What Do YOU Think Of You!

Sanford Meisner once told us in class at Playhouse West in Los Angeles that “it will take you all 20 years to become actors.”

We all had good credits and considered ourselves then actors. So what was he talking about we wondered.

Charles David Richards

Now it all makes sense. To be an actor and understand what that means, how to handle the rejection, the elation, the doing it for love, the doing it for money—it’s all part of becoming an actor. And only after you’ve done it, or struggled to do it over twenty years do you then realize what Mr. Meisner meant about truly becoming an actor.

Country music star John Rich in the same vein told me after I’d shown him a couple country songs I’d written, “Now, write 500 more and you’ll be a songwriter.”

“Once in awhile” is considered a nice percentage for most actors but keeping at it, and going from job to job or project to project or disaster to failure to triumph is all part of the territory. Remember to remember it’s not what they think of you but what YOU think of you! Yes, what they think of you matters. After all it may get you a job but in the long run what YOU think of you is what will keep you going in this business whether on stage,behind a microphone or in front of a camera.