Actor Growth

Today I went into this supermarket and to my surprise I bumped into a person who I met on set. This person has no aspirations in being say an actor, but he got into background work as it was something different and from what I remember he wouldn’t mind just doing that as an income source. Apparently, he hasn’t been called out since way back during that Farwell Atlantis movie and so understandably he had to find a regular job in order to make a living.

This made me think too as a lot of people don’t realize how hard it can be to work in this industry in any form. You often hear those phrases such as the “starving artist” and based on what I have seen that’s no exaggeration when it comes to film work. A lot of people that I know when it comes to acting is that they actually don’t work too much, but rather they just got paid a lot for a certain type of work.

When it comes to background work, I only met one person who actually does it full time too and in some ways it surprises me as he must be in his mid 50’s or so and only makes the minimum as he is not a part of the Union. I personally always view background work as a stepping stone or filler for other things that you are aspiring to do as oppose to a career.

But if you intend to work full time in this industry, I think it is wise to always have some kind of backup or support system that will enable you to survive while you are striving to meet that goal. In many ways, you are like an entrepreneur as it is up to you ultimately to find work and opportunities to make things happen for yourself.