The Struggling Actor Syndrome:
Thoughts from Actor Tony Hale

Thoughts on the Struggling Actor Syndrome
with actor Tony Hale

[This is part of an exclusive interview with Actor Tony Hale here on ActingCareerStartUp.com].

Tony: So as you moved along and you were in New York and you were doing commercials and doing Off-Broadway were you able to support yourself fully through acting or did you have to do other things to make ends meet? And if you did, what were those things?

Actor Tony Hale: When I moved to New York I had just sold my car when I was in school in Virginia because I needed that base to go to New York with and I think I had maybe two months living expenses from doing that so I knew I had to get survival work. I did everything in New York. I worked for a temp agency, I did cater waitering, which I loved and also highly recommend. I do not wait tables well. I understand people’s attitude towards food in this nation. It iis just ridiculous! They can get so upset over it! But cater waitering was just great for me. I had to work big parties for very wealthy New York people and you just kind of pass out the food and wear a tux and get paid for it. It was like $20 an hour so it was really good money so I did that a lot for many years in New York as well as temping. At one point I remember I also got a job passing out flyers in the street, just anything I could to kind of make ends meet.

Tony: This kind of reminds me of something else that I find myself having to answer on the website, this thing about the ‘struggling actor syndrome’ and that if you are going to pursue acting then that is just part of the game, that you are going to be a struggling actor at some point. Your thoughts on that?

More Thoughts on the Struggling Actor Syndrome

Actor Tony Hale: Yeah you are going to be a struggling actor and it doesn’t stop, it doesn’t stop when you are ‘successful’. There is a tremendous amount of rejection in this business and most of that rejection you cannot take personally because it typically has nothing to do with you, but rather it just happens to be that they are taking a different angle with the character. The thing that’s different about this business is that in a ‘normal’ job people will interview or go to interviews for like two months and then they get a job for two or three years if they are lucky. With this business you interview or audition for two years and you are lucky if you get a job for two months. So you are constantly in this state of interviewing and you are constantly getting rejected. You kind of develop a thick skin but still, you experience a lot of rejection and its tough and you're still struggling constantly to find those gigs. I have no, I mean I have stuff in the fire potentially and I got a gig next week, which is great, but I’m always looking for the next gig! And when you decide on this career, you know it will be that way when you start. You know that you are not going to get a pay check every Friday and that you are going to be constantly looking for work. But that doesn't matter because you do it because you love it. I would not put myself in this situation if I didn’t love what I did. I love being on set, I love being with artists, I love performing, I love doing people’s work, doing a writer’s material, I do love it but finding the work is rough.

Tony: I’m putting myself in the shoes of people who are visiting the website…someone could think, ‘oh well you know he is already a successful actor…’

Actor Tony Hale: Right right right

Tony:‘…and maybe he’s just saying that.’ So here’s a question for you, if you had not enjoyed the level of success that you have enjoyed up to this point in your career and were a real struggling actor over a longer period of time and made enough money only to make ends meet, would you still be happy that you chose this career?

More Thoughts on the Struggling Actor Syndrome

Actor Tony Hale:Yeah I would. I definitely woul, because before I got this show that bought me out here to LA, Arrested Development, I was doing commercials and theatre in New York and I remember I kind of got to a place where I was very content living in New York. I loved my lifestyle. I loved my community and my friends. Then ten days before I got married I was booked on Arrested Development and we found out we would be moving out here to LA. So yeah, I enjoyed that life and again, it was not easy finding gigs sometimes, but I just felt like it was what I was supposed to be doing. And I had the encouragement and the support from a lot of friends around me and they believed it too.

You need that support system. I think that’s a really important thing and I tell new actors that often. When people move to New York or move to LA they immediately jump into ‘I gotta get my acting career going' and 'I gotta get get get...’. A huge piece of advice that I give them is, you’ve got to develop a support system first. You've got to find a community of people that can support you, because this business is going to rip you apar if you don'tt. If that support system isn't in place, if that’s not there, you’re out. You’re done. You gotta find those people who can hold you up. That's key.

See the entire interview with actor Tony Hale as he talks about the struggling actor syndrome and more.

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