Acting Without the Drama

July 29, 2008.  I am Sparticus.

I think all men secretly want to be warriors.  Maybe it’s hard-wired into our genetic code; maybe it’s cultural…I don’t know.  I’m not sure it really matters.  One way or another, there’s a part of me that wants to be a gladiator or a ninja or an ultimate fighter.

Or Batman.

Batman’s popularity I believe comes from a thought somewhere in the back of a man’s mind that says, “I will never have super powers, but if I had enough money and trained long enough, I could become Batman.”

Whether it’s a masked Mexican wrestler or a gunslinger, men want everything to be a fight.

Actually, I’m not sure that thinking of the world as one big competition is strictly a masculine thing.  I think women do it, too.  They just fight in a very different way.

But what if there were another way to do things?  What if everything didn’t have to be a fight.

Certainly, as actors, fighting amongst ourselves (or even competing amongst ourselves) is not going to do us any good.  I used to watch for actors that were my same type and then go through every reason in the book as to why they weren’t as good as me.  After all, they were my competition.

But were they really?

Aren’t they just trying to do the same thing as me:  making their way in a very difficult industry?

Rather than getting upset when someone “takes our part” away from us, maybe a more connected way to look at it is to be excited that someone got a job.  It’s ok to be disappointed, but when we diminish what someone else is accomplishing, it really reduces us to petty, catty pseudo-actors scratching it out in the dirt.

I think honest critiques are fine.  It’s when we go to the brutally deconstructive place that we get into trouble.

So, as for me, I would like to find a kinder, gentler way through my life than constantly looking for a fight.

‘Cause, really, I don’t look that good in black body armor.

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