Shifting Goalposts

I've been thinking lately about the goals we set up for ourselves as actors, and how often they shift.  I started acting in college.  Many of my peers had been going since high school, if not longer.  I felt late to the game.  Guys younger than me had been in Hollywood for years landing big roles.  What hope was there for me?  Then one day I found out Andre Braugher hadn't started until college.  He was and is a successful, talented guy (like, best-in-his-class-at-Juilliard talented).  I latched on to that, and other examples.  If they did it, I could too.  

Cut to NYC a few years later, and grad school.  Was I putting an unnecessary delay on my career?  Should I just take classes with a well-known teacher somewhere and start auditioning?  Who else has an MFA?  Turns out that's a long, reassuring list.

Cut to now, married, still trying to make inroads.  I find myself looking to guys like Jeremy Renner or Jon Hamm (though he has a surprisingly long pre-Mad Men resume).  

I was going to write a joke here: "How long before X is my new role model," wherein X=an actor who had their first major role in their 60s or 70s.  Boy, that was a depressing Google search.  I looked up "actors who started very late;" most answers were in their 30s.  Though I did learn about Desperate Housewives' Kathryn Joosten, who didn't even take classes til she was 42.

So: how long before Kathryn Joosten is my new role model?

And that's just my own experience.  There's probably someone in their 30s or 40s reading this who just decided they wanted to try making their acting dream a reality, thinking "what's this kid worried about?  He's got a big head start."  More importantly, these comparisons don't do anyone much good.  It's just another way to limit yourself in an already discouraging business.

Another shifting goal is "success."  Starting out, I defined it as a multi-million dollar backend deal on an action franchise.  Now, it's something closer to "hey, I think that casting director finally knows my name."  As a young hothead I scoffed at the idea of doing soaps.  Now I'd step over my unconscious mother to sign on for a three-episode arc on one of the few that remain (in my defense, mom does tend to nod off).

It's important to have goals.  I think it's more important to know that those goals do not define you.  Being focused only on accomplishing one thing can blind you to the other things  you've achieved.

I guess if all your plans went exactly like you wanted, that wouldn't be much fun would it? (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

--Colin Fisher

Comments

[c]

Look up Glenn Close, Gene Hackman, Brad Pitt, and Harrison Ford. All great actors who started in their late 20s or sometime in their 30s.

[Tony Wolf]

Great piece, Colin. To this mystery of the actors' life, I suppose I can only say: whaddaya gonna do and we all keep pushing ahead. Persistence! George Burns said if you persist enough in this business and have you some ability, eventually you'll get a break. Great to see your writing here on Backstage!

Anyway, apropos of nothing, that graphic looks like it could also be the view from the loading dock of the Space Shuttle with a view of the cloud-covered Earth.

[Colin Fisher]

Thanks guys! C, Harrison Ford did come up in my search, and that's encouraging too. I know he had more or less returned to carpentry when he got his break.

Tony, I now cannot unsee that picture as the space shuttle. Good call.