I know what it’s like for your stomach to growl while you’re on your way to an audition. That moment when you only have a dollar to your name, and the best you can do is get a cup of coffee in hopes that the caffeine will stifle the hunger for at least a few hours. I noticed something, that when I really needed money, it would effect my auditions. I think they knew that I was hungry in the room, but the truth is, maybe that feeling or that energy wasn’t right for that character. So I had to switch my thinking and control my emotions. This way, when I walked in the room, I focused on what I was trying to accomplish in the scene.
If you’re trying to figure out, how do you make money while pursuing your career as an actor, my answer to you is this: Find a job that is flexible. Something that you can do in the early evening into night or sometimes you luck out, and you work at a place where the boss supports your dream and he or she will let you step out to auditions whenever you need.
Pursuing your dream as an actor, is not something that you can do as just a hobby. Unless you agree with yourself that from time to time you will perform at a local theater or maybe even produce your own film or web series, then at that point, there is no pressure for you. But if you are considering this as a serious profession or pursuit in your journey, you have to commit all the way. If this is something that you have dreamed of since you were a kid, then honor that child and take the first step.
The term starving artists made sense when I first started. It was also a term that we hear all the time because it’s part of the acting world culture. But I also feel, that the term can come with a bit of pain and suffering. So I say this to you, there is no reason for you to suffer on this journey as you pursue your dream and honor that child. Instead, look at every opportunity, person that you meet along the way, and lessons as some of the many gifts that are a part of this beautiful journey of yours.
– Victor Cruz
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