off soapbox, resumes audio editing.]
Andi Arndt
I love this, Andi. Thank you. Definitely, social networking is a mood amplifier, and it’s up to us to decide if we want to have a bunch of “yes, and…” flowing in about positive things or negative things, as a rule.
No question, creating a muscle for seeing NOT being cast as nothing more than, “I was great; they went another way… ONWARD!” is smart regardless of any social networking going on. Sure, we all deal with getting let down from time to time, especially when we really thought the role was ours, right? But that it’s a universal experience should make it that much less “precious” and worth wallowing in. Of course, creatives do like to wallow sometimes, don’t we?
Thank you for sharing this post with the readers of The Actors Voice, Andi. I appreciate it and hope editing is going well!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001723.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.