AboutPeter Messaline Expertise This is the place for Canadian answers! My company runs "The Advisors",
a Toronto-based career-power network for performers, producers and entertainment artists of all sorts.
I am a performer, and I have not had a joe-job in the last thirty-odd years, so I must be doing something right.
I can talk about career moves, self-promotion, self-production, and the business sense that turns your art into a living.
Experience I am the most published Canadian arts entrepreneur.
The Actor's Survival Kit, Tax Kit 2000+, Tax CD, The Art of Managing Your Career.
Organizations Canadian Equity, ACTRA, AEA, BAEA
Publications The Actor's Survival Kit, Tax Kit 2000+, The Agents Book, The Art of Managing Your Career, The Organizer, Equity News, ACTRA newsletters.
Awards and Honors "Many people in the audience applauded warmly when it was time for him to leave the stage" (Local review of my Bill Walker in "Major Barbara" at the Shaw Festival.
Question Hi i realize that anything is possible and that includes becoming a sucessful actor and actress but the question is how possible is it?is it one in a million like winning the lottery? Is there a percentage on how possible it is? I mean if im serious enough about acting and only pursue my dream and not follow up on post secondary studies and just head out towards my dreams what is my survival rate of making it big in the movie industry or will i find my self broke and unsucessful in the years to come? Its true that you should have hope but when it comes to choosing your life carrer you need to take your precautions. So please answer all the questions I have stated thank you for your time. - melika 15 year old girl from canada.
Answer Thank you Melika, for your questions and for giving me some information about yourself.
I think you know what I am going to say: it *is* a career, and the better prepared you are going in, the more likely you are to succeed over time.
If I am casting a young girl for my little film, which will pay her very little except something for her résumé, I may look at you, if you were active enough to find out about my auditions and wrote a good letter. I would definitely look at a bunch more who also don't have training but who have worked for my film-maker friends, and a whole busload of twenty year old actresses who look fifteen and have training and a beginner's résumé with some professional work. Their agents will make sure I can always get in touch with them, and answer some of the questions about their skills. Realistically, who's in with the best chance? Using your lottery picture, they bought a pile of tickets and you've just got one.
You say 'successful' and you say 'making it big'. These are not necessarily the same things.
Here's some thoughts from the US union SAG's Denver local about going to LA to be a big success:
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Some 99 percent of the people who move to LA to act soon find themselves working in some kind of “other job” to pay the bills, just like here. California bills are much higher than here. Thus, most actors who left their families and best friends behind find they can’t afford to visit them.
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Most LA actors are unrepresented or under-represented and get less than a dozen auditions for “paying” jobs a year, despite the incredible number of productions going on at any given moment. As many as 3,000 submissions are made for a one-line part.
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Many actors have agents and managers who double submit, costing the actor 25 percent of what they do earn and twice as many pictures and résumés. After taxes and commissions, less than 50 percent goes to the actor.
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If you are truly clear on your goals and going to Los Angeles is for you, make sure you have your union memberships, a 2- to 3-minute demo of your on-camera work that is of broadcast quality, a long list of good play credits in good theatres and about six months’ living expenses ($10,000). That plus a five-year business plan, including how you are going to support yourself, pay for your training and promotional needs and surround yourself with a great emotional support system is all you need.
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There are 120,000 SAG members, and at least ten times as many actors who can't yet qualify. How many "big stars" can you name?
For most people, being a successful actor means not having to work at a day job to pay the rent.
Most union actors are not under contract most of the time. But that doesn't mean 'out of work' -- actors are constantly looking for chances to audition, or simply to meet someone who may be a useful contact later on. An actor who is working a lot in Canada would make about $15,000 a year.
One actor in 2008, who worked contracts for the Mirvishes, a summer theatre, The Canadian Opera Company and Stage West, plus dancing and teaching privately, and web designing, had hardly a day off all year and made $44,000. Before expenses.
The average income for a single man in Canada is $36,000,
but next year the actor might get no work. At all.
Answer your own question. Give yourself the best chance of making your dreams come true by doing all the acting you can now, finding out all you can about being an actor, watching TV and film and trying to work out what the actor is doing to make the character work. Get good grades (yeah, I know everyone says that) and get into an acting course at a college with a good reputation.
Then take your sensible self out and buy her an ice cream.
