You have probably heard it dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of times: “Make your own stuff.” Well, if you’ve ever attempted to actually do so, then you know it’s easier said than done! However, there really has never been a better time for self-starters to create their own content, and you never know where something that you make may lead. Just look to these 10 A-list creators below, who all started somewhere.
Read on for concrete advice for filmmakers, TV-makers, theater-makers, podcast-and-other-media-makers, and more!
Steve McQueen: Everything you make informs the next thing you make.
“We’re all going to die anyway—what’s the worst thing that could happen to you? When you have nothing to lose, go for it. We need artists right now who represent that kind of conviction, because otherwise, what’s the point? Yes, I have fallen on my face. You say, ‘I don’t imagine people think Steve McQueen has fallen on his face before,’ but the only reason I’m here is because I have. These aren’t things, necessarily, that I’ve shown. But all those things I’ve done have reshaped and resharpened my focus. My situation is littered with those things. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, because that’s the only way one’s going to learn. Don’t be fucking careful.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda: Always remember why you started in the first place.
“The game you constantly have to play with yourself is the joy of sharing the thing you’re making. Whether that’s with your spouse or 10 people or an audience full of people, you always have to figure out how to stay connected to [the question,] ‘Why the fuck did I start doing this in the first place?’ Because there are times when you are in the weeds and you have to think back to: What was the impulse that made me start? I think the process of making anything is going as far afield as you can and then reconnecting to the original impulse. That’s the gig. If you’re doing that enough, you’re not worrying about the success or the failure of the thing. You can’t control it. All you can do is control what you can be proud of, and it’s the thing you’re making.”
READ: Aaron Sorkin’s No. 1 Piece of Writing Advice
Lena Waithe: Don’t let the industry tell you who you are.
“I think sometimes people prefer artists to be inside a box, because it’s like, ‘OK, you do this one thing really well. Always do that.’ Sometimes that works, you know? Sometimes it makes sense. But for me, it can be suffocating. It’s like telling Mary J. Blige, ‘Only sing happy love songs.’ Craft is first. Craft, craft, craft. The business is always changing. The world is burning. If you know how to craft a really great story, if you know Final Draft inside and out—if you can do that, you will always eat.”
Mike Mills: Find the joy in the struggle, because it never gets easier.
“So many people I really admire, they totally struggle; they never master it. [I once had a conversation with Spike Jonze and] I was like, ‘Spike, does it get easier next time [you film]?’ And he goes, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘What? It doesn’t get easier? You’ve done more films!’ ‘Yeah, but each film is different. Each film has its own beast and demons and good things. So no, it’s not easier.’ It’s like, oh, fuck, that is such bad news. But it’s kind of good to know not to take it personally.”
Marlee Matlin: Create the change you want to see in the industry.
“In order to make sure that it doesn’t stop, we need to continue creating; we need to continue collaborating. We need to continue! I mean, you can’t just sit back quietly and complain. You have to be proactive. And I’ve always been that way. That’s part of the business. I said to [the producers of ‘CODA’], ‘If you don’t listen to me, and you don’t respect me and my community, then I won’t be in the film,’ People think that, like with makeup or a costume, you can just put on being deaf or being disabled. It doesn’t make sense, because there are so many deaf actors out there who can represent our community.”
Cecily Strong: Work with—not against—the bottom line.
“Make sure you do what you can to make the projects that you know are great. If you show them you have a wider audience, you open yourself up to so much brilliance. You show them, ‘This makes you money, this makes you money.’ That’s why I’m at all hopeful, because that’s what they can believe in!”
READ: How ‘Schmigadoon!’ Creator Cinco Paul Made the Series of His Dreams
Ethan Hawke: Keep honing your creative instincts.
“Your gut is so much smarter than your brain. It takes a lot of experience to start letting your subconscious work. There’s a lot of crap you have to work through to let your instincts fly.”
Amber Ruffin: The only way to make something is to make something.
“You have to have a pile of work that you can point to and go, ‘I can do this, and here’s the proof.’ Because anyone can go, ‘I’m really funny.’ Who cares? No one cares. Can you point to a bunch of videos? Can you point to a bunch of TikToks? Do you tweet every day? Something, anything! But not [just] something, anything—all of those things.”
Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle: Failure sucks, and is completely necessary.
Erskine: “[We] put making something together as the priority to everything else. The insecurity never goes away, I still feel that. But it was the first time that I felt empowered, because we were putting it into our own hands and actually taking risks together to try to create something. Even if we were going to fail, we were doing it for what we liked.”
READ: Partners in ‘Pen15’
Konkle: “You’re gonna fail a lot. And I know you’re not going to want to. You’re really going to hate it in the moment. But every single one, you’re going to look back on and go, ‘That was really important.’ And if you aren’t afraid of the failure, and really look at it, and talk to it, it’s gonna propel you to something that you will enjoy even more than whatever your initial goal was.”
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!