I have bad days. We all do. That’s life, right?
As an agent, I’ve experienced the kind of soul-sucking days that made me question my choice of career. I’m talking about days where every pitch fell on deaf ears and all my submissions were ignored. Days where clients I loved abandoned me and actors I wanted to sign went elsewhere. Days where members of my own team pulled a Brutus and stabbed me in the back.
Sometimes, I feel like the best response to those kind of days is to go home and get in bed with Mister Blanket and Mister Pillow. After all, giving up is easy. And tempting. But I’ve never chosen that path, because over 140 actors depend on me, and wallowing in self-pity is a dead-end street.
So how do I face a bad day? It’s easy. I just say three little words to myself and I say them over and over and over.
Answer the bell.
It’s fight talk. Here’s what it means: A boxer, regardless of how badly he’s been beaten, must come out of his corner swinging when he hears the bell to start the next round. That’s what he signed up for. And that’s how he wins.
The key to success is staying in the game.
It’s taken me a lifetime to learn that the worm will turn. Bad times will become good. Always. But none of that matters if you’re not there when it happens. That’s why you have to answer the bell. Because if you don’t, it’s game over. And you’re out.
All this jazz applies to you, too. Dealing with adversity is a large part of being an actor. Your level of experience or success doesn’t change that. The business of acting is tough with a capital T.
I’m sure each and every one of you has had bad days. Your car broke down on the way to a big audition. Your agent dropped you right before pilot season. Your first series got canceled after the first few episodes aired. Yes, that all sucks, but you know what? You will have more auditions and another agent will sign you and you’ll get another series.
READ: “5 Tips on How to Handle Rejection”
But only if you stay in the game.
Unfortunately, some actors aren’t cut out for that kind of life. On an intellectual level, they understand that acting is an extremely difficult career, but they don’t really know the emotional truth behind that difficulty. So they come up with a career path. They set out to conquer the world. Then reality sets in.
It’s like Mike Tyson said: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
We all walk along a path of our own choosing and sometimes, we get knocked off that path. It’s in those moments of chaos and anxiety that we feel like we’ve lost control. And that’s the time for a gut check. That’s the time you have to gaze in the mirror and figure out if that person who’s looking back at you has what it takes to go the distance. Or at the very least, one more day.
I chose to be an agent. You chose to be an actor. And we all have to answer the bell.
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