Interesting Quote About Movies, Television And Theatre Work
Oct 13th, 2009 by Alan Yu
I was reading this interesting quote today that apparently came from an actor named Terrence Man. The quote is “Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.” What an interesting quote I thought. I have yet to really get a worthwhile opportunity to judge that remark when it comes to movies and television, but one thing most of the other actors I talk to agree with is that theatre really does help your craft immensely.
I started with a theatre background myself and till this date I still think I learned more about acting in general from doing theatre roles than any other film training and experience I have gone through thus far. It’s a good advantage at times too where I find that I usually have an easier time playing dialogue driven roles compared to people without a theatre background.
At this day in age though I think movies and television roles have almost the same type of pull in terms of making someone a well known name don’t you think? I know as a personal example for myself I used to watch that TV show Friends all the time and I would think a ton of those actors are still more well known for that TV show as opposed to roles they have played in movies. In my opinion it just comes down to how successful and popular the film or show is.
I think nowadays as actors we have to factor in the Internet as well. I mean some actors are even including web series on their resumes which is kind of interesting. I have yet to see an Internet based actor get really big globally in terms of getting opportunities to act in like leads in a big budget film or television role. Think the reason for this is that most Internet videos are one of those “For cheap laughs” type of creations.
Actually, in terms of pull and recognition ability I think the Internet is like the television way back. If you considered before that starring in a movie role is “making it” where everything else like TV roles are a stepping stone I think today the Internet can be that stepping stone. The main advantage is that almost everyone can self publish themselves with this medium.
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
I got my start in theater (I’m a writer). It’s given me the tools and experience I needed to keep moving forward, and I think that the study of theater is essential for writing, acting, and directing for the screen.
TV is a writers’ medium and many TV writers and producers started as playwrights. In fact I’ve heard of a couple of shows whose showrunners won’t look at a writer unless he/she has a playwriting background.
Re: The Internet — the young woman from Lonelygirl managed to turn her stint in web videos into a TV acting career.
I was forced to take a screenwriting course as part of a film acting program curriculum. It looked like it was just as hard for a writer to get his/her script seen like an actor trying to get seen for auditions.
I just tried to look up those Lonelygirl videos you mentioned. I typed it in on Youtube to learn more about it and I can’t believe people thought that was non fictional initially.