Are You Gorgeous?

I get this sort of letter many times a week.

Dear Bob,

I love acting. I have been doing it since I was 13. Since I moved to New York, people tell me that I'm not good looking enough to be an actor.

I'm not sure because I don't like the way I look either. I'm sending you my pictures to look at.

Well? What do you think?

Signed, Jack (or Jill)

Here's the answer I send out.

Dear Jack (or Jill),

Why does the hero (or heroine) have to be gorgeous?

The answer to this question is the key to achieving one of the most basic 'mind-sets' of the professional actor.

Once you understand the answer, you will improve your performance in auditions, interviews, onstage, on camera, in public and you will be able to enjoy an over-all peace of mind about your chances of success.

Here's the answer: The hero is usually conventionally attractive for two reasons;

First, the audience is meant to identify with the hero and it's so much easier for most people to identify with someone nice looking.

(Suspension of disbelief, a crucial part of story telling, requires the constant removal of impediments to the audience's understanding - i.e., an ugly, short, green hero will mean taking time for a really good explanation.)

Secondly, the reason we watch stories, on stage or screen, is because we like to watch. It is important that the audience be in a 'rooting' mood as they watch the hero.

Those are just the basic facts of telling stories - as we do - in 'pictures.'

What if you aren't the next Brad Pitt? Or Sandra Bullock? Does that mean you have a lesser chance of succeeding?

Truthfully? If your goal is to play the hero - it's going to be tougher. Not that it can't happen. Let's face it, the number of less than beautiful movie stars (heroes) is fairly substantial. From Humphrey Bogart to Whoopi Goldberg. From Steve Buscemi to Kathy Bates - and there are many more. But 9 times out of 10 the hero should be attractive.

'Twas ever thus.

What does that mean to those of us who aren't hero types?

It means RELAX.

In most stories there is only one hero and one heroine. ALL THE OTHER PARTS are just people - characters who can look like almost anything at all.

Can you look like you? Duh.

What you look like is part of the whole 'you' package. If you are not happy with the way you look - join the BILLIONS of us who feel the same way.

That feeling comes with being human. It's so ingrained in the human psyche, that when we meet someone who likes the way she looks, we're a bit put off. Liking your own looks is a very unattractive quality.

We make fun of those kind of people.

Okay, that brings us to the important part...

If you look like the hero you'll probably have a shot at playing the hero. If you look like the bad guy - guess what? If you look like Uncle Ferd, The Nurse, or Lawyer McNulty - well, you have a good chance of landing those parts. You will probably be competitive. It will usually be between you and someone else who looks like Uncle Ferd. You've got a fifty percent shot.

I'm being a little facetious to make a point:

Good storytellers (writers, directors & actors) do not give a rat's hiney what you look like. Period. They just don't care. If you are what they think Lawyer McNulty should look like - and you can walk and chew gum... you've got a real chance at the part.

This all simply means that you must dispense with any concerns, worries, hesitations, or thoughts of giving up... just because of the way you look.

You look like you. It has nothing to do with whether you will fulfill your dreams.

All snowflakes are composed of the same thing. And they all possess the same features - they are all cold, for instance. But all snowflakes are different.

Leaves, rocks, blades of grass, bugs, animals - well, you get the idea - all different. Whether or not it is divine providence or some German chaos theory that makes all things in nature, different, we can argue about over coffee sometime. But no matter what makes it that way - it is just a fact: No two natural things are exactly alike.

Bottom Line? You are a unique human being. When we watch a story, one of the best parts is watching the people - because every one we see is different.

We try to bend nature to our will, "Doesn't that guy look like my cousin, Edward?" "She reminds me of Katherine Hepburn." - but the fact remains...

Each of us is different. Like snowflakes.

The only place where snowflakes look alike is in 2nd grade, when we all cut them out from the same pattern. Remember? Teacher put them all up on the bulletin board.

Did it ever look like snow to you?

Don't worry about the way you look. You are a snowflake and without you and your fellows - we'd have no snow. And you know what they say...

"The snow must go on."