Acting is a noble profession.

Having been in the entertainment industry now for two months short of 50 years, people ask me who the great actors I have worked with are? 

I was asked this a few years ago by a journalist from the Daily Telegraph who was interviewing me enquiring if it was any of the actors I have employed like Anthony Hopkins or Kenneth Branagh or even Lenny Henry.

In a way, being a star is easy. 

Do they decide to do this theatre job for £x or that TV job for £xx or a film for £xxx. They are always asked. They rarely audition. 

The actors I admire the most are those who find themselves in performing in a work that "is not as good as it should be" and they do it as if it was Shakespeare.

I admire those actors who appear in a theatre production, and after the play receives the worst reviews, they continue night after night, giving it their all. 

I admire those actors who appear in a film that has not worked, in any way, but they still turn up to promote it aware of all its faults. 

So very often these actors are doing this work for very little money. They do it to the very best of their abilities. They do it because they love it. They do it because they are professionals. 

The hardest part of acting for almost all the actors I know is, not the acting, it's the getting by, surviving between the last role and the next. 

How dare some cunting journalists job shame actors as they did recently with actor and single mother of two Kate Jarvis who is working as a security guard in between acting jobs to feed her children. 

Acting is a noble profession far older than journalism. 

Not one of these publications would have job shammed Sir Kenneth Branagh or Sir Anthony Hopkins or Sir Lenny Henry. Of course, they would not. They would not dare. 

How dare they do this to jobbing actor. 

These so-called journalists are bullies. They pick on those who they think will not fight back - the jobbing actor. 

I was so pleased to see that so many of those stars stood up and defended Kate Jarvis, but then they were once like her before that lucky break - a jobbing actor. 

You can't be dealt the winning hand if you are not sat at the table.

Over the 50 years that I have been in this industry some of the very best actors, I have worked with have left the industry because they just can't make a living from it.

Other excellent actors have spent their lives in the industry but they have never really had that lucky break and they have had a so-so career. Two come to mind Connie Merigold and Stanley Lloyd. None of you will have heard of them but I worked with both in the early 1970s and I could not understand why they were not working more.

I have also worked with many actors, who have modest talent but who have had that lucky break and have gone on to be stars. 

Every now and again, I come across a story that gives hope to all actors. 

In September 2019 a film I made was invited to the 30th Dinard Film Festival. Even though it was my fourth time in attendance at this enjoyable festival, a celebration of British film, it was the first time I was there as a director.  I, therefore, found myself having lots of photo calls at the Grand Hotel and on the red carpet along with other directors there like Michael Caton-Jones, Adrian Shergold, James Watkins and actors like Emily Beecham, Freya Mavor, John Henshaw, Larry Lamb, Marion Bailey, Phil Davis, Lesley Sharp, Jane Horrocks and others. A new experience for me. 

I spotted Kris Hitchens across the balcony of the Grand while we were all changing photographers and interviewers. There was something about him that stood out. I was not sure what. 

When we talked later, I wondered if it was that for an actor, he seemed different. Along the way, in this industry, all of us change. Whatever we were before we started kind of gets lost. Kris reminded me of all the boys I went to secondary modern school with in Leeds so long ago now. He was very grounded and down to earth. 

I would later find that he had a small part in a Ken Loach film in 2001 and that Ken had wanted him for the lead, but Film Four had overruled his casting because he had little experience. After that, he decided to return to being a gas fitter, plumber, and I think other jobs.

Then a few years ago, he decided that he would have one last try to follow the dream and become an actor.

After playing a few small roles in CORONATION STREET and others TV series and leading parts in short films, and lots of interesting and probably low paid theatre work, he found himself being put up for the new Ken Loach film SORRY WE MISSED YOU. 

This time he was given the lead, and no financier would veto him. 

Because of the success of the film and his outstanding performance, he is now being offered other jobs, and lots of them it would appear. 

It's the kind of break every actor dreams of, and although they are few and far between, they do happen. 

For over 90% of all the actors I have met or worked with it's surviving in the meantime and hoping you don't suffer the disgraceful treatment Kate Jarvis sustained at the hands of the Daily Star recently who belittled here for doing a security job in a shopping centre having been in EASTENDERS for a couple of years. 

