When I was a kid, I always looked up to my older brother, Tommy. He was the jock, and I was the little performer. We were all out at the zoo one day. I was doing some acting, walking on the railing of the gorilla exhibit. I fell in. Everyone screamed, and Tommy jumped in after me, forgetting that he had blueberries in his front pocket. The gorillas just went wild. They jumped all over his body and threw him around like a rag doll to get to those blueberries. One gorilla would throw him to another gorilla, who tossed him to another. Everyone panicked and cried out for somebody to help, but it was too late. The gorillas beat him to death before the zookeepers could gas them all.
Well, yes, I have been an actor on occasion (most recently two years ago as Markinson in “A Few Good Men.”) I’m pretty good, actually, having taken some college acting classes and done community theater for many years. Could I make a living at it? Nope. Not until Wilford Brimley dies.
My high school theatre teacher was in that Ernest movie, (Ernest Scared Stupid).
I think my acting skill is high enough to be on a crappy soap opera (as opposed to all the great ones), but that’s about it. I have a flair for manufactured melodrama.
Perhaps I was exaggerating… a little. But I know quite a few actors, both struggling and successful, and it’s not their talent that divides them. Quite a few of the successful ones do have that certain undefinable ‘star quality,’ but quite often the key to success is painfully clear, especially with actresses – when their agents tell them to lose 20 lbs, they lose 30. And get Botox. There’s also the willingness to do ‘favors’ for producers, family connections in the business, and of course pure talent. But like I said, I have seen a few talented souls who are stuck in dinner theatre because they didn’t fit the mold (and no, I’m not a bitter wannabe actress).
That’s worse than what you originally said, and largely mythical, unless these girls are going out for daytime soaps or basic cable reality shows. I’ll admit that it’s a lot more unfair for girls than it is for guys, but suggesting legitimate female actors need to resort to “favors”, botox, connections, etc is highly insulting.
I can’t deny that I haven’t seen some of these things at work, at least on the tiny scale of community theater — an actress cast as a lead because she’s sleeping with the director (in both cases, with different actresses, that’s because she was married to him).
Larger than these components are other factors I could cite: availability comes to mind. X gets cast in the show because Y and Z are busy doing other shows. This might put X in the right place at the right time to be noticed for production A; and production A could be a springboard to Big Production B.
You might also investigate the actor’s personality: is he (or she) willing to do what it takes to get the job done? Does he stay late, does she help where she can? Or is that actor a prima donna who requires a whole team of sycophants to baby his precious ego? (Most of the time the prima donnas don’t get cast, I find, unless they have primo talent to go along with the attitude.) Does an actor have a reputation of being easy to befriend? Does the actor turn up his nose and say, “Oh, XYZ is directing? What a cow. She has no vision. I’ll go audition for someone decent.”
I have no personal experience that will prove false the rumor that ladies are cast from the producer’s private couch (after all, I’m neither a lady nor a producer). It could happen in sleazy productions, even in Hollywood, but I’d guess there’s too much money at stake for it to happen frequently at a high level in big, recognized productions. Somebody would get sued, big-time. Bad publicity, bad mojo all around. If you want to find a case where girls are being manipulated, it’d be more likely to happen where the would-be starlets lack any power to resist or complain. (Mind you, this is just a guess. I am not a Hollywood professional, just a cynic.)
I’d have to say there are numerous other factors, none quite so titillating, that also come into play.
We knew people involved in our local community theater, and that seemed to be far more a hot bed of scandal and soap opera intrigue than professional productions for three orders magnitude more money.
But I see why stardom runs in families - it is easier to get a shot if you are already there. I got asked if I was auditioning for the role of the father in one ad I took my daughter to. I had no desire at all. One casting director was very interested in my other daughter, who was too shy at the time.
Anyone ever see “Life with Mikey” starring Michael J. Fox as a former child star now a down on his luck manager? It’s set in New York. We saw it in a theater, and we were the only ones in there who laughed. A lot of the agencies shown were easily identifiable, and the kids were really well case and just like real child actors. I suspect most people didn’t get it, since it bombed.
