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Shanice Kamminga is a dutch actress living and working in Los Angeles. Her blog Stars In The Eyes chronicles her life, adventures and thoughts and is a wonderful read for anyone who has a dream.
Why Do We Want to Become Actors Part III: Unstable
First published November 24 2012
Famewhore, attention seeker, naive/delusional, unstable, childish – If you want to go to LA to become an actor you are obviously either one or all of these things. According to those certain kinds of people you encounter in daily life anyway! And although there’s no need to justify yourself to them, I do ponder sometimes why it is we have this unwavering desire to play dress up and pretend to be somebody else.
Why we voluntarily choose a life full of uncertainty, finanical instability and rejection.
Why Halloween or the local Theater Group on the side isn’t enough.
Last time I delved into the attention seeking part of actors. But I actually think there is something deeper at the root of that. So I’ll use my fancy schmancy degree once more and will psycho analyze them crazy actor folk all seriously once more …
unstable
Working and aspiring working actors are not the only people that love acting.
There’s tens of thousands of people that enjoy acting at the local theater group, in regular classes or tiny projects on the side. Why are they satisfied doing that?
Why aren’t they all chasing that big dream of making their money with acting?
Maybe they love acting less?
Or maybe because they have a family to support and can’t take the risk?
I grew into my face. I had a very funny looking face when I was little. I had like big eyes, big lips, big ears. But when I was little I was constantly being made fun of for having big eyes and that was awful. I used to come home crying.
Obviously I don’t know.
I’m just a 20-something Dutch girl from a place known literally as the middle of nowhere (and yes by literally I do mean literally and not figuratively).
But I do have a little theory.
I think there is something in aspiring actors -and perhaps all artists that strive to make it big – that separates them from hobby actors.
Something that propels them to make crazy sacrifices and give it all to achieve that dream.
I think it might have to do something with chasing worthiness. Maybe all those hard working actors and other artists have that in common. Something innate, or something that happened in their early lives made them at one point feel like they were not on par with the rest of society.
Like they were not as good as the rest.
Maybe they were insecure, or bullied, or friendless, or put down by someone important to them. Either way an experience that lead to a period of isolation and loneliness. Something that happened in the formative years and left a scar. And maybe that’s where the desire and dream to become someone known, someone high achieving got ignited. So they could show everyone that they too are worthy, and that they too matter.
It was not a great time. I was a victim of bullying and had other kids kicking and punching me every day.
A lot of celebrities admit that they were bullied at school or that they had no friends or that for some reason they couldn’t connect with their peers.
And just eight months in Hollywood has also taught me that a lot of actors are still unstable in some way, shape or form.
The question is of course, which came first? Perhaps those silly artists had silly personalities from the get go and that’s what led to them being treated differently. Most likely it’s an interaction between the two.
All of these are just unsupported thoughts, of course. I would never want to slide into the realm of quasi-science or popular psychology, I’m merely pondering something that interests me.
What do you think? Were you ever isolated? Do you remember when your desire to become a working actor came about? I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts!
This article is reprinted with the kind permission of Stars In The Eyes and Shanice Kamminga.
Why do you want to become an actor
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From Guest Blogger – LA actress Shanice Kamminga – Famewhore, attention seeker, naive/delusional, unstable, childish – If you want to go to LA to become an actor you are obviously either one or all of these things. Part One – Famewhore
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From Guest Blogger – LA actress Shanice Kamminga – Famewhore, attention seeker, naive/delusional, unstable, childish – If you want to go to LA to become an actor you are obviously either one or all of these things. Part Two – Attention Seeker
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From Guest Blogger – LA actress Shanice Kamminga – Famewhore, attention seeker, naive/delusional, unstable, childish – If you want to go to LA to become an actor you are obviously either one or all of these things. Part Four – Naive / Delusional