10 Common Misconceptions about Life as an Actor
We’ve all had those moments. You’re making small-talk at a distant cousin’s wedding/funeral/court hearing with someone you know you’re related to but have somehow never met. They ask, “What do you do for work?” and you tell them, and they start making weird comments based on wildly misinformed assumptions about what your job entails.
If you’re in a creative profession, you definitely know what I mean.
I don’t think it’s out of spite or wilful ignorance. I mean, I have no idea what cryptozoologist does all day. When it comes to acting, my hypothesis is that people feel confident in their assumptions because they’ve watched celebrity interviews and shows about actors. It’s the Dunning Kruger Effect.
Doesn’t make it any less frustrating though.
That’s why today I’m setting the record straight on some of the well-meaning but simplistic/misconstrued/wrong assumptions I’ve encountered when talking about my profession with ‘normies’.
Success is down to pure luck
Luck is a factor. There are plenty of talented people who never get their big break through no fault of there own. But you can also make your own luck. Putting yourself out there so people know you exist, seeing opportunities in unorthodox places, honing your skills so you’re always audition ready - these are all ways that we create opportunities for ourselves as actors. If an actor never submits themselves, never follows up with casting directors and doesn’t engage with the industry, can they really blame a lack of work on bad luck alone?
It’s about who you know
Like luck, this is true to some extent. There are plenty of examples of acting dynasties that exist to this day. But there are two important things to remember. Firstly, there’s still a level of meritocracy; if you have no talent you’ll only get so far, no matter who your dad is. Secondly, as you train, audition and work, you meet people and build your reputation. And you’re reputation has nothing to do with dynastic ties. Yes, there are people who hire their friends. But their friends can’t play every part in every production and the vast majority of people want to hire someone who’s right for the role and good to work with.
You have to sleep your way to the top
There is so much to unpack here.
Firstly, it’s highly unprofessional and a huge abuse of power if and when these things happen. It’s funny how our culture puts the derision on the person (usually femme-presenting) being coerced into performing sexual acts and not the person (usually masc-presenting) abusing their power to take advantage of job applicants.
Secondly, unless you’re talking about the huge jobs, like the projects Harvey Weinstein was involved in, no one person is going to have so much power that they can wield it in such an abusive way and get away with it. That’s not to say it couldn’t ever happen, it’s just not likely in the work most jobbing actors are doing.
And thirdly, even if someone were using this strategy because they genuinely believed it would help them, it’d still only get them so far. No matter how many people you sleep with, you’ll reach a point where either you’re seen for a job where the director/producer/whoever isn’t interested in sleeping with you, or they do sleep with you but they’d still rather have someone talented. If you’re not talented, then you’ve reached your career plateau and given yourself a reputation.
But also, no one does this consensually. Don’t be delulu.
‘Nobody’ to ‘Hollywood Superstardom’ is a career trajectory that exists
This is one I actually heard from another actor back when Benedict Cumberbatch had just joined the MCU and was seemingly everywhere. This person was so derisive, saying how no one had heard of him before Sherlock.
And I found this quite amusing, because I’d remembered him playing a young Stephen Hawking in BBC Docudrama back in 2004. That’s 12 years before Dr. Strange.
The point is, just because an actor is crossing your radar for the first time, doesn’t mean they haven’t been building their career brick by brick with those small, niche projects. When someone breaks through, you’re seeing the tip of the iceberg.
If you sing, you should go on X Factor
You know that X Factor is manufactured, right? Talent scouts go into the performing arts industry and head-hunt performers to ‘audition’. I know someone who was approached (and had a great sob story to go along with their talent) and they turned it down because they weren’t interested.
Also, not every singer wants to be a pop star. Some of us love musical theatre, or creating cabaret shows, or session singing, or choral work - the list is endless. X Factor is not the be-all-end-all for many of us.
If you act, you should be in Corrie, Eastenders etc
This is similar to the above. Soap acting is a really specific thing with its own artistic and emotional challenges. And its not for everyone. Some actors aren’t interested in telling those kinds of stories (I’m not - I’ve never watched an episode of any soap in my life). Others don’t want to be typecast in the way many soap actors are. And that’s fine.
I think what’s behind these last two points is this: people assume that because they know about it, that’s the pinnacle of the profession. Which begs the question, why is you’re idea of the pinnacle what we should be striving for? Is the popularity of a project the most important thing? Are the values of the public more important than our values as artists?
If you have a resting job, you’re not serious
You need money to pay bills and buy food. If you’re not in acting work and you don’t have a sugar-daddy and/or family estate to support your lifestyle, you need to work.
This one also baffles me because, with all the hate our society throws at people on benefits, you’d think people would be proud that actors don’t expect the state to ‘look after them’. But no, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
If you’re teaching, you’ve failed
This is the same as the above. Some performers find teaching extremely rewarding and see it as a way of giving back. Teaching can also allow for more flexibility to work around auditions and performing. The ability to effectively teach something to another person demonstrates that you’ve integrated the knowledge, which helps your performance practice as well. So yeah, just because you teach, doesn’t mean you can no longer do.
You’ll never own a house/have a family/be secure
This is one I kind of believed, to be honest. I’d resigned myself to never having my own home until I inherited my mum’s. And that’s not fun to think about. I feel like this comes down to societal conditioning. We’re shown the blueprint of the typical life: the 9 - 5, the ladder to climb, the milestones that indicate we’re succeeding.
There’s two things to interrogate here, I think. To start with, who’s to say that owning property or having children or being in a long-term relationship or anything else society deems ‘secure’ are things you should want in the first place? Some people don’t want to be tied down by huge obligations.
Then there are many people who are performers and also have those things. My partner and I own our house. Many of my colleagues have families. Especially if you have a robust support network, I believe that most people can find creative ways to build the life they want. It’s not a binary choice; it’s not “stability with a job you hate” or “chaos with the career you love”. And I wonder whether people who think it is need an excuse for why they didn’t follow their own dreams…
All actors are obnoxious, self-obsessed twats
This is one that I heard when meeting an acquaintance of my partner’s in a café. I told him what I did and he insinuated that I must really like being the centre of attention. I was quite offended. For one, my self-esteem is far to low to be the kind of attention seeker he assumed I was. But also, he’d literally just met me! Imagine calling someone attention-seeking because they told you they were a stock broker!
To be fair, I think that to be an actor you have to enjoy a certain amount of attention and validation, even if it’s just a little bit. We chose our job for a reason. But that doesn’t mean we seek attention all the time. We don’t all have Louie Spence levels of needing all eyes on us. If we did, how would we function in everyday life? Maybe get to know us before you judge us, m’kay?