If you had your time again would you still train as an actor / go into professional acting?
I just did the CCP survey just now and I found that the hardest question, in the end I whimped out and left it blank. I've truly loved it for all my 31 years since I first did a professional job, and I think I've been pretty lucky over the years, I loved the amdrams when I was a youngster too, but the insecurity and all the rejections and the jobs you take just for the minimal cash make it a very bitter sweet question to answer!
How did our other older actors get on with that question? was it so black and white for you? :-)
I didn't have to think very hard on that one. Definitely a yes. Gave me the opportunity to see so many places, meet so many people.
Perhaps I should have taken the mega bucks route many years ago when the chance was there but I honoured my commitments and held on to my principles.
Before I became a pro actor I had a serious girlfriend, my own flat (in Swindon but you can't have everything)and a highly enjoyable job. Since then I'm single, unemployed often as not and rather sheepishly moved back in with my parents in my mid 30's (I feel like Ronnie Corbet from Sorry!).
So yes, I'd still become an actor.
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Nowt wrong with Swindon! (born and bred you know)
Well Old Town is really nice I suppose Emily. And there's the nostalgia factor whenever I go back that I'm a sucker for.
Not a moments hesitation - absolutely yes.
It's a definite yes for me, but I'm still at the beginning of the journey and the business is treating me well right now, so I'm a lucky one.
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As a late starter, I've only been in the game for seven years. Ask me again in five years.
That's a year longer than me Glenn! First few years were horribly slow and arduous, but by jove I'm glad I stuck at it - it's doing me very well now and I wouldn't ever want to do anything else! :)
Yes and I would start 35 years earlier!
Stephen's comment really resonates with me: I only started working professionally last year, at the grand old age of 51, and in some ways I do wish I had taken the plunge many years earlier (what might have been, etc?), but on the other hand I know that, in my twenties, I would not have had the resilience necessary to cope with the constant rejection! So maybe there are advantages to starting late.....
...Just to add a bit to my 'yes'!...
I feel you are an actor whether you decide on going professional,(i.e. getting paid for it in my book!)or not.
It's something that you are,not became through attending drama school ect..
The key is to act on this fact when the time is right & at any time from age 1-100! (in my opinion)
'POLE'
Definitely yes. I had a lot of time out - keeping my hand in by working as a techie/wardrobe/sm etc, some volunteer, some paid - and started up again in 2000. It's been hard but I wouldn't change it for the world.
I agree with Pole's last comment wholeheartedly! And yes to the question, but also glad I came into it later in life as I'm a more mature person to work with (although I do get the giggles quite easily, as has been pointed out to me, so I'm not always very serious!) more confident in my personal boundaries and with more life experience to bring to stuff :)
Vanessa, you are so right, I know that everything else in my life (kids, "proper job", family ups and downs etc)has shaped me as an actor.
I think Pole's point is very interesting, I did a class at the Actors Centre recently where the tutor asked us "How easy is it for you to reply I AM AN ACTOR when people ask what you do?" and the responses were very revealing.....do we somehow only feel like "real" actors if we're being paid?
Yes, I definitely feel more like a "real" actor if I'm paid. Or at least, if I tell someone about the job, it feels like a "real" acting job because it's paid. The pay validates what a lot of people see as a lifestyle choice, rather than a job! And honestly, I have to say when you're struggling to make ends meet it does feel a bit like following a dream that will never feed you!
Oh yes... and I'd have come to the UK a hell of a lot sooner! I came to the UK for the express purpose of being an actor, and I've succeeded... for some of the time, anyway! Certainly moreso than if I'd stayed in New Zealand or Australia!
No matter what job I am doing at the time, I always say that I am an actor - because that is what I want to be doing, and that is always what I go back to doing...
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I have been a main character in an online series which was paid. And it was terrible, from the script to the equipment to the lack of organisation. On the other side of the fence, I have done some student films, with excellent scripts, equipment and ideas * That were expenses only! *
So getting paid does not make you a better actor, acting is acting no matter what production it is. I would rather be a male lead in a high quality student film with the aim of festivals, rather than be an extra in something and get paid £70 after commission.
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What a great discussion!
I trained,even though I had possible opportunities on Corrie at the age of 21,and sometimes I do wonder...but I met the most amazing people at Central and learnt to become less self-critical as an actor, and trust myself more.
Sadly,I gave up 3/4 yrs later to teach for 10 yrs...well, I'm back and loving it,and I intend to stay here now, even if it means no matching crockery by the age of 65/70!
Yes - for sure!
64 now and only really started 6 years ago! (`though I did do a background role in `Half a Sixpence` - before going into business)
Just wished that I`d ditchd the `business` role & gone into acting all those years ago!
What a waste!
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