Today, Bob Fraser posted a newsletter about taking crazy advice from executives and other "experts" on breaking into the business.  While he directed his comments at actors, the basic ideas he's wrestling with apply to anyone in film who's getting an earful from agents, managers, execs, and other folks in the business who DON'T MAKE MOVIES...

Young or old, actors are often confused by what they 'hear'
about the role age plays in having success in their career.

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THE AGE OLD PROBLEM - AND OTHER 'REASONS' TO GIVE UP
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Here's a letter I got recently that talks about the issue.
(I've changed the name for this actor's privacy.)

Hi Bob,

I enjoy your articles on entertainment industry issues.

Can you address jobs in the entertainment industry for
people over 40. I've been told by well meaning younger
hiring execs to take off anything from my resume that
shows how old I am.

They said I should only go as far back as 1998. I come
from an East coast world where the experience that comes
with age is sought out and rewarded. 

Here I am in Los Angeles virtually unemployable because
I'm almost 50.  I am struggling to understand that mindset.

My generation built most of the technology that we see
around us, so it's not like we're in a corner scraping
two rocks together to make a fire.

Take Care,

Jane

*     *     *     *     *

Here's my answer ...

Dear Jane,

As you know from reading my stuff, I'm pretty blunt and I
have no ax to grind in terms of being admired or loved by
the industry.

So, I'm going to be blunt with you ...

Here's my advice: Do not ever use the words 'well meaning'
and 'executive' in the same sentence. They are not well
meaning. They are crude, ignorant, hangers-on who don't
have a clue about what it takes to be an actor - nor what
it takes to succeed as an actor.

They are functionaries at best and troglodytes at worst.

The advice you have been given is total hogwash!

We (and I'm talking about producers, directors, writers
and actors) do not give a rat's hiney how old you are. We
are looking for solutions to specific problems. We are
looking for characters to tell our stories.

I'm sure it has not escaped your attention that there are
people (including women) of every age, every nationality,
every look - in practically every production you've ever
seen.

The advice you were given comes from someone who is using
any 'reasonable' excuse to say no (since saying 'no' is
their real job).

And, by the way - the word 'hiring' is another thing you
should never attach to the word executive. Those people
do not hire actors - producers hire actors - and  once in
awhile directors.

All those executives can do (and even this is 'iffy') is
say 'no.'

Frankly, I don't know a single producer of any repute who
wouldn't fight to have the actors he or she wants. Believe
me, no executive ever successfully stopped me from using
any actor I wanted to use - no matter how how high up in
the executive ranks they happened to be.

It just doesn't work the way this executive thinks it does.

For instance, I want you to imagine an immigrant who has
a thick accent, an impossible name, who can't act a lick -
coming to Hollywood. He is told, in no uncertain terms -
by every 'well meaning' agent, manager, and film company
executive that he is too foreign, not talented, and pretty
strange looking - and he should just forget ever making
a living as an actor.

Now, imagine his name is Schwarzenegger.

(By the way, the highest paid entertainer in the history
of the business.)

They do not know!

Don't listen to them!

It's like an Olympic runner getting training advice from
a couch potato.

Now here's some advice that WILL help you ...

Define your product!

Get clear about precisely what you are trying to market to
the industry. "I'm an actor with experience and training"
is a generic product. No one buys generic in our business.

I looked at your IMDb thingie - and your FB pictures. I'll
give you my own impression:

Your pictures are far too generic. They show a woman of 50,
who (because she can) dresses younger, wears her hair in a
younger style, and in short looks like an attractive woman
between 40 and 50.

I'm left to guess who this woman really is.

Keep in mind that we (producers) don't buy generic 'actors'
- we buy specific characters.

So, step one - stop promoting a generic actor and start
marketing a specific character 'solution.'

Given your eyes, facial structure and physical shape you
have an enormous potential - but you have to be thinking
clearly about the CHARACTERS you can and should be playing
(and there are a lot of wonderful roles for someone like
you). Success is the result of an actor selling a unique
one-of-a-kind product - so that's where your real work
begins.

Step two: stop focusing your attention on the questionable
'reasons' that  you aren't working as much as you'd like.
This is especially true when those 'reasons' come from
someone who has no idea how or why actors succeed.

As I point out in my courses - 'consider the source.'

Start putting more effort in defining what it is you have
to contribute to the making of product - where you fit in
the telling of a story - who are the characters you were
born to play.

Do yourself a big favor - invest in You Must Act! (I feel
okay about this obvious plug for my course, because I
offer a money-back guarantee - but more importantly, I
address the very issues you bring up and offer real
solutions which can change your results dramatically.)

And please, for your own sanity, stop listening to those
people whose jobs have no real connection to the reasons
actors succeed. They are just there to 'guard the door' -
and like most guards, they have little or no information
that is of any use to you in the pursuit of your career.

In fact, if you read the bios of every successful actor on
the planet, you will discover that those 'well meaning'
folks are always off-base. Their record is an unblemished
one of being 100% totally, unrepentantly, irretrievably
... WRONG!

Hope that helps.

Have a great week and, as always ...

Much Success,

Bob


Bob Fraser is one of the most successful actors and showrunners in television, who now directs his creative energies towards helping actors succeed in Hollywood.  Check out more of his stuff, at:

http://www.showbizhowto.com
http://www.youmustact.com
http://www.theagentcode.com
http://www.headshotsecrets.com
http://www.hypnoticaudition.com
http://www.anactorworks.com