A-Z of Acting. I is for...

Inspiration

Every actor has a reason for why they decided to follow this career choice but I can’t really think of anything specific that sent me down this route.

The first time I applied to go to university, I applied for Geography course, until it became apparent that I was shockingly bad at Geography! So by the time the next year rolled around, I thought about what I was actually good at (my choices were extremely limited). I couldn’t think of anything that sprang to mind, my exam results were average at GCSE and appalling at A-Level. Thanks to my pushy mother who made my brother and I do something every day after school when we were children, I found that the only thing I really enjoyed was performing.

There was my option. I don’t think that when I was applying to universities that I really thought I had a chance of a career in acting. I think it was mainly down to moving away from home for three years that was the main attraction.
As my course continued and results came in, I found that I was actually alright at it, and by the time I graduated I was ready to do it for real!

I was always someone who would cry at films, but before I trained, I was never inspired by any actors to give it a go myself, but that’s all changed now.

Any actor will tell you that they are always trying to be better at their craft. If you want to keep working, you have to push yourself to be better than everyone else in order to land the jobs that you want (or maybe don’t want but need!)

Inspiration has become a big part of my acting. I remember clearly the first time it hit me. I was in my final year of training and one of my favourite television programmes had its debut. Yes, I’m talking about the ever-fabulous ‘Torchwood’. I remember sitting on my bed and crying when it had finished because I knew in that instant that that is what I wanted to be doing.

I watch things now, and see such great performances from people, mainly women(!), that it makes me want to be as good as them, and I know that I never want to give this up, no matter how many more years my parents have to put up with me living in their house, or how many hours I have to put in in ‘normal’ jobs to earn the money to go to auditions to chase down what I want.

It’s also worked the other way too. I spent the best part of four years touring the country performing various plays in schools, and despite the trials and tribulations, one of the nicest things to happen was having children coming up to me afterwards saying how much they enjoyed the play, and telling me that I was a good actress and that they wanted to do the same thing with their lives. Who would have thought that I could be an inspiration?!?

I hope that any aspiring actors who read this blog are not put off by my rantings of the hard times in the industry, but are inspired by the fact that I keep pushing forward and keep working hard. Who knows what the future might bring… I might be writing this from a trailer in Hollywood one day!

Nxxx