Tuesday, October 31, 2006
John Wells: Writing on the Wall
Backstage: "At some point in any Hollywood career, there is a crossroads: Go home or push on. John Wells came to such a crossroads one summer as a young man, staying at his parents' Colorado home. 'I ended up needing pocket change and got a job in a motel as a motel maid."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It makes me feel good knowing that I can starve, I can put plastic covers on toilet seats, and I can do drywalling for a living and one day I could end up with even a little of the success that John Wells does. It is inspirational; coming from an uneducated lower mid-class family (is that possible?), I never even thought college was going to happen. I can only imagine what will happen when I'm thirty years old. I hope to me successful and doing what I love to do, but theres always a chance it won't happen. I like that he called his "Southern Story-Teller" family "liars"....that hits home. Its good to see someone rise up. I hope I can do the same.
I was told by my the department chair of my undergrad, "If you have a fall back plan, you will fall back." That is so true, and everyone that I know who had a fall back plan is teaching or working in PR. It is so comforting to know that John Wells worked in a hotel to make ends meet, but never gave up on his dream. When I switched from Pharmacy to Theater, my mom was a little upset, but my father (who has HATED his job for 30 years) just kept telling me to do what makes me happy. I understand in order to be happy, sometimes I will have to clean the toliets of life. Thats cool with me, at least I'm not counting pills at the Wal-mart. I do wonder how many ppl will tear off thier dry wall in the hollywood hills now looking for John's work?
The one thing that I still remember from when John Wells came to speak at school that day last year was when he said that you aren't above getting coffee and making copies for your first few years of working. Thats how it works in this business and unfortunately, there is a mentality that when you graduate from CMU you will instantly get the best job in the world and that you will have every door in the world opened to you and you'll be the boss of everything. But that just isn't how it works. You have to be an assistant, you have to try to learn even after you graduate, you have to work harder than you can imagine and then maybe MAYBE someday you'll catch a break. In the mean time, you just keep working. I mean, look at the number of people that have graduated from this school. Now think of the number of people who's name you knew before you got here. Yeah, while people are successful, they aren't necessarily all Holly Hunter. Thats all...
- Jen Owen
Post a Comment