Who determines my success..........

Success:
Noun.
1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of ones goals.
2. The attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like.

Hmmmm well would you look at that. To be an actress has always been a dream of mine, ever since I did drama back in high school where I was blown away by being in character. I was amazed by great performers dominilty on stage. I guess I found stage actors more relatable than film actors(which was usually be American Actors). I am a lover of live music, theatre ect. So being an actor on stage and encapsulating audiences right infront of me into a world the same way I have been is all I want to do. However in South Africa the focus on theatre acting is respected as most theatre performaces are deeply rooted in our cultural history,  theatre was/is used as an educational tool to help move forward a country overcoming apartheid. However the only way to make money or have a life by being an actor in SA is difficult and since the world/industry is moving towards Film and TV as the educational and entertaining medium, theater is struggling to maintain a audience to help sustain an actors livelihood. To be a theatre actor you have to do it for the love of it, because the money is not enough to sustain a living. Yet that is the beauty of acting, and being a true artist/actor, you make those sacrifices because you love to act, you love to perform, money and fame becomes bonuses not goals or a necessity. And I could be wrong but out here I feel like you can still live a decent life here as a working actress in theater. Even working  as an extra you could live a fairly decent life considering that you work often enough.

I found it pretty interesting that everywhere I go, everyone is telling me who determines my success, a producer, the casting director, the agent.  But in all honestly, I determine my own success. What I mean by this is that I know that there are tricks and trades to getting into the industry and making it, but in all honestly, once you are able to show your work that is all that matters. There are sooo many acting schools in LA, and they all about training. Well I guess if Stanislavsky was still alive he would be proud because he sure has a huge following. I am all for the system but out here actors live by it as if it is a mathematical equation to success. The beauty of being an artist is the freedom of being able to just be. However out here, anyone that decides that they want to be an actor can go through some training and boom is an actor. The problem we end up having is a bunch of confused people who don’t know what they want from life, giving a bad name to the art of acting. The techniques make them feel like being an actor is achievable. Perhaps I am being harsh here, but I am old school in believing that actors are people who have natural talent for acting and that acting is their passion. 

What I'm trying to say is, things aren’t going to be handed to you (and this is a general note in life). There is no easy way in or out, you have to go out and put the work in, to get the work out. Then agents, producers and who ever else will look up and listen to you and will give you an opportunity. Its that simple. The problem now is the level of fakeness you end up showing to the industry folks, because everyone gives you advice and tells you who to impress the 'important' people……. What ends up happening is that everyone becomes so fake with everyone else. Its TOO much.There is this constant pressure of having to impress people here in Hollywood, impressing a director, impressing a producer, impressing a casting director, impressing who ever else. I feel that having to impress all these people is unnecessary, if you are true to yourself and your capabilities, then you don’t need to worry about impressing people that could potentially give you a job. Adding that kind of pressure of impressing people takes away from who you are, and people want to see that. People can pick up on that. See I understand the value of all the filmmakers and those apart of the process in selection, but I do not believe that they are the only people to determine my success. The beauty of Hollywood is that as much as you work on your craft and go to auditions, one day you could be walking on down the street and be 'discovered', and I mean casted in some director/producers next movie. Just like that. That’s how crazy life is here, and yes I suppose it can happen anywhere in the world, but the opportunities out here are far larger. The thing is when you are approached randomly like is because people can see you in your natural and true state and that's what they want in their movies.