The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Wait – Do The Work You Love Today”
Actors are told that they must do what they’re told, that they need to do years of work they hate before turning their attention to the work they really want to do. Like many rules in our culture, it’s completely non-sensical, unfounded, and is designed to sap the life force from the individual in order to control him. There is no reason whatsoever that you cannot attempt to do precisely the work you’re passionate about today. But if you are prepared to be obedient and wait, then how long do you wait for? How many years of drudgery is acceptable? Ten? Twenty?
What kind of work do you really want to do? How can you make it happen? If you insist on being mediocre, then you’ll only really be fit for the industrial process version of acting, where each individual actor is treated as little more than a widget in a factory, Â you will have to do what you’re told and hope somebody grants you permission to play.
If, on the other hand, you want to bring the art inside of yourself to the world, then you do not need to wait, you can set about that task right away. You will meet resistance of course, and you will be criticised*, especially by those too scared to think for themselves. Many people you’ll encounter will be spooked by your individualism, by your desire to create something new, but don’t pay too much attention to them, think about the audience who will receive your work and those people you’ll occasionally meet who’ll believe in what you’re doing, be excited by it and may even offer to help. And get on with it.
*I often think that if I’m not being criticised then I’m probably doing something wrong.
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