Mr. Birkenhead’s article is interesting in that he gives his true experiences as a working actor in LA. As a musician, I generally I am ever careful to not throw water on a young person’s dreams. It is always possible for someone to reach the imagined and life that he has worked for. Experience in the world of artists turns up legions of talented and trained people who can impress and move one with their display. Some will rocket to the top. Some will support the top dogs. Some will make a good living this way. There is a huge variability in the endeavor of pursuing a career in the arts. One must follow the lodestone inside.

It is also possible that one may reach a kind of dead end. Birkenhead shows that the dead end usually contains a door. On one night the door may not exist. The next morning it appears. It was hidden.

And while I am careful not to stifle the dreams of the young, an account like Birkenhead’s give a clear view into a world that is a subject for popular fantasy though universally not seen in any real way. Accounts such as his, which peel away some layers for a look inside are an element most appreciated by me in my visits to Salon.com.

I was a working actor for over 30 years until my career went belly-up. The author knows what he's talking about.

Now I teach acting, and I'm going to make this essay required reading. You're a terrific writer, Mr. Birkenhead, and obviously bright enough to know that writing won't bring you any more respect than acting did, but I hope it gets you laid.

I finally learned WHY people act... something I've pondered for years without ever getting close to an answer. But here, Mr Birkenhead gives me one answer:

"I know that may be hard to believe, but when you do it semi-right, acting is actually about getting away from your ego. It's like riding a rocket away from your ego and becoming weightless. And the two things you're incapable of when you're floating up there are thinking and caring what other people think."

ps: EDL - you were right and I was wrong.

Millions of people can make (and have made) the following confession:

"When I was young, I decided to go into _______ (acting, music, publishing, politics, law, medicine, teaching, diplomacy, non-profit work, etc.) because I thought the work would be interesting and I'd be surrounded by others who, like me, were sincerely interested in doing high quality work while making a positive difference in this world. After working for ___ years in my field, I finally realized that: most of time the work is dull; most of the people I work with are concerned with nothing other than money, status, and power; and the quality of my work has very little to do with success and advancement in my field."

Traditionally, this type of confession leads either to some form of escape (meditation in Tibet or yak farming in Idaho) or some form of "Little Engine That Could," "never say die," recommitment to "the dream." Peter's approach is much less traditional. With his “preference for limits,” it seems he seeks neither escape nor a renewed obsession with the pursuit of “fame and fortune” as defined by society at large. I think things will work out well for him.

In any event, Peter, please keep us posted. Don't forget to write when you get work and always remember that it is possible to get laid without getting rich and/or famous first.

Responses like Carol Jones drive me up the wall. Someone writes an honest account of their life; in this case the life of an actor, but whatever the profession, they write something honest about the realities of their life, and someone always goes down the "starving kids in Africa" route. You know, the "there are starving kids in Africa, so just be happy you have a chance to act, Mister ungrateful!!!" Come on! You speak of all of these actors you know who would "kill" to have Mr. Birkenheads "oppurtunites", but all this article illustates is that they would at best have bit roles on sitcoms and dramas, and at worst, and most likely, be waiting tables. I suppose the point is that that's not such a shabby thing, and that pursuing stardom is a false dream to begin with, but you'll be hard pressed to find even one Actor who doesn't dream of being the next Clooney, or Julia Roberts, and who doesn't dream of making that Oscar speech, and making $20,000,000 a film. If anything, this aricle is a hard dose of reality to those people who Carol knows, who would be "thrilled to death to trade places for him." The realities of their place in the acting world, and the writers, ain't all that different.

Wow!!! What a great bunch of letters. Not as good as the article; but as the great sage, Rabbi Hillel was so fond of saying:

"Vow! Vhat a great bunch of letters!"

This article is about disillusionment. I know exactly what it is like to chase a dream and then you are forced to abandon it because, well, you have to make some money to eat and keep a roof over your head. I look back now, after several years away from trying to write and play music and what the hell did I do the past two years? I worked one job after another trying to get that break and it never showed up. It is the hardest thing to come to terms with what you are capable of doing. The world never, never is like the movies with happy endings. You just kind of go on or you put a gun to your head. I have been thinking lately, nonstop in fact, that I should have gone back to school and studied something, anything for another degree the past two years. Thing is, dreams don't die hard, they sort of evaporate and you are older and you are not really mature, the people younger than you, well, they are less mature.

I certainly know what this guy is talking about. I for one am getting tired of reading books and watching movies and television. It is like this false media fantasy world I live in because my life is too painful to deal with. And what is there to deal with? You get a job where you are the lowest man on the totem pole, and the guy above you is about the same age and has seniority and is suddenly your boss and...you have to take a bunch of garbage and you watch television or listen to music or read a book and...just...kind of dream what you should have done...like spent the last two years following your dream. And then, what? If you start now, how will you eat, live, keep health insurance and the crushing blow that is regretting giving up on your dream in the first place. So, I could never tell anybody to just "hang in there, you'll achieve your dream if you just persist." No, real life works a lot differently. Basically, you become more humble, not in the way of a monk or self deprecating, but you aren't so quick to think of someone as "weak" or "timid" or any sort of adjective that describes someone who is awkward, a "nerd," etc, because you realize that adult life is a lot different from childhood dreams.

I wish nothing but good luck to Peter.