Charlotte Rampling’s Example | The Great Acting

Whether you agree with Rampling’s decision or not, the point is she made a choice, and crucially, her choice goes against the grain of our times; she used her head and listened to her heart and chose a life true to herself rather than becoming rich beyond her wildest dreams. It’s also important that she has come out and articulated her choice in public, because it demonstrates that actors can choose and define their working lives. It’s all too rare that young actors have this example before them – most mainstream actors seem to have contempt for what they do, and many others decline from speaking about acting in a serious way because they fear being labelled as “pretentious” or as a “luvvie”. It’s a change to see an actor presented as an artist making creative decisions – mostly we are bombarded by images and stories of actors as celebrities….now, we all enjoy a little bit of gossip but we must be careful not to mistake it for the work itself, because what happens then is that this image of actor-as-celebrity encourages, each year, gazillions to become actors, thinking that acting will give them that celebrity lifestyle. Even more ludicrously, many young actors mimic the behaviour of celebrity actors as if that is enough to get a career, and the net result of all this is a devaluing of the currency: “there is an actor on every street corner”.

It’s not easy to stand your ground, especially in a hopelessly over-subscribed profession like acting. The tendency is to fall in with the crowd and go with the flow – this may be less exhilarating but it’s also less terrifying, as the meaningless, chattering cacophony will keep you from feeling alone. But perhaps it might not only be more fulfilling but also more productive for an actor, even at the beginning of their career, to follow Charlotte Rampling’s example, and make choices about their work rather than simply accept what they’re given.

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