For any actor having a tough time at the moment.

When we were at the Oxford Playhouse today Eileen Atkins told me that she had her first very job as an adult at this theatre at the age of 19, as an assistant stage manager (not an acting ASM,) and that she was given that offer of work by the eminent Sir Peter Hall no less. 

After her first day, she went next door to the White Rabbit pub and there was a young woman looking daggers at her. She asked who this was. Eileen was told that she was the young girl who had had Eileen's job as an ASM job before her but was sacked the week before. 

Her name she was told was Maggie Smith.

Ten weeks later Eileen was also sacked.

Therefore two of the UK's greatest female actors that have ever graced the stage, film and television, Dame Eileen Atkins and Dame Maggie Smith, were both unable to secure work as actor, having tried very hard when they started out, so they both took the only jobs that were available to them, assistant stage manager, in order to get a foot in the door of the British theatre.

AND they were both sacked because Sir Peter Hall thought them useless.

Both of them could have taken that as a sign given up there and then and got a job at John Lewis's instead. They did not. They just picked themselves up and started again. 

The most important element of getting on this industry is not so much talent but perseverance and of course luck. 


Don't let the buggers get you down!


© David Nicholas Wilkinson. 2016. All Rights Reserved.