She was doing what the vast majority of actors do when they are not acting - paying the bills. 

Please don't buy the Daily Star. 

Actors doing it for themselves

Some actors get lucky.

Someone - director, producer or casting director sees them in something, often by accident and they are then cast in the job that changes their lives forever.  That film, TV or theatre production then receives brilliant reviews and industry-wide recognition for the actor. From then on, their careers soar, and they never have to audition again. Acting jobs are just offered to them.

Most actors never reach this stage. Well, not going along the usual route.

I am a great believer in actors doing it for themselves. 

Forty years ago, I was a successful actor. Well in as much as I had in the previous ten years appeared in 43 theatre, TV and film productions and all but one of them was paid work. However, I  took control of my life and decided to produce the productions I acted in. Ironically rather than cast myself in my first film as a producer, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE we cast Kenneth Branagh and Nicholas Gecks in the roles I could have played. I knew by then that I was more interested in producing than acting. 

The problem with acting is that you need someone to offer you a job. The simplest solution, therefore, is to give yourself that job.

It is tough doing this, and many times, it rarely payoffs in the way it is envisaged. But it is hugely rewarding and satisfying and far better than sitting around hoping one day to be discovered. 

I have in the last 50 years met thousands of actors, and very few decide to go down this road. Some do.  

One actor who has done this is Stuart Brennan.

Coming out of University in Winchester England, with a drama degree but with no showcase performance meant no agent. Some of Stuart's friends had moved to London to pursue the dream, but he just couldn’t afford it as London is so expensive to live in for many. He also couldn’t even provide headshots, so with no savings to support himself, and he moved back in with parents in Devon. 

He applied for everything going and got auditions for a just couple of short films and so went on the expensive trip up to London twice, only to not get the parts. He applied to some regional touring theatre locally in Devon which got him an audition. Four months out of University, he was desperate. 

In this audition he could see on the directors face that he wasn’t what he was wanting, so as he said goodbye he asked him what he was after. The director explained and Stuart begged him to let me give it one more go. He did, and the director was impressed and gave him the job touring Somerset and Devon - which sounds great, and Stuart assures me that it was, but it was two weeks of rehearsal, followed by fifteen performances for which he got paid about £350 for well over a months work. His petrol bill alone was about almost £350. 

So Stuart decided to do what he had done at University; producing, writing and creating. He teamed up with university friend Neil Jones, and together they set out to make a feature film called RISEN, about a Welsh boxer Howard Winstone from Neil's hometown of Merthyr Tydfil. They set themselves up in the capital of Wales, Cardiff. 

After getting a short film together as a teaser for the feature, and with no contacts they somehow managed to raise enough money to begin filming. 

Then during the shooting one of the investors didn’t come through and they had to stop filming immediately - and owed a rightfully very angry cast and crew a lot of money. Over the next five years, they would raise some money, pay some of the bills, film a bit more and repeat. Until eventually they had completed the movie and paid everyone their fees… Despite a very small release, they had some success internationally with the film and at the Welsh BAFTA’s, Stuart was to his surpise nominated for the Best Actor.

He won.

After winning the BAFTA, he wrote to a great many agents in London, and all said their books were full… and to this day Stuart has never had an agent. 

In September 2019 Stuart Brennan a man with few connections when he started, no money and no one fighting his corner has not one but two feature films opening in UK cinemas.

The first TOMORROW is Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese which Stuart co-wrote, co-produced and co-stars in with fellow actor Sebastian Street. It will be screened in over 100 UK cinemas.

The second film WOLF Stuart directs, co-wrote and co-stars in will be screened in over 60 UK cinemas.

Look at his IMDb entry to see all the other films Stuart has worked in over the last few years. Almost every job is down to him. No one else. 

Stuart Brennan an actor ignored by EVERYONE except his Uni friend Neil Jones.

Stuart Brennan who took over 5 years to make that first film.

Stuart Brennan who would not take no for an answer. 

Stuart Brennan who really has done it "my way".

Be like Stuart Brennan. 

Stop fucking moaning. Yes, the life of an unknown actor is shit most of the time. Get off your arse today and take control!!

No one else is going to do it for you.

 DO IT YOURSELF.