The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Be A Coward, Be An Artist”

The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Be A Coward, Be An Artist”

Actors have been brainwashed to believe that they only exist, that they only have any value, if they do a certain  kind of work given to them by a certain kind of person. This state of affairs works (even if not very productively) for those who want to conform, for those too terrified speak out and say what they believe or offer their own vision, for those too cowardly to reach out and create with their peers, for those obsessed with brand names because they create a feeling of security, and for those who do not see their art as art but as a task handed to them by their masters.

Don’t be one of them. Don’t be one of those actors who tries to drag down their colleagues because it feels safer than pursuing a vision or an idea. Don’t be a coward and trick yourself into believing that you’re following the “right path” by doing what you’re told.

David Mamet said that a true artist was someone who trained themselves for a job title that did not exist, who strove to create an ideal theatre that existed only in his or her’s heart.

Do that. Create that ideal theatre, that ideal cinema. Whatever it is you do, create the ideal which only you can see.

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