Actors & The Creative Process

Thank you to everyone who responded to last week's open question. Many of your thoughts echoed my own, but there were also a number of ideas that caused me to think more deeply about certain aspects of this subject. If you haven't, I encourage you to take a look at all the insight before continuing through this post.

I've worked with some actors, not many, but enough to have been confronted with the agony of a talentless and/or utterly inexperienced lead, and the dream of working with someone who has the chops to give you exactly what you need for every scene. Acting, as it turns out, is something very few people can do well, despite how many people try. It's an art, and a hard one, and it's tough to underestimate the value of the craft. A bad or even so-so performance will ruin a film, and a great one can elevate it in kind.

It's also true that actors are the face of a film. They represent, more than any other element, a film's "brand," so to speak. It's actually pretty easy to put a price tag on that, since there's always some idea as to what kind of profit the film might bring in. If you cast Will Smith, you can guarantee that your film will make over a hundred million dollars. So, from a strictly business perspective, how much would you be willing to pay for that particular actor?

So there's the case for an actor's paycheck, but this doesn't take into consideration the moral ramifications of overpaying a person. Is it right for anyone to make twenty million dollars for a month of work? Or, how about the point Asia brought up in the comments: perhaps we should consider the fact that an abundance of money and fame often ruins people's lives, and this seems to be especially true with our movie stars.

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Here's this week's question, aimed directly at all the creatives: What is the best way to be consistently, dependably creative? What do you do to get the pump primed, and keep it flowing? How do you get yourself to produce on a regular basis?

If you're like me, you're always looking for new insight in this area, so share what you've discovered, and pay close attention to what everyone else has to say.