Resistance is Futile

The nature of my job as a career consultant, and the very fact that I am in showbiz, inevitably requires that I frequently encounter excuses. These are usually associated with reasons why a person doesn’t want to spend time or money doing something related to improving their career.

Some common examples:

“I feel at this time that I should be paid to act, and not have to pay to act.”

This is a good one. It sounds really compelling, and it empowers the person who says it with a sort of attractive veteran cynicism, like they’ve been around a long time and seen and done a great deal and are now owed something by the world and the industry. You frequently find these words spouting from the mouth of a graduate of an acting program, or somebody that lives in a major acting market.

Truthfully, though, does anybody in this industry really honestly feel like they don’t deserve to be paid to act? Of course not. Fervent belief in oneself and one’s abilities will not by itself produce gigs. It’s really simple—if you’re not investing in your own career, nobody else will. Channel some of that pride in a more positive direction.

“I did a showcase / intensive. The casting directors and agents are just there to make money.”

Nope. For many CDs and agents, showcases and intensives represent a major venue for finding new talent. This excuse usually comes from somebody who participated in a handful of these events, had high hopes for an immediate response, and was crushed when it didn’t come.

It is vitally important for all professional actors to pursue every possible networking opportunity. The more CDs and agents that know you and like your work, the more likely something is going to happen for you. It’s a simple numbers game.

Often the real problem is that the actor hasn’t had enough training, and does not deliver quality work. If you’re not amongst the most polished talent at these intensives and workshops you can’t really expect much. That’s just common sense.

“I don’t need any more training.”

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has an acting coach. Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal have acting coaches. Roger Corman discovered Jack Nicholson in an acting class. Mark Ruffalo and Benicio del Toro studied with the late Stella Adler. Sarah Jessica Parker went to the School for Creative and Performing Arts and then completed the program at Circle in the Square. I can go on…

Ed Harris studied at Columbia University, the University of Oklahoma and the California Institute for the Arts. Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep are both graduates of the Yale School of Drama Graduate Acting Company. Streep first studied at Vassar, and Weaver went on to take acting classes in Seattle. Mel Gibson attended acting school in Sydney, Australia. Brad Pitt was just another schmuck trying to make it in Hollywood when a stripper told him about a great acting teacher by the name of Roy London. Heard enough?

Tom Cruise studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse with renowned coach Phil Gushee. He also studied with Sanford Meisner. Robert DeNiro studied with Stella Adler and later at the American Workshop and is probably the greatest living proponent of the Method (particularly Meisner). Al Pacino studied with Lee Strasberg and believes in training so much he has leant his name to an acting school in New York City. Christopher Reeves met Robin Williams at The Julliard School.

You need acting class!

Excuses, put bluntly, are career suicide. Once a person gets into this kind of resistance mind-set it can be extremely difficult for them to come out of it. It’s ridiculously easy to invent a good reason not to try a different approach or make a change—it’s the law of inertia made manifest.

Whether or not somebody mired in resistance is aware of it, he or she has given up. It’s a slippery slope of surrender by degrees. Eventually, inevitably, the resistant person has an epiphany and realizes that it’s all over (and that it’s been over, for quite a while).

There’s nothing wrong with leaving the industry. It is not a defeat of any sort—I really, truthfully really mean that. However, I do think it’s sad when a person is self-deluded into believing they are “giving it a go” when in fact they are not.

If I leave the industry I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say, “I really did give it my all.” If I let resistance rule my behavior, I can’t truthfully say those words. That’s sad.