Welcome new subscribers! You guys are fucking awesome. And that’s enough of that nonsense. This is 6 figure actor.

Let’s begin.

A thank you + a vote!

Last week I asked you if you had any charities that were important to you and a massive thank you to those who sent in theirs!

In case you missed it, I will be stumbling my way through a half marathon this September and raising money for 2 charities –Maytree + Actors’ Benevolent Fund …

Along with a 3rd that will be entirely 6FA reader chosen:

I’ll run for the charity that gets the popular vote*. And I’ll announce in next week’s newsletter.

Cast your Vote Now!

Please check out more about them – here are their websites:

*The charities that are not picked this time around will be part of the following fundraising event six figure actor embarks on, which will probably be sometime early next year.

Thank you bigtime!

Now…

Let’s talk about Your Break.

Your Break is the moment everything changes

Your Break is what will take away your pain.

Your Break is something that is coming and you know it is.

This week’s newsletter is the first of a two parter.

This week we will be looking at what Your Break is.
Next week we will cover what we should do about it.

So let’s define it:

A role or production that elevates your reputation and status to a level that grants you better opportunities for future work

aka “made it”, “lucky break”, “breakout role”, “discovered”, “hit the bigtime”

Once you’ve had your break you are a success.

If you haven’t had your break, you haven’t succeeded.

Your lack of a break is frustrating

You tell yourself, it will come.

You are haunted by the thought, “what if it doesn’t?”

When your friends have had their break and you haven’t, it’s harder to find common ground with them

You’re not a legitimate actor until you’ve had your break

If you haven’t had your break yet, you don’t exist.

When a stranger at a party asks you “have i seen you in anything?”, if you haven’t had your break yet, you are forced to list your cv until they shake their head and smile.

After the break they’ll be listing their cv.

You shouldnt appear to be chasing a break

Your break should come organically and when you least expect it

You get angry at the insinuation that you are chasing your break.

People have said to you “don’t worry your break will come”.

This irks you.

Because what it sounds like is, “don’t worry at some point you will succeed”

Which means you’ve been failing this whole time.

After you get your break – everything will be easier:

Getting your next job will be easier

Talking to your agents will be easier

Making choices will be easier

Auditioning will be easier

Your relationship will be easier

Your finances will be easier

Life will be easier.

After your break, during the periods of time when you are not working you will be able to call yourself an actor without feeling like that’s not true.

After your break there won’t be any periods of time where you are not working (except for holidays)

After your break you will buy a house outright

After your break you won’t have any loans

After your break you’ll be able to have kids

After your break you’ll finally start a pension

After your break you’ll be able to provide yourself with basic human rights not currently afforded to freelancers, like maternity pay.

After your break you’ll be able to buy a round

After your break you’ll be able to buy your loved ones a gift and not just a card with a glorified IOU written on it.

After your break you’ll finally be able to give money to an unhoused person who asks you on the street.

After your break someone will hire a personal trainer for you

After your break someone will run all your social media for you

After your break someone will organise the Graham Norton show for you

After your break you’ll never feel like you need plastic surgery in order to get your break

After your break people will give you free stuff and you’ll never have to buy an off the rack Marks and Spencer suit again.

After your break your agent will pick up your calls

After your break your agent who didn’t pick your calls before you had your break will be fired

After your break you won’t ever have to be a day player again – unless as a celebrity cameo.

After your break you won’t have to prove yourself in auditions

After your break you won’t feel so goddamn desperate in auditions

After your break you won’t ever have to audition.

After your break you can finally be considered for Best Newcomer awards:

“

…when I was nominated for best newcomer [in 2012] I was like: if I win this I’m going to have to apologise and I don’t want to ever apologise for winning an award! But there’s no f**king way I could have done that job when I was a newcomer. I have solidly chipped away at this thing I’m trying to create, which is a great body of work, that leads to bigger parts, more complex parts.

— Denise Gough

The jobs before your break don’t count

When you’ve had your break you might say things like “I was very lucky”

But you’ll be really thinking “I earned every bit of that luck”

Once you get your break, for the next few years you’ll be working non-stop

But in fact:

“I haven’t had a single audition since Aladdin came out. I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin. ‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I’m sitting here being like, okay, Aladdin just hit $1 billion — can I at least get an audition?”

Mena Masoud played Aladdin in Guy Richie’s Aladdin.

The thing is about your break is that it doesnt exist.

The system is rigged to make you feel like it does.

It has been made up by the industry as a neat little way to point to the cause of your success, so it can say – “hey, we made you, we gave you this”

You owe what you are to us.

But you do not.

Because you do not fundamentally change:

Your skills do not change

Your body of work up to that point does not change

Who you are does not change.

The only thing that has changed is the industry’s perception of you.

And that must never be relied on.

Because as Mena Masoud found out, along with anyone of these guys, the industry’s perceptions are fickle.

It is a mirage we have been tricked into chasing and it is so ingrained into the way we talk and think about our work, that it is almost (but not entirely) impossible to fight against.

But we must.

And we must remind ourselves that the stakes are high.

If we cannot figure out how to beat the “everything will get better when I make it” script, whether it is conscious or unconscious, then we are falling into the very trap we are trying to escape from each day when we chose to do what we love – instead of following the status quo.

Because here’s the trick – many, if not most, of those who have had their break are not happy, it has not solved their problems and their life is not, on the whole, easier.

But we have to start taking lessons from the mistakes they made.

Because we must break free of this rigged system.

In part two, next week, we will look at

how we can beat the industry at it’s own game
how to avoid falling into the Office Job Trap
and how we can create a sustainable career without putting our life on hold until our big break happens to happen to us.

See you then. x

What have I watched this week

Because life’s to short not to:

Scrubs

Bluey

Minions

Back to the Future 2

Teen Wolf (1985) (BttF 3 was paywalled so this was the next best thing)

My big break is coming

A thank you + a vote!

Let’s talk about Your Break.

The thing is about your break is that it doesnt exist.

What have I watched this week

1 thought on “My big break is coming”