But how do you figure out where you are, when you film out of order. Action moves from a hallway to the school gym, with the scenes filmed in schools miles apart, out of order, and on different days. And it all looks real, which is amazing.
My friends and I, who had all worked in the same small Repertory theatre in various ways, saw so many antagonistic relationships and stereotypical archetypes in our little group, we were seriously considering pitching a sitcom, using them as the basis for all of the characters. It probably would’ve worked really well as a show, too.
When you do stage acting, you rehearse out of order, too. It’s not until the last two-three days before production that you start to put things in order. At least, that’s how community and college theater work. I assume it’s the same for professional theater - no need to pay actors to show up to rehearse every night when they’re only in Act I, Scenes 2 and 4 and Act II, Scene 5. Instead, you schedule one night of rehearsal for those scenes, and other nights for other scenes involving other actors. You only show up on the nights you’re rehearsing your scenes.
Granted, a “scene” on stage tends to be longer and more in continuity than the snippets they film for screen, but still, we’re used to working out of order either way.
I’ve done a little acting (very little) on stage. It’s damned hard work. Rewarding, but hard work. For the record, I’m not currently planning on doing any more acting. Our little theatre company is pretty effectively broken up, as our members are scattering to the four winds. Could I be an actor? With the appropriate training, probably. Would I want to? No.
I never saw a lot of rehearsing, and certainly not from beginning to end. Some run throughs using video only before you roll the film cameras, yes. When you’re shooting 22 minutes of film on location over 5 days, you don’t have time for lots of rehearsing.
Lots more rehearsing when shooting commercials, actually. Two days for one minute vs 5 for 22, and a lot fancier.
I’ve done some community theater (many moons and pounds ago), so yes. One particular memory was, when preparing to perform before our largest audience that we would ever have, I drew a complete blank during the pre-show rehearsal. Just horrible - I was forgetting all my lines. Showtime comes around, everyone is worried about me, and two of the actors (well one actor and one actress) were freezing up, and I bailed them both out flawlessly, so that only someone who knew the play would have noticed (I also hit all my lines and cues). One of those ‘laughs last’ moments…
I also played an ugly stepsister in a Cinderella parody. That was a lot of fun. My other stepsister and I were competing to see which of us could hurt ourselves more in the physical comedy parts. The kids loved it.
I’ve acted in many plays- I always get the Deep Voiced Older Authority Figure (even when I was in my 20s)- and I’ve always gotten good reviews (especially for comedies). I’ve been told god knows how many times “You missed your calling- you should have been an actor”, but I disagree.
For one thing I didn’t have the guts. Having lived through poverty in my teens I was just never able to risk the possible future of having utilities disconnected/cars repossessed/crashing on friend’s sofas when I’m “way older than college age”, and even some actors who are today megamillionaires (Danny Devito comes to mind) were in that stage in their 30s.
For another, I generally don’t like most other actors, especially socializing with them. Ever been in a room with 20 people and every single one of them has to be the center of attention (when they should all know that’s my job )? And the Marlon Brando adage of “an actor is the guy who when you ain’t talkin’ about him he ain’t listenin’” is more often true than not in my experience.
And then it’s just sort of a Camelot “it’s really a rather silly place” career facet.
More than anything I suppose it’s the fact that it’s a totally dependent art. Writing is something you can do if you’re stranded on a deserted island, same with drawing and sculpture and most other forms of artistic expression, but even if you’re Daniel Day Lewis or Reese Witherspoon (two of the best actors working imo) you’ve surprisingly little creative control over the production; somebody has to be willing to finance it (if it’s a blockbuster especially then even a Tom Hanks would have trouble financing it out of pocket) and then you can give the greatest performance on Earth but it’s dependant on script/direction/other performances/etc. (case in point: Gangs of New York- DDL was brilliant, but the script and the other performances weren’t, and the result was mediocrity overall).
So, short answer, “Not professionally, no”.
And levdrakon— any chance you ever starred in Equus and have some pics from it you’d like to share?
Thanks for the retroactive esteem-boost! 
