What I wish I knew - Actor Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
I wish I'd gotten into acting a whole lot younger than what I am. Like I said, I've only been doing this for about four years now. I'm 63 now, so it's not been very long for me being in acting. And I've had a lot of good experiences and a lot of bad ones. But if I'd have known what I know now, I would have gotten into acting right out of high school instead of joining the army. But it was a great experience for me. So if you want to get into acting, do it now. Get in there and just start doing what you can do.
Video 2 Transcript
What I wish I would have known is that I could have gotten into this career a little bit earlier. I'm glad that I finished out college. I'm glad that I got my education. That was important to me. But I wish I would have gotten into it a little bit earlier. It would have helped me with some of these roles to have a little bit more training, a little bit more experience before tackling such meaty characters. Also, I wish I would have trusted my instincts more. I had some really good instincts early on in my career, but through bad management and a few bad agent experiences, I got confused. I got confused about how to present myself, who I was, what I looked like, how it just, again, I just, I can't emphasize this enough. Just know who you are and know how you present yourself the best.
Video 3 Transcript
Wish I knew how hard it was to be an actor. Again, a lot of people rush in thinking that it looks easy. Well, it may come easier for certain people, but to be able to make it look easy, having a kind of a private conversation on screen or cry with 30 people around you off camera, it's hard. It's hard. And I wish I had known to start training and be practicing every week and to be in class. I wish I had known just to trust myself and to know my branding, my typecasting, how the industry sees me so that I can get cast. That was a big one. I wish I knew how difficult it would be to make money. Even when you're successful, man, there is not a lot of money at certain levels.
Video 4 Transcript
I wish I knew that you will have more fun in the acting world if you decide to have more fun. So I'm kind of a perfectionist. I'm one of those kids who was always like the teacher's pet doing everything right, which is a great quality to have. You work hard, you learn things, you're always prepared, but I found a lot more success and a lot more joy in the past few years when I decided to just enjoy it as much as I can. Not that I didn't enjoy it before, but to not let it stress me out as much as I let myself find joy in it and to just like be silly and have fun with things. Not only has that brought me more joy, but it has brought me more bookings because I'm not as rigid and I'm not as concerned about doing things right. I'm more open to receiving just like silly little ideas that pop into my head and bringing those in.
Video 5 Transcript
What I wish I knew before I moved to LA and started pursuing acting as a career is just be yourself. Don't try to be castable. Don't try to change who you are because you think it's what's in right now or what will get you cast. What will get you cast is you just simply being yourself. The reason that you're worth hiring is because you are you and no one else. Because if they wanted someone else, they could just get them. You are the reason you are worth hiring. So just stay true to yourself. And the second that I started believing that I was good enough on my own is the second I started booking. So it's not even just like good mindset advice. It's good in the sense that it will help you work more, which is what we all want. So just be yourself.
Video 6 Transcript
One thing I really, really wish I knew is I do also, currently, I do work a full-time job. I didn't really realize, I'm like, this has to be my career for, to keep my sanity. I want to keep my creativity going. Like this, this industry is, is me. It's who I am, but I, I'm not at the point where I can completely quit my job. So I literally still have to coordinate my days off, switch my that I work, to be able to go to these acting, modeling, film projects, filming projects. Whether I drive or fly, I have to like, you know, be able to be at a point with my job that they, they're flexible enough to let me switch, but I still have to work full-time to make ends meet.
Video 7 Transcript
What I wish I knew. Everything that I've learned over the last two decades of this career. I wish I wouldn't have blown all the opportunities I had when I was younger because I don't think I've ever had the same shot at success as I had then but I was too young and immature to take it serious. I wish I would have built my work ethic earlier in my career instead of later after so much failure. I wish I would have understood the importance of the community you surround yourself with better at a younger age and that way I could have just been surrounding myself with creatives and building each other up. There's a lot. There's a lot I wish I knew.
Video 8 Transcript
I wish I knew years and years and years ago, like when I was a wee lad, how rewarding and satisfying acting would be. It's something I had always wanted to try. I didn't try it until I was 54, 55, and I'm 67 now, so it's fairly recent in the world of acting. But I wish I knew how rewarding it would be, because the first time I did it, I stepped on a stage and the whole world opened up, as I realized at that moment that this makes me happy. In City Slickers, where Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal, you gotta look for that one true thing, one thing, you have to know what that thing is. To me, it was acting. To me, it was performing. To me, it was, as they say, opening a vein in front of a camera or on stage and just pouring it out for the audience. Fulfilling that creative need, that's what it was all about for me, and I wish I knew how great it would be.
Video 9 Transcript
When I first started, honestly, I just wish that I knew that like, I could do it. Because I was really young when I first started getting into theatre, and it was hard seeing so many people that already knew people there. And even when I'm going to like, different places now, and people that I've never seen before, it's still, it's always hard being like the newbie in an area. And so I just wish that I knew that I was capable. And even though it might take a lot of work, and a lot of years of training, and practicing, and just getting better and honing my crafts, didn't mean that I couldn't do it. And if you have that passion for it, and you work hard, then I think that anyone can achieve it.
Video 10 Transcript
So I started auditioning when I was like five or something, I couldn't really even read, but so I got my first part when I was nine, when I could actually kind of understand the material, and there wasn't really anything that I wished I knew before that because I just started, and maybe that is the perspective I would recommend. Have a childlike learning perspective, never think that you're the expert or you'll start thinking, you know, pridefully like... and then you're probably gonna have I wish I knew experiences. Just start where you are, and start learning, because that's how you're supposed to do it, and you won't have any I wish I knew experiences. Just use common sense, be a kid, play, act.
Video 11 Transcript
If I had known how much work there really was in Los Angeles, I did know and I chose not to go there. So I guess I shouldn't say that. I don't really have any regrets, if that's what this question is kind of implying, although it's not. Many times I went out to Los Angeles with full support from my family, looking for a place to live and should we settle down, and it just never seemed right. If you're single and childless and you really want to be an actor, then get out of whatever small town you're in and go to New York or LA or Atlanta or a large city, because that's where the work is. And even though nowadays we're very remote, you've got to be where the action is.
