We're not talking about Mom and Dad; unfortunately, they may never understand. But others who live with and see you every day are going to have to have the understanding of Mother Theresa. Remember, they're on the ride too. They too are going to have to fasten their safety belts for all those bumpy nights. They're going to have to tough it out and be positive psychological influences. If not, sooner or later you're going to have a very serious problem on your hands.
"If I didn't have a super wife, I don't know where I'd be right now because she carried me," says one actor about his first years in the industry. 'Talk about guilt complexes. There I was in a one-bedroom apartment in North Hollywood with no air conditioning and a nine-month-old baby, while my wife is in Beverly Hills working. And I know she'd much rather be with the baby." As theatrical agent David Westberg says, "Acting is not a job, it's a way of life."
ARE YOU GOOD AT GETTING WORK IN THE TOWN IN WHICH YOU LIVE? DO YOU KNOW THE PRODUCTION HOUSES, AGENTS, ETC., IN YOUR TOWN?
Can't answer yes? Better get going. Finding and dealing with people who can hire you to act should be a lot easier in Dallas than New York or L.A. If you can't get an appointment with someone who sees ten actors a week, how are you going to get to talk to someone deluged with 100 actors a day?
ARE YOU A MAN?
Stop the presses! Prospects are much brighter for women! Actresses used to get only 25 percent of all roles. Five years later that figure is way up: to 33 percent! Rejoice!
ARE YOU YOUNG? ESPECIALLY, ARE YOU A YOUNG WOMAN?
If you're 18, nobody will expect you to have a resume as long as your arm. But if you're over 30 and still don't have professional credits, better think it over - especially if you're female. "Older" women (by Hollywood standards, any woman over 30) have a rough road to hoe. Here's what personal manager Melissa Torme-March had to say: "In certain age categories it can be very hard. We had a lady come out from New York who had done a tremendous amount of live theatre and commercials. She's very pretty and very sophisticated and up-scale. She's in her early 40's. Well, I couldn't sell her if my life depended on it. She is competing with Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Diahann Carroll - people who are already established. It's tough. It's very tough." Quote from an over-30 actress: "Since there are so few roles, I can't look at acting as a profession anymore. I have to think of it as a hobby."
ARE YOU NON-ETHNIC-LOOKING?
Things have gotten better in Hollywood for ethnic types, especially Hispanics. With the Latin population explosion, and the success of films like La Bamba, the corporate commandoes (as actress Elizabeth Ashley calls them) have finally gotten the message that there's a market out there for enchiladas as weD as apple pie. But it's still no bed of empanadas. Theatrical agent Joel Rudnick pulls no punches: "There's a lot of racism in this industry. And chauvinism. And sexism. For example, there'll be a role for a cop and I'll suggest a black actor and they'll say, 'Oh… yeah... I think we can go black on that.' I hate that expression, 'go black.'"
In commercials (from which actors get nearly half their income), there's an expression: "white bread." That's a blandly good-looking person who typifies the cliché Midwestern American. (In this case, it's not a racial term - a black person such as O.J. Simpson can be "white bread.") Most advertisers are looking for "white bread", because they want Orville Krapotnik to remember the beer, not the actor. If you're "special," the opportunities to get a decent piece of the commercial pie are limited.
DO YOU HAVE A CAPACITY FOR CONFIDENCE? DO YOU LOOK CONFIDENT EVEN WHEN YOU'RE QUAKING IN YOUR BOOTS?
The actor who doesn't work is scared and shows it. The actor who works is scared but doesn't show it.
DO YOU HAVE AN EASYGOING, BREEZY PERSONALITY, OR ARE YOU CONSTANTLY UPTIGHT, SCARED, UNHAPPY, NON-SELF-RELIANT?
Most of the time you'll be selling your personality, not your talent. Okay, it's not fair. But it sure is Show Biz. "People are always talking about the 'talent' of an actor," says entertainment attorney Michael C. Donaldson. "To me, the 'talent' to be a successful actor involves what I call 'the three A's' of success - they apply to doctors, lawyers and everyone else - they are: affability, availability, and ability - in that order."
ARE YOU THOUGHT OF AS "LUCKY"? DO YOU REFUSE TO QUIT, EVEN WHEN YOUR OPPONENT HAS HOTELS ON BOARDWALK AND ALL THE RAILROADS?
"I know you're talented, but are you lucky?' says theatrical agent Jim Gibson. Yes, there is such a thing as pure dumb luck. But, more often, there is smart luck - luck created by work, guts and (forgive the cliché), a refusal to quit. Director Andrew McCullough tells this little story: "Jack Lemmon and I started out at Harvard and went to New York where we lived together and tried to get into the theatre. Looking back on it, he worked harder than anyone I've ever known. He would drag me into flea-bitten - I mean horrible looking - places that I was embarrassed to be in. And he wore a horrible threadbare raccoon coat . . . And he would go in and con and cajole these secretaries of booking agents, and they hated him. You know, 'Get out! Get out! There's nothing for you today!' And he would say something funny or give them a little present . . . And he had a list of everyone casting in town. He'd write a dozen letters a day. He'd make scores of phone calls every day. And he didn't get parts and he didn't get discouraged. I mean, that was what he did: try. And he did it over and over and over and over again."
