Watching Lucy Hale on Steven Bartlett’s podcast and she’s someone I have loved the work of for a long time prior to Pretty Little Liars. Listening to her talk about her pain, her addiction, her darkness, and her creativity is such a great experience.
I have many friends in the film and TV industry and I get a greater and more realistic view of what it means to work in the entertainment world as just a normal person who just simply wants to act or create. Not even a artist perse, just a person who acts.
That work is hard AF. Just to want to act. Just to be in front of a camera or on a stage or whatever. To just want to do it without all the bullshit and the scrutiny and the parasocial lunatics and the press… just to want to get a check and be able to live life, pay rent, pay bills and just be a normal actor or actress. It’s hard AF. And it can be so isolating and difficult. Listening to Lucy talk about her life reminds me of many stories I hear from friends. The pain of it. The loneliness.
Many people I know in the industry feel like the public thinks that they have no right to complain about anything simply because they have a job. It blows my mind that you can work hard even come from nothing and work your ass off but people think you don’t deserve to be unhappy or complain or struggle simply because you have had some success. It’s ridiculous. It’s unfair. It’s cruel. Everyone struggles. Everyone works hard and has emotions and they are allowed to have them.
People who work hard don’t stop becoming people just because YOU didn’t achieve what they achieved. Mind your business. Focus on YOU.
Lucy said oh no one wants to hear about the struggles of someone like me and I have heard that so many times before. Someone like me. What does that mean? Someone who was lucky and landed a job for 8 years? Someone who worked their ass off every day? Someone who moved to LA at 15 and suffered and struggled to achieve their dream? What makes you unworthy of being heard or listened to or seen as a person? Its something that disgusts me when dealing with people who watch media.
Actors are people.
Most of the people I get disgusted by are people who are just jealous or they assume certain actors got things they didn’t deserve and maybe some did but most that I know were just regular people who had a dream and they did everything in their power to achieve it.
Some actors I know are C list or even D list and every check is important and they barely make ends meet being extras or playing side characters. Still others I know have won awards and STILL are people …
People who work hard don’t stop becoming people just because YOU didn’t achieve what they achieved. Mind your business. Focus on YOU.
ALL of the actors I know WORK THEIR ASSES OFF. They don’t just sit around and do nothing and then land epic roles and if they do get roles they worked hard for that opportunity.
And let’s say someone didn’t have to work as hard … that doesn’t make them unworthy of being listened to and it doesn’t make them people who don’t deserve understanding or sympathy.
You watch people on a screen and you think you know them. You see an interview or social media and think you have the right to judge them or think you know their life. Trust me … you don’t know anything at all and you should probably mind your business. I’ve sat in conversations listening to people criticize people I actually DO KNOW and I’m just like … you need to shut the fuck up about every single thing you are saying because you know nothing John Snow …
Learn to appreciate the fact that hard working people are out there entertaining you so you can escape your miserable, depressive lives.
People have value.
Learn how to see it.
Or maybe you can’t because you are incapable of seeing your OWN value and you project that self-loathing onto others.
People aren’t on stage or screen purely for your benefit. They have dreams too. They want to create or be artists and do the things they are passionate about just like you do … they’re human beings.
They don’t stop being human just because they get paid to do what they love. That’s the whole point of an artistic dream is it not?
Learn to consider the value of other people’s dreams especially the positive ones that are about bringing joy, creativity, and uniqueness to people’s lives.
Learn to appreciate the fact that hard working people are out there entertaining you so you can escape your miserable, depressive lives or whatever reason you binge their material.