I am feeling particularly proud of myself today after a good audition
and yet my excitement feels somewhat marred by a conversation I had
this week that has plagued me since. I was asked two questions, in
frighteningly quick succession of each other, which filled me with
absolute dread. Both, I should point out (although it will probably be
alarmingly obvious to those in the know) were asked by non actors.
The first question was raised after I had bored these friends to death with somber tales of actor unemployment and the weariness of waitressing. It was a horrific enquiry that crushed my very soul...
"How many years could you keep going this way before you call it quits?"
I nearly choked to death in shock.
The first question was raised after I had bored these friends to death with somber tales of actor unemployment and the weariness of waitressing. It was a horrific enquiry that crushed my very soul...
"How many years could you keep going this way before you call it quits?"
I nearly choked to death in shock.
'Call it quits?!'
I'm only just starting out and I know that even if all doesn't go exactly as hoped, I will never just stop. When I'm on death's door I expect to be writing letters to casting directors of hospital dramas begging to be considered to play the terminally ill patient/corpse. Quitting is simply not an option.
I can understand completely how lifestyles of actors chasing the dream would baffle anyone who had no ambition to enter the profession. Similarly, I can imagine how it might be hard for those people to imagine how tough it is break into, or even to fathom why their friend (of whom they are of course great fans) hasn't been 'snapped up'. However, just the thought of having to put a time limit on my pursuit was horrendous.
Ding, Ding, Round Two.
The second question was a lot more terrifying and seemed to have been spurred on partly by my stories of burning the candle at both ends and also my desire to do tours which would take me half way round the world. Even to remember the question makes me shudder.
"Anneka, when are you going to settle down?"
This time I came a lot closer to choking to death.
All I could manage to retort was "I'm only twenty two! And I still watch cartoons!" My interrogator then informed me that she still watches cartoons...but with her child. This really threw me over the edge.
The mundane and harrowing thought of a 'normal' lifestyle was torture for me. To 'settle down' would not include the pure thrill of always hopefully wondering what was around the corner or the lunacy of the random jobs and places I might have to up and leave for. You do have to make a lot of 'sacrifices' but you don't really miss what you choose to leave out when acting rules supreme.
I saw Footsbarn's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' in a big top in Victoria Park this week. As I made my way to the portable toilets afterwards I noticed the travelling show set up of caravans behind the tent, which I could only assume housed the actors and crew. I wondered what my non actor friends would think of having to live in a field for the love of the art. I'm sure they'd feel very 'unsettled' but I have to say, I thought I would be like a pig in muck.
I'm only just starting out and I know that even if all doesn't go exactly as hoped, I will never just stop. When I'm on death's door I expect to be writing letters to casting directors of hospital dramas begging to be considered to play the terminally ill patient/corpse. Quitting is simply not an option.
I can understand completely how lifestyles of actors chasing the dream would baffle anyone who had no ambition to enter the profession. Similarly, I can imagine how it might be hard for those people to imagine how tough it is break into, or even to fathom why their friend (of whom they are of course great fans) hasn't been 'snapped up'. However, just the thought of having to put a time limit on my pursuit was horrendous.
Ding, Ding, Round Two.
The second question was a lot more terrifying and seemed to have been spurred on partly by my stories of burning the candle at both ends and also my desire to do tours which would take me half way round the world. Even to remember the question makes me shudder.
"Anneka, when are you going to settle down?"
This time I came a lot closer to choking to death.
All I could manage to retort was "I'm only twenty two! And I still watch cartoons!" My interrogator then informed me that she still watches cartoons...but with her child. This really threw me over the edge.
The mundane and harrowing thought of a 'normal' lifestyle was torture for me. To 'settle down' would not include the pure thrill of always hopefully wondering what was around the corner or the lunacy of the random jobs and places I might have to up and leave for. You do have to make a lot of 'sacrifices' but you don't really miss what you choose to leave out when acting rules supreme.
I saw Footsbarn's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' in a big top in Victoria Park this week. As I made my way to the portable toilets afterwards I noticed the travelling show set up of caravans behind the tent, which I could only assume housed the actors and crew. I wondered what my non actor friends would think of having to live in a field for the love of the art. I'm sure they'd feel very 'unsettled' but I have to say, I thought I would be like a pig in muck.
I watch cartoons and children's TV (I don't have children) and I'm 32. I shouldn't worry about it. Many cartoons have better comedy and contain better art and creativity than most sitcoms, comedy shows and prime time TV. It's like puppetry and comics - a lot of people make assumptions that these things are just for children and they are so wrong. It's just another form of art and expression.
I remember a girl I know saying she would give acting a year. And if nothing significant had happened regarding acting work - the bench mark being anything from getting an agent to landing an amazing job, I don't know - she would turn her back on it.
I gave myself a more generous target of five years. If after five years I haven't had an actual booking, essentially, unemployed for that long in the field of acting, then I'm going to look for a career elsewhere. I'd still keep an eye on acting tho, and still keep involved somehow, I couldn't leave it behind completely. But I'm the kind of person who needs to achieve, who needs to be successful. I can't be a failure for a decade or more. I've worked too hard for that. So I'd never jack in everything artistic for an office job and go for the business suits and going for vice president, but I might try something connected, but just have a bit of a wider view than solely acting.
There's a whole world of alternatives and possibilities.