Hey Bon,
Getting Down with the Pursuit!!
This was a really relevant column for me this week. I have gotten fed up with my fellow actors talking (griping) about what they do when we meet new people. “Oh, I’m an actor, haha, and the best damn waiter in Los Angeles! Ugh, ya know?”
NO, can’t say I do. I am an actor and I love it and I am a terrible waiter and I love that too! (Every day is an opportunity to people-watch and get ideas.) Just because you don’t get PAID to act does not mean you are not an actor. Moms don’t get paid to be moms, but that doesn’t strip them of that title. They wear it proudly. We should wear our actor title proudly.
One other thing I thought would fit right in with Talking About What You Do with Pride is Being Able to Talk About Other Things. When I ask my best friend how she is, she goes off into a tirade of, “I’m not going out,” or, “I have to lose weight,” or, “My agent dropped me.” “But,” I say patiently, “How are YOU?” Not your career, not your agent, you. We need to be well-rounded people.
When casting directors ask us to tell them a little about ourselves, we need to come up with a well-rounded answer other than I LOVE ACTING HIRE ME HIRE ME PLEASE. We need to keep sane by doing other things and enjoying them and using them to make us better actors and better people. If we don’t, acting (our joy) becomes a stress, a thing to check off, a daunting part of a To Do list.
Thank you for reminding me how proud I should be to even BE HERE, pursuing my joy!!!
xoxo
Bipsie Rian
Bipsie, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You are so awesome. I love hearing from you. Your positivity oozes from the emails and I just love your point about having other things to talk about. When an actor meets a buyer at a networking event and can talk intelligently about the upfronts or the latest acquisition of a web-based offering by a major studio, that helps the buyer see the actor as a professional in this business, not just a creative aching to act out a role. Awesome!
And I love your parallel about moms not being paid to be moms but still having a very real — and very hard — job. There is honor in what we do as creatives, even though many folks try to keep actors feeling small and powerless. That’s on them. Actors don’t HAVE TO accept that assignment.
Good for you, being so down with the pursuit that your joy leaps from the screen, here. Please keep that centeredness and we’ll see you at Thirsty Third Thursday on the 16th, right? Karaoke, baby! 🙂 Woo!
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/001660.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.