Help!
My child is stuck in the body of an actor!
“Real isn’t how you are made, It’s a thing that happens to you.” –Velveteen Rabbit
Let’s get Real!
Have you ever been asked by either friends or family members, “When are you going to get a ‘real’ job?”. And then you turn around and hear “real” actors asking or most likely yelling at the paparazzi, “Get a ‘real’ job!”.
After all, what is real… really?
ACTORS: When I first got into this business of acting, I distinctly remember this guy I was dating asking me when I’d be getting a “real” job. I also distinctly remember thinking for the first time in my life, “Why isn’t my job real?”.
I was a very successful commercial actress, bringing in six figures and having fun doing what I did… so what was so unreal about my job?
I am a big believer in asking questions; yet, I am also a big believer that we already have all the answers. So no matter what answer I give you or anyone gives me, it’s only true if it feels “real”… to you.
So, I knew the answer to this guy’s question before I began to question myself. I’ve known it ever since I was a little girl, but I still questioned myself and came up with the same answer! Real is love. It’s living in each moment, truthfully, and being grateful for knowing what I love to do and doing it.
To him, a “real” job was 8-5. To me… well, those jobs weren’t real to me.
However, when I had to find another job outside of acting to support my love for acting I couldn’t help but hear that guy again… “When are you going to get a real job?”.
So, every job I got outside of acting didn’t seem real. I became depressed every time I had to squirt someone with perfume. I was one of those girls that you ran from when I tried to spray you with a new fragrance. Eventually, I ended up in the restroom crying that I failed at life.
Or I worked as an extra and felt more depressed watching another actress do what I wanted to do.
Or I did sales and when I had to travel, instead of enjoying the places I was going to, I heard a clock ticking.
Ironically, each one of these not so “real” jobs made me fall out of love with the idea that I had to be acting to be real and ironically I became more real in my acting.
The dialogue between the Velveteen Rabbit and Skin Horse remind me of a real actor’s journey.
The Velveteen Rabbit asks the Skin Horse, “What is Real?”
The Skin Horse answers, “When a child really LOVES you, then you become real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once? asked the Rabbit.
“It doesn’t happen all at once, you become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have been carefully kept. Generally by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to those people that don’t understand.
QUESTIONS: What Real job do you have while pursuing acting? Who has loved you so much that you know you are Real? What thing do you want to happen to you in 2013?
Let’s start 2013 by inspiring fellow actors to be REAL!
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