One Job Away
A newsletter on the unglamorous life of the most glamorous job
One Job Away
I’ve never chased harder after a dangling carrot than this one idea: that a non-celebrity actor is just One Job Away from A-list fame, constant offers, awards show glamor, and that Good-Life-Easy-Street-Bootstrap-Pullin’-American-Dream.
I teared up when Jason Bateman told us at the SAG Awards in 2019 that we at home were “just one job away… hang in there.” Jessica Chastain repeated it in 2023 “keep going, you’re one job away.” Even after three incredibly slow pandemic years at the time and a double strike on the horizon, it was a beautiful thought: one of these auditions will turn into the One Job that will allow for - if not awards - at least some career consistency.
It’s a story put before us time and again. I’m thinking of Hillary Swank sleeping in her car and Halle Berry living in a shelter. Actors who get cast in a two line role and wind up as a series regular. Formerly little-known stars launching into worldwide fame when their TV show happens to turn out all the elements to become a hit. For crying out loud, Jennifer Lawrence was “discovered” on the street! Jon Hamm was once desperate1 enough to teach high school drama! My god, anything is possible!
And it’s true. Anything is possible. Honestly these are the stories that can keep you going on days when you’re released from yet another pin and are combing Zip Recruiter for anything with flexible hours.
Still, there are more nuanced stories that frequently go untold. Does the world know all it takes for an actor to get even one job? Let alone the One Job that might catapult them past all of those missing middle rungs in the current system’s ladder. For every would-be-celebrity who slept in their car, I imagine there are hundreds more who found another way to make a living or stayed in the business but are just… doing okay! For every person who is discovered by the right insider for merely walking down the street, there are thousands and thousands of diligently working, extremely talented actors who may never catch that Big Break. As Jason Bateman has also said many times - it’s not a meritocracy.2
I don’t say this to be discouraging or negative. (More thoughts on the word “negativity” being weaponized against us another day!) I simply know too many actors who are disheartened because it’s only the Inspiring stories that get told. And inspiration can be very motivating but it can also be used to take advantage of us (you have to take the low ball offer because maybe it’ll be the thing that Somebody discovers you in! You have to buy the secret from some grifter who promises to know how to book that One Job!). For most journeyman actors, career trajectories are not a linear path. A steady rags-to-riches climb seems to allude most of us. Ours is a winding path, with switchbacks and dead ends, rocky climbs and gorgeous views.
This newsletter is for the stories of those of us who haven’t caught the carrot. It’s for those who perhaps just haven’t caught it yet. And for those who are on the path because they love it, despite knowing the One Job carrot may just be a helpful myth. It’s a space for celebrating your one job plus one job plus one job that have cobbled themselves together into a career. Where you still feel valued even when you’ve been Not Busy for a while and celebrated when the job finally comes through.
If that sounds like a space you could use too, I’d be honored for you to join me…
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Thank You
For reading, for trusting me with your email address, for sharing with your community, for your big feelings, your insecurities, your joy, your questions. And if you’re not an actor, thank you for taking the time to see if you resonate with some of the themes hidden behind this curtain. We’ll talk soon…
And now, your weekly bonuses…
Notable and Quotable
“One feels the radiance of a new page
on which everything could still come to be”
Rainer Maria Rilke ~ Prayers of a Young Poet
One Obsession Away
Wherein I share what I am obsessed with this week.
This week: Library Cookbooks.
Never been a huge fan of cooking but I received a Halfbaked Harvest Cookbook for Christmas a few years ago and found my joy in the kitchen go WAY UP when looking at a beautifully staged picture of food in a hard bound book rather than scrolling through a website, accidentally clicking on adds I don’t want and re-opening my phone with oil covered fingers every 30 seconds. I was like, wait. DO I like cooking now. Cookbooks now are not the cookbooks of my childhood, we’re talking instagram food porn on every page but without the addictive scroll response.
I take my kids to the library every week and while they’re browsing the graphic novels and young readers I slip over to the adult section and that’s where I discovered a BEAUTIFUL collection of cookbooks. I get a new little stack every week and it’s usually pretty easy to renew the ones I’m still cooking from!
Obsessed.
Out: clicking “jump to recipe” on a website.
In: checking out library cookbooks.
This is just a joke about how we greatly undervalue teachers in our culture. Teaching is not a desperate job but a gift to the world. Please no letters about teachers. (Also can you imagine Jon Hamm being your hot high school drama teacher?? I would’ve died.)
I can’t find a link for this, but he says it on Smartless all the time. Why do I keep mentioning Jason Bateman? Am I obsessed with him? Maybe? He was my boss for a little while and he was a decent one so I don’t think he’d mind me being a little bit obsessed. Feel free to reach out and let me know yourself, JayBae.
So fun!!
So good!!