Baring illness, I have maintained this for nearly twenty years. It doesn't have to be huge things, like hiking to Nepal to get special butter, but can be a daily event that enables you, makes you feel good about yourself as well as creating a practice of routine that is vital to succeed as a self employed actor.
A common misconception is that fame is the end product of an acting career, that fame equates success. Well, this isn't true and a lot of professionals that I have interviewed for my 'Ten Questions with...' maintain that to be a successful theatre practitioner, one must be working, making work, honing work and making one's self available for work.
I believe that this is true. My ten things a day involves the obvious email applications to casting directors, to gigs that pop up on the many online forums such as Spotlight and CCP, but fame is not a driving motivation. Warhol said that we will all get our fifteen minutes (I certainly have known actors who have simply vanished after thinking they had 'made it' without any skills to continue) but I ain't after that. I want to continue to make fun and entertaining work with like minded individuals. I want to live from my passion. I want nice holidays.
The idea that all this is in order to get interrupted at dinner for an autograph is rather off putting to me. I did a brief (very brief) moment on Doctor Who and received a lot of 'fan mail' ranging from the usual delightful children wanting to collect autographs of anyone and everyone associated with the series to grown men coming to my house, wanting to have a photo taken with me and an item of my clothing.
My point is that hunting fame is rather empty headed. But so many younger actors believe that the qualification of people en masse for how they look or talk is what it is all about. It really isn't. There are a lot of books on the craft of acting out there, as well as men and women who have really pushed the boundaries of perceived norms through the craft...that they have become famous from their work is clearly a by product and that again is the hook for me: the work, people noticing the work, people being moved and provoked by the work.
Ten things a day is a mantra, a thing that reminds me what I am and what I do. And sometimes, be fair to yourself, getting out of bed at 6am to switch on the laptop and stare at it for twenty minutes is part of your ten a day.
Victories for creatives come in all shapes and sizes.
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