The Great Acting Blog: “Why Actors Struggle With Big Projects”

The Great Acting Blog: “Why Actors Struggle With Big Projects”

The life of an actor doesn’t necessarily lend itself to long term thinking. It’s not a structured lifestyle, and rarely is career progression linear. The actor’s mentality then, becomes about not looking too far ahead – this is partly a protective mechanism against the disappointments inherent in the life but also simply a reality that most actors don’t have a string of jobs lined up, when one job finishes life becomes about hunting down the next. Also, this next piece of work could come at a moment’s notice, and so actors must set themselves up in such a way that they can respond to a sudden change, emotionally and in terms of lifestyle. The net result is that it becomes tricky to commit to too much else. Further, actors want to constantly be exercising craft, they’re like sportsmen in that respect, and unlike filmmakers, who, for example, can take years between one production and the next – the prospect of such a break between performances for an actor would be devastating. No, an actor’s creative metabolism is such that he must continually satiate his creative hunger. All of which make it difficult for actors to commit to getting big, long term projects off the ground, producing their own film for example, which can, as noted, take years.

Yes, difficult but not impossible. Clearly, a second, alternative mindset needs to be developed, the excitement of “anything could happen at any moment” needs to be put to one side, and a longer term commitment needs to be made. Again, we must look to the past and know that it can be done; Orson Welles did it in cinema and in theatre, John Cassavetes and Sean Penn did it in cinema, and the first artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, Europe’s largest theatrical complex, was an actor, namely Sir Laurence Olivier.

Any doubts about being able to juggle long term projects with the immediate demands of career, should be dispelled immediately.

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