<p>To me, the point of the documentary is that there are large numbers of working actors who are not stars, and love their careers, and this is what their lives are like. It was eye-opening to learn about how actors who might have had a great recurring role and won an award, will still be back on the audition treadmill when the gig is over. I thought they were all so brave, even heroic.</p>
<p>I feel as if I got great insight, and I would love to see something similar about women, to see how the lives of female character actors might differ. Most of the men in the documentary were not particularly good looking, and I wonder how that plays out for women. Is everybody gorgeous, insecure, and bulimic? Is the typecasting more or less rigid for women?</p>
<p>Well, after reading all these posts, I’m going to have to see the documentary. I read an article on a movie actress who was asked if it felt great when she was finished with a movie. Her response was that it just meant she was unemployed again. When I read prodesse’s comment about being back on the audition treadmill, it made me think of that article.</p>
Hey, I’m pretty attractive, but I’m not insecure and bulimic! LOL </p>
<p>I won’t sugar coat and say female character types don’t have a tougher row to hoe. Especially minorities. And the general wisdom is that roles for even well preserved leading ladies with lucky genes tend to dry up by the time they hit 45 which is younger than the actors in that documentary. It’s basically true although closely watching some movies will show you that there are still a decent number of supporting film roles to go around. Not to mention all the recurrings, guest stars and even a few series regulars that very much include character types. Long live Betty White, right? There just aren’t as many as there are for men, but that’s the case with all types and age ranges due to the overall gender inequality throughout the business. But, there are actually fewer women who are still at it by that age due to attrition from a large percentage having given up their careers to rear children plus myriad other self-elimination factors. That’s probably the biggest difference between a typical male and female working actor’s career and it’s a difficult thing. Once you jump off the treadmill to raise kids, it can be hard if not impossible to get back on if you aren’t a major name, so there is some serious soul searching to be done … Then, it’s like that with a lot of different types of careers. </p>
There just aren’t as many as there are for men, but that’s the case with all types and age ranges due to the overall gender inequality throughout the business. But, there are actually fewer women who are still at it by that age due to attrition from a large percentage having given up their careers to rear children plus myriad other self-elimination factors. That’s probably the biggest difference between a typical male and female working actor’s career and it’s a difficult thing. Once you jump off the treadmill to raise kids, it can be hard if not impossible to get back on if you aren’t a major name, so there is some serious soul searching to be done … Then, it’s like that with a lot of different types of careers. </p>