In Defence of the actor/ singer/ writer/ creative who is everywhere:
We all know that there are great big clumps of time in our lives, that every TV show, every movie, every song features the same artist. They are everywhere, acting in preposterous roles, singing songs that don’t match their vocal range, spouting off about things they know little to nothing about. The affection we felt for them when they first burst into our collective consciousness – out of that fabled place known as Nowhere – shrivels to a bitter, bad-smelling lump of hate as they seemingly saturate every moment of our downtime.
It’s not our fault!
They’ve gone and shoved themselves down our throat for too long!
Why won’t they just stop and let somebody else have a turn? Well, why not?
Because they can’t.
Creatives who make it (aside from the small number who have a contact, an in, a leg-up into their chosen artistic field) have been slugging away in the background their entire lives to get to this point. 90% of the time, their work goes unread, unheard, unappreciated. The willpower and self-belief it takes to keep going when the only person who seems to get what you’re trying to do is you is ridiculous.
They can’t stop.
It’s so hard, so incredibly hard, to get anywhere in ‘The Arts’ and quite frankly, no matter how ropey or unpromising an opportunity offered to you may be, you have to say yes. Because if you don’t, will there ever be another one?
Good people, great people, great talents go all their lives without making it, and it’s not fair. Life is rarely fair. So, next time you start to roll your eyes at a voice you hear on-screen or on the radio, please don’t.
If you ever get the chance to give somebody a break, give them a hand up, give them a kind word, then do it.
They haven’t got a choice. Art chooses you, you don’t get a choice.
#creative #art #writer #singer #musician #actor #artist
