Does anyone think acting is really all that difficult?

Question

Ok, I don't think I can leave my job today, start shooting a movie tomorrow and give an Oscar Calibre perforance. But then I don't think Nicole Kidman or Sean Penn can start doing what I do for a living tomorrw andbe able to do it anywhere close to satisfactory.
The point is all jobs take training and experience to excel but come the award season Hollywood hammers us - which I stoped watching altogather -with show after show with notion that acting is the most special, most intelligent, most creative, most worthwhile career. And all but the most special, most unique and most sensitive people will fail to act. In short, the actrs are God's gift to humanity.
I ropose that acting is about as difficult as any other job- teaching, Nursing, takin orders at Wendy's or dilivering mail or managins and caring for animals in the zoo.
What do you think?

Answer 1

I absolutely agree with you; acting is just a simple career that people have and need to be trained in for years in order to obtain the skills necessary to be successful. The problem is that in Hollywood, even actors who are mediocre, are revered if they are beautiful. Hollywood is too polluted with media- I think that where the real actors are is on live stage. That's where you see people with real and amazing talent. They really do deserve the awards and should be honored, they make acting a true career rather than a cheap lifestyle.

Answer 2

Acting is difficult on many levels. It ain't brain surgery...but then brain surgery ain't acting, either.

Part of acting is the actual craft, skills, and art of the thing. Some of it you can teach...if the person has whatever indefinable quality -- talent? --it is that makes it all work. An actor also needs to have been born with a modicum of vocal ability, a good ear, and a sense of timing.

If that were all it is, though, acting would be comparatively easy. But it's not necessarily the craft and art thats so hard, it's the business side of it. Once you reach a certain minimal level of quality -- it all goes on luck, perseverence, and psychological qualities. AN actor must have an ego and identity open enough to effectuively discover and protray a role...yet tough enough to survive the near constant unemployment, insults, and defeats that are part and parcel of any actor' life. And even if you do find work...well one the other posters has indicated the lousy hours, bad conditions, usuall poor pay, and level of effort that goes into working on stage or on the screen.

So what you have is a job that requires the same level of craft and ability as a good craftsman, or programmer, or doctor...plus the psychological toughness and resolve to persevere in a very forbidding and disgeartening vocational milieu...plus a level of sensitivity that wouldn't stand that milieu in most people...plus a level of physical and mental conditioning that allow you to create your art and craft under always stressful and difficult conditions.

So yes, I guess it is all that difficult. But not in the way the moronic awards presenters claim.

Answer 3

Listen, when you see truly BAD acting you KNOW it ain't an easy thing! Is it brain surgery? No. Some people can do it with no training, some can only do it after extensive training, some can never do it. But the ones who do it truly well are truly inspired.

The awards show presenters indeed try to make us think movies and TV are the best thing in the world...because that's how they make their money. But actors know that they are no different than anyone else. After all, what is the most boring plot to watch...an actor playing an actor! Actor's excel playing other types of people. Everyone out there is special and has their own story and should be recognized and praised for just making it from day to day. Actors help illuminate those stories that we might not otherwise be exposed to. And for that, and a job well done, yes they deserve praise. And for all the years they struggle to make ends meet they deserve every doggone penny they make, too!

Answer 4

I know from experience that it is difficult, but something for which I have a drive and natural propensity.

I don't know what version of which Hollywood awards you have seen, or what people have said, but acting and acting well does require a special set of skills -- not to say that other jobs don't, but there are things that are expected of actors and conditions of actors' lives that make it very different.

--Stage actors rehearse 6 days a week, and are expected to be available from 8-12 hours out of those days.
--Film and commercial actors are often on set from 6 am to 10 pm.
--Television performers memorize at least half an hour of new material every week for as long as the season runs. That's approximately 30 pages per week.
-- Even with union guarantees of a certain amount of payment for a certain number of weeks (depending on the show), an actor may be employed for as few as four weeks at a time and then have to find another job all over again.
-- Actors are expected to replicate believable human behavior in a natural way with people staring at them, whether it be a theater of live human beings who are coughing, answering their cell phones, or unwrapping candies AND/OR cameramen, producers, and technicians who are wondering when craft services is going to bring the food.
--They are trained to be emotionally vulnerable and open, while at the same time being aware of allowing the audience to see them, staying in the light, being heard, speaking clearly, not tearing their cloths, not hitting their fellow performers with whatever object they are holding, holding for laughs, keeping the momentum of the production going, and having to cry on cue.

What actors do is a gift, given to audiences to show something about humanity, to hold (as it is said) a mirror up to life. I don't happen to believe it is any more necessary than a double cheeseburger and a frosty, and often less necessary than teaching or nursing, but it does require creativiy and patience.

Actors often get up on their high horse about their Art and their Craft, mostly because it has been so degraded by others over the years.
--For centuries, actors could not be buried in hallowed ground.
--There are photographs that show signs outside hotels from the 19th century that read "No dogs and No theatricals."
--Actors are still viewed as frivolous people who waste their time playing "dress up," who know nothing of the "real world." There are, I grant you, many not-so-bright actors, but there are many people in the rest of the world who aren't.
--Most employees have evaluations once or twice a year, but we are judged every time we are in front of an audience or a casting director.

I will also admit to being a little on my own high horse here, even though I am one of the first to criticize others of my own profession. Many people do not understand actors or other artists because we feel "called" to our profession, much like a religious vocation. I don't believe that makes us more special than others... just different. And often, very lucky, because we get to do the thing we most love, unlike many people who labor at jobs just so they can have a day or two of pleasure a week.

Answer 5

please don't find this bitchy. okay
Acting is one hell of a job, well it depends on what kind of acting... personally I think that you are right movie acting is a slightly bleh what ever smile, say lines, get it over with job but if you are talking about stage acting then mister you are WAY off it's hard as hell because you mess up on stage someone's gonna notice, if you mess up infront of a camera it's like hmm that's interesting.. so i guess it's all in how you take it, my kind of acting.. hard as all hell, camera acting meh not so much.

oh yeah, teaching is REALLY hard think about it would you be able to handle over i dont know 100 kids a day and deal with their stupid acts of stupidness?

Answer 6

Acting is extremely difficult - to make it look believable. Not many actors, alive today, are successful at making it look effortless.

Answer 7

No, it's attempting to convince someone that your who your acting out to be. That's what's difficult.

Answer 8

Its comes natural to me, its as easy as lying.

Answer 9

yes and no it depends its like asking as drawing hard, for me , no but for others yes, its all depends