Luck and Talent

I was thinking about this today. Our movie business. It's a weird path that everyone takes, yet everyone wants to know the path. Simple answer: persistence and hard work meets talent. Long answer: no one knows. They really don't. Dustin Hoffman isn't better than any theater actor out there. He just met opportunity at a time when his "style" was wanted. Right place, right time fed the rest. I bet he would even tell you the same thing. Because everyone in our business feels a twinge of being a complete fraud.

I think the only people who have a modicum of talent or control are writers. Control in the sense that they can write all they want, it doesn't take someone to push them (at least it shouldn't). Matthew McConaughy is a blathering idiot. Had people not written him lines, he'd be in a fog. Yet, he has this "zen" thing going. That's just people enamored with his acting that they'd listen to him tell his ridiculous ideas. Guy thinks he's lived life, hasn't really. Same could be said of Robert DeNiro. I love his style of acting. But, push that script aside he can barely put together two words if one wasn't a grunt (listen to the commentary for "Analyze This").

So what is it that gets us to that place of being storytellers? It's a lot of luck. I can tell you right now, there are billions of people who are better at what I do. I'm not exaggerating. Billions. They are smarter, craftier and have more skill. The way I got started in shooting movies is one day I was rigging a light onto a set flat, and an assistant director off-handedly mentioned I shot movies. This was in passing she said this to a stunt co-ordinator of a short film I'd been helping out on. The next thing I know, I was asked to shoot a Steven Seagal movie. No reel. No years of experience, just me torquing some bolt to put a light onto an A-frame. How dumb luck is that?!

The same is said with actors. There is TONS of opportunity and material out there. The talent chooses what they think have substance. Or think it does. J.K. Simmons, our favorite Farmer's Insurance pitchman spent decades being "that guy." Great career. He does a miniscule budget film called "Whiplash" it's about to change his life (if it hasn't already). This is persistence. A marathon.

We honestly don't know what works for the masses. Seriously. There is no guarantee. We can have some certainty, but no guarantee. Marvel and their movies provide that certainty.

Here's what I'd say when it comes to breaking in to the is business. Most of the girlfriends I've had never liked me for my looks. In fact, I'd say most of the time they were disgusted by my hygiene and disheveled appearance. I hung out with them for a while. Eventually they got to know me and my oddity and found that they actually were attracted to that. What I'm saying is...the more they see your stupid face, the more they say to themselves "oh, it's THAT guy." Steve Buscemi made a career out of being THAT guy. It flies with pretty much everything in life. The reason I got more tail in college is because we saw each other daily. In life, you don't get that chance unless you make that chance. The more people see you the more comfortable they become. AND if you have talent or a skill or give a shit about anything, they will gravitate to that.