To Vanity

The SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Film Society screenings are always a good place to meet interesting people – especially the older actors who have been doing the grind for many more years than me. As you may have seen in my other postings, the older actors are very different than some of my other older friends. There’s definitely a vanity with the actors that I don’t see with many of the older people I interview. I’m an actor so I can’t deny that a part of me must also be vain, but I generally lean towards the humble. And when I meet vain people I notice it’s harder for me to bond with them than it is other people less obsessed with themselves. Yet the more I listen to other actors, and the more I see how much of a struggle it is for all of us to survive as artists when so much of our success is out of our hands, I understand the focus many actors put on themselves. They – We – are putting ourselves out there every day, auditioning for strangers, performing anywhere and any way we can, while often getting much more rejection than we do praise and acceptance. It’s no wonder that the seemingly shallow things become important to many actors – their faces, their bodies, and their youth. They work hard at roles, reveal their deepest emotions in order to give a great performance, and then are often judged on the superficial. You can either allow every critique of your work and your looks to chisel away at your self worth, or you can fight back by being prideful – not conceited, but proud of who you are – in spite of the often daily rejection we actors face. So, here’s to a little vanity and here’s to the people who spend their lives struggling in order to make a career out of entertaining the rest of us... Actors.

Kathy:



Danna: