Answers for Actors

One Actor’s “Rush” to Stardom; When’s Your Turn?

Photo Credit: JackMenashe.com

It’s the persistent drip that cracks the stone.

In a recent Access to Agents class two students complained that they had been in the business for “too long” without results. The first whiner’s tour of duty? Two years. My inner Harvey Fierstein voice graveled; “Oh, honey you’re barely an embryo.” The second impatient “Why-has-nothing-happened-for-me-yet?” actor bemoaned that she was in the business “three months” and jobs had yet to materialize. Oh, sweetie… you ain’t even swimming yet in entertainment’s coin purse.

For anyone who enters our highly competitive, subway-at-5 PM-crowded business thinking, “Oh… I’ll just give this a year or two and if nothing happens I’ll move on” I’m asking you to do yourself and your serious minded peers squeezed about you a generous favor… move on… now. Ain’t much gonna happen. Even cow intestine slurping reality show contestants who glut our screens are finding that once shot-put placement to celebrity lands with a short throw thud.

And if it’s celebrity longevity you’re seeking… oh baby… you’ve got a long Disney E-Ticket attraction line of waiting. No Fast Pass lanes for anyone.

My partner, the agency owner, represented an actress who for fourteen years was known as ‘the downtown girl’. What’s that descriptive translate to? It meant that for more than a decade she did non-paying showcases, off-off Broadway plays in hovels and other venues while working multiple civilian jobs including waitress. Then mid-way into her second decade one of the contacts she made by networking as a downtown girl asked her to do a table reading (for free) of his new play. Neither the actress nor the playwright were known  beyond the New York industry players of casting, agents, directors and a spattering of producers. The play and some cast members were noticed by a burgeoning theater company. She was cast in the play downtown at the theater’s village venue. The play and cast received notice as being ‘something to see’. All moved uptown to Times Square. And nearly overnight the tri-state became aware of artists who had been toiling diligently, with patience, at their craft for a period civilians would consider, “Too long for too little return.”

Had the playwright and actors gone into the work with the mindset, “This is gonna’ make me known!?” Doubtful from my knowledge of the actors. Their priority is on the quality of the work not notoriety quantization. But even with the play’s initial success civilians and many industry in Iowa, Kansas, hell even Hoboken didn’t know the names of Warren Leight and Edie Falco.  Now you do. But you probably didn’t know of Ms. Falco until she was noticed by HBO and cast in The Sopranos. Which happened mostly because of Mr. Leight’s Side Man (that downtown play that began as a table reading with the downtown girl Ms. Falco). And Ms. Falco wouldn’t have gotten to where she is now without patience, dedication, more patience, plus a Hudson River-sized channeling of luck with people championing her while working as a downtown girl for fourteen years.

Patience, dedication for and to goals is required by all. Chance luck (often required) will happen or not.

More than a decade went into my first book ACTING: Make It Your Business. One of my current manuscripts (still unfinished but very near completion of a first draft) has travelled from various computers purchased, died and replaced since 2002. The behind-the-theatrical tour-scenes saga sparked by a single sentence in conversation now stands nearly three inches high as a novel-in-progress. Will it ever be published? Don’t know. My priority is to finish what I began. And so should be the goal in your pursuits.

Putting an expiration date on your dreams and desires is for the immediate gratification lovers who overlook the intimacy of foreplay; all charge and climax. And often the ejaculates are left with an empty rush. Nothing tangible or long lasting such as a relationship.

Stardom doesn’t have to be (and for most actors will never be) the culmination of your career. The respectable goal of an actor often is simply; to work. Earn money while engaged in their love without fear of poverty or home eviction.

Time. Give it to yourself.

Patience. Determination. More patience. Further determination. That’s how goals are achieved.

It’s the persistent drip that cracks the stone.

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My Best, Paul

Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Temple and the University of the Arts. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

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