The Great Acting Blog: “Overcoming The Dips – Fulfilment Through Art”

The Great Acting Blog: “Overcoming The Dips – Fulfilment Through Art”

Too many actors are down about their careers. They’re down that they’re not getting the volume of work they should, that they’re not getting the quality of work they should or they’re not getting any work at all. As time passes and they get a little bit older, their acting ambitions dim and their failure to create a body of work becomes a vague frustration. If they don’t formally quit, then they drift away from acting imperceptible bit by imperceptible bit, until, without realising it, their career becomes little more than a memory from a past life. I’ve seen this story unfold too many times over the years.

There is no magic bullet in acting. We have to work extraordinarily hard in order to make even a small increment of progress. This is because the arena is highly competitive. I feel that one of the mistakes actors make though, is to see their work as part of an industrial process rather than as an art form. Joining the hysterical stampede towards agents’ offices or languishing in “audition technique classes” (as though the audition were the performance) will make you weaker not stronger.

Become an artist. Dedicate yourself to mastering the technical, aesthetic and ethical precepts of acting. Gaining that insight will fundamentally change your perspective on your life and on your work. Suddenly, many more opportunities become available to you, no longer will you be suffocated by the lack of auditions. Your sense of your own value and that of your work will increase dramatically, which in turn has an enormous impact on the decisions you make. You will develop the strength to see it out for the long haul, overcoming the inevitable dips. Most of all, you will discover that sense of fulfilment you’ve been looking for.

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