5 Reasons Why Being a Professional Actor Isn’t Glamorous

Sometimes the most annoying thing about being a professional actor is the way other people assume, wrongly, that your job is glamorous. Most of the time, being a professional actor is anything but. Here are five reasons to cite to your friends about why being a professional actor is often just a dirty, difficult and aggravating job. And, if you haven’t had these experiences yet as an actor, I assure you, you will soon.

1.Your schedule is not your own. As an actor you will often receive calls for acting work at the last minute. Sometimes actors have to work nights, or have to be to set at times as absurd as 4am. Often, films run on a non-traditional week – say Wednesday through Sunday – having a social life and being a professional actor is hard. If you can’t go to parties, how can the job be glamorous?

2.Creepy crawlies. As a professional actor I’ve had live insects placed on me (maggots and a cockroach when I was playing a corpse) and worked with rats and snakes. Even if these things don’t bother you (the rats and snakes were cool, but I draw the line at bugs), trust me, it’s a quick way to get your friends over their fantasies about the acting career fast.

3.Rarely is acting about being pretty. More often, being a professional actor is about being skinny enough to play a junkie, being made up to look like a homeless person or getting stuck playing a murder victim or prostitute. It’s a rare day on set when an actor is getting paid to be pretty.

4.Location location location. Chances are, while your friends think you’re lounging around in an air-conditioned trailer waiting for your scene, you, the professional actor, are actually shooting a scene in a sweltering alley that smells like garbage (or in a bathrub full of intentionally dirty water or some other unpleasant environment), and while you’re waiting to do that, you’re hanging out in a church basement or recently closed-down department store.

5.Food. Nine times out of ten, you’re dining on food that’s only a little better than what you ate in your high school cafeteria (the other 10% of the time, for some strange reason you’ll wind up on a set with the best food you ever had in your life). As a professional actor you are usually fed on set, but the food is starchy and not that tasty and in many ways, the worst thing you could possibly be eating to maintain your energy and health levels for performance. The smart actor always packs his own lunch (and we know that’s not glamorous.)

Working as an actor in stage, film and television is a privilege and you’re right to be proud of it. But it is, as you know, also hard, often thankless work. Be ready to accept that, and also to let those not in the business who think you have it easy know. The more people understand that acting is a difficult profession, the more it is respected – that respect translates to finances, social interaction and the willingness of parents to let their children study the arts.