One Man’s Method for Better Acting: Just Stop Doing It

August 7, 2008 by dennisbaker 

The title of this blog comes from a New York Times article written back at the end of last year about the actor Bill Camp.  I have been thinking about this article for a while.  There is a lot in the story that I feel connected to in my current season of life.  In it James C. Nicola, artistic director of New York Theater Workshop, is quoted describing Camp as a sterotype New Englander, stoic, decent.  “I think he’s like like Jimmy Stewart: warm, decent guy, with a lot of stuff going on inside.  But he’s not going to trouble you with his drama.”

In 2002 the talent agency that represented him suddenly went under, and he was asked to come and pick up his headshots. Other agents expressed an interest in taking him on, but he declined. “I needed to stop,” he recalled. “I wasn’t enjoying acting the way I do now. It became about getting the next job, thinking too much about that. It’s hard to stay away from that as an actor. The vitality of striving, the joy of making something was starting to wane. I needed to know that I can do other stuff, that I can live not being an actor.”

At the time he and Ms. Marvel were in California, where she was acting in the television series “The District.” Mr. Camp took a series of nontheater jobs. He cooked in a restaurant, worked as a landscaper and a night watchman; he repaired cars.

Ms. Marvel, who met Mr. Camp at Juilliard in the late 1980s, supported her husband’s decision. “It’s always up for debate whether we should keep doing this or not,” she said. “You’re really in a boxing ring taking blow after blow, and it’s really a matter of whether you can keep standing. Also, I think it’s important for an artist to live in the world.”

My life feels the same way.  I am currently working full time in New Jersey and starting in September will commute to NYU three times a week for classes at night.  This leaves no room for auditions or acting.  The pros of working full time and still being able to go to school are obvious.  My family is able to save money to move back to Los Angeles, save for retirement and begin to pay back school loans.  Also the skills I am learning at this job can be done on a freelance level, which is good for the life of an actor.  I could do this job anywhere, all I would need is a laptop and a internet connection.  Pretty amazing if you think about it.

There is still something that plagues me.  Since the debacle I have not been consistently auditioning for a couple of years and I feel rusty.  More than that I feel I need to get out there and prove that all the negative things said about me as an actor in the last couple of years are not true and that the negativity can be overcome.  With all this recent negative input into my art I have had  very little positive to counterbalance it.  That leaves me to question will I go back to pursuing acting as a career? Am I good enough? What expectations are lost and what need to be adjusted or regained?

I am always reminded of what the prof says, only 13% of equity actors are working at any given time.  That is a lot of actors not working as actors. A veteran actor of twelve years is having the same doubts and wrote into Backstage asking, “Should I just face the fact that I’m not going to “make it”? If after all this time I can’t support myself, should I quit?” Jackie Apodaca’s answer was what has been said many times in the past. Do what you love and if it is acting, “Take this minor setback in stride, and try to look at your new job as research for all those working folks you’ve yet to play. With your track record, the drought is not likely to last long.” There are low points in everyone’s acting career.  Points where they are not auditioning and wondering if they should quit it all together.  Moving forward in one’s acting career does not mean he/she is always auditioning or acting.

Mr. Camp’s life has completely changed since his two-year, self-imposed exile, and not only in career terms. After many years of dating, he and Ms. Marvel finally married on Sept. 5, 2004. Shortly before the ceremony his father died. And in June 2006 Ms. Marvel gave birth to a son, Silas. That too has fed Mr. Camp’s acting, his wife said. “It makes you a better human being, doesn’t it?” she said. “Anytime we can make ourselves and our art less precious, it improves.”

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Comments

4 Responses to “One Man’s Method for Better Acting: Just Stop Doing It”

  1. Scott Walters (the Prof) on August 7th, 2008 12:20 pm

    Dennis — It is interesting that the only conceivable options the veteran actor and Jackie Apodaca can imagine is keep doing it the way you’ve always done it, or quit entirely. There is, in fact, at least one other option: quit putting your money on the blackjack table and instead invest it in your own business. There are a lot of places in this country that don’t have theatre. If you care about the art, not the art as a means to fame and fortune (or to film and TV), find a place you’d like to live, commit to it, and begin a new life in art.

  2. dennisbaker on August 7th, 2008 12:43 pm

    Very true Scott. My second thought with the new skills set I am learning at work, and how it can be done as a freelancer, is that it would be the perfect job to do while creating and working within the theater tribe model. It can aid into bringing the artistic life into a community context.

  3. Erin C. on August 8th, 2008 2:35 am

    Thanks for posting those quotes- it’s so nice to know there are artists out there that struggle with the same things we do and still make something of their careers. My acting life completely changed when I did my first solo move (from San Diego to NYC) and when my father died 6 months later. I learned a lot what it is to be human, just like Ms. Marvel said.

    On a side note- I completely understand what you’re talking about. When there is a lack of positive energy from the business plus auditions are few and far between, I’ve also found myself feeling rusty and uncertain about the path. The only thing that has made me feel more secure in my art is either auditioning daily or creating my own work.

  4. dennisbaker on August 8th, 2008 3:52 pm

    Glad you liked the quotes! The Ed. Theater program puts on a couple shows during the school year. I think that might be a good way to get back into performing in a positive environment and they would be understanding to my school schedule.

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