What is the likelyhood of me obtaining a successful acting career?

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was born with a very handsome face. I am currently overweight,

[/ QUOTE ]

just like the fat girl with the "pretty face", right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe, but I'm guessing his mommy told him he was handsome so he must be.

[JPotMaster]

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmmmm, you would only be competing against 40 million other people born with a "handsome face", no formal education, no experience.......I'd say your odds are pretty damn good! [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes but can they

[ QUOTE ]
cry at will. Not just watery eyes either. Can they shed a tear long enough to drop to their chin on demand. Can they also be able to turn red.

[/ QUOTE ]

[2planka]

Depends on how good your kneepads are.

For a fun and insightful read, check out Bruce Campbell's book, "If Chins Could Kill - Confessions of a B Movie Actor."

I thought you had plans to move to AC, then Hawaii, then some other place. Dude, you're only 20. Live life instead of worrying about this stuff. Get drunk. Find some chicks and hit it. Act your age, dammit!

[turnipmonster]

this is an excellent post, same thing goes for musicians, or at least for me. I'm just as happy playing in a restaurant as I am in front of thousands of people.

[schwza]

[ QUOTE ]
Estimations such as a 2% success rate

[/ QUOTE ]

i'll take the under. .02% is getting closer but probably still too high.

edit to add: doesn't mean you shouldn't try though. you could do some acting in a community theater or something to see how you like it.

[Ulysses]

I hung out w/ an actor friend this weekend in Vegas and got to talk with him a lot about the business. He is in the top 1% of Screen Actor's Guild earners - and makes far less than 500k per year. I believe he said the threshold for being in the top 2% of working SAG actors is $35k/yr from acting. The SAG has about 100k members and 80% of them make less than 10k/yr from acting. I might be wrong on some of these numbers, but I'm pretty sure they are at least ballpark - and can help you figure out your odds of achieving your goals. You can find more info on the SAG website.

My friend said that the biggest problem w/ most actors is that they don't take enough of an active role in making their success happen. They just float along, hoping for that one lucky break. Very few are talented or special enough to get "discovered" in that fashion. What he did was move to LA and spend 3 or 4 years working as a PA (production assistant) and other assorted crap jobs in the industry. He spent all his time learning how the casting process works, learning who good agents are, meeting people who could help him with his career, etc. Just learning the business.

Then, after a few years of that, he started to really focus on going on auditions, focusing on commercials. He landed a few commercial gigs as well as small movie and TV roles. He got financially secure a few years ago when he did a Red Lobster commercial that aired for an extended period of time (beyond a certain time period, they have to renegotiate the contract and pay the actor a lot higher residuals rate when the commercial airs). He has worked steadily, mainly in commercials, for about ten years now. He is now getting a start in directing commercials, having made many friends over the past few years who have graduated from directing commercials to directing major features.

I've known a number of struggling actors/performers in NYC and LA. The thing that struck me about this guy was the focus and hard work that he put into it. He was passionate about becoming an actor and did everything he could to maximize his chances of being successful in the field. If you're willing to devote everything you have and work harder than you've worked on anything else ever, there's a chance. Without doing that, the chances of making a living from acting are very, very slim.

[TStoneMBD]

id like to say that i really, really appreciated all the serious responses in this thread. i thought that by posting this, i was going to get flamed alot, but instead was only flamed a little bit.

i dont have the ambition that i must act, because that is what i was born to do or anything like that. instead, living a life as as a star actor is what i would consider to be one of the best lives to live possible. i really dont know too much about the real life hardships that come with a career in acting, other than the unreliable cliches that you see on tv. i thought the best method in coming to a conclusion about the life of a striving actor would be to ask those who have more life experience than i do.

for those who think it is ridiculous for me to post something like this, at least i am doing some mild research about things before i decide to jump into the deep end. i feel that im going about things the right way, with patience and rationality.

i realized that leading a career in acting is a difficult thing to do. maybe i didnt realize just how difficult it truly is. i had assumed that most starving actors are not in fact truly dedicated, and that is the main reason for their lack of success. just like everything in life, i think that in order to succeed you need to attack your goals with all your effort, and i am willing to do that whenever i decide what it is that i want to do with the rest of my life.

[Jazza]

hey dude an idea just popped into my head:

make much money playing poker, and then make your own films

[James Boston]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe he said the threshold for being in the top 2% of working SAG actors is $35k/yr from acting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know if this figure includes voice-over talent. I know in many cases they have to join SAG, and I think are considered actors. Most any successful one will make more than $35K.

[peachy]

if its something u really wanna do go for it...just work out real hard...get a rep...take the necessary head shots...take anything u can get - commercials etc. A few acting classes wouldnt hurt to put on a resume - although these dont do a ton of good...but u might as well do something in ur spare time. wont hurt to give it a shot since u arent going to college right now