Film Courage: We were talking about 9-to-5 jobs and I wanted to go to something that
I’ve heard other people talk about and that I’ve also experienced in the past and that
is you take the job and they know you do other things outside of there [that employment].
And they know “Okay, that’s fine” especially in Los Angeles most people aren’t just that
job title.
But then they start to get weird with you, the other workers start to get weird and now
we have social media and they can kind of go “Oh?
I see…”
And it starts to change on you and that’s when I’ve seen people get pushed out the
door.
Or they start to make you sign things that they are not making other employees sign like
“You will not use your phone during work hours” and you don’t.
But you start to see that the parameters are different for you for some reason.
I don’t know if you’ve experienced that?
I’ve heard this from other people.
Rhomeyn Johnson, Actor: Well let me say this.
I didn’t experience that because I was way gone by the time that those kind of things
started happening.
But I know people who did experience that.
And they would come to me the person who had experienced that because I had been long gone.
And I would tell them “Well that’s telling you it’s time to go.”
Without them having to tell you that.
When stuff like that starts happening to somebody an artist that is working 9-to-5…don’t
get me wrong.
You have to be able to sustain yourself.
So if you need that work the job.
And you know people say “Should I quit my job?”
And I say “Only I you can sustain yourself without that job.
Otherwise you need that job.”
Because see to do what we do as an artist this is not the day in age of like 300-400
years ago when someone would be starving in a little hamlet somewhere in England.
No…them days are over.
You’ve got to be able to sustain yourself.
If you’re out here on the street and you don’t have a place to stay, you’re not
an artist at that point, you’re out here fighting for your life.
So if you have a job, stay there.
You’ve got to try to find a job that is going to allow you to pursue your craft and
those are real hard to find.
Like I mentioned the Neilson thing.
The Neilson thing was cool because if you had something to do you would go do your audition
or job or whatever and might now show up that day.
As long as you got those [movie] passes out or whatever, they didn’t have a problem
with that.
So you’ve got to pretty much find a job like that.
That’s why a lot of artists and actors and people are waiters and servers and all kind
of stuff like that because those are the kind of jobs that people understand it all.
And those are what I call “romantic jobs” for actors.
And those are the few jobs that the industry higher ups have no problem with an actor being
or doing.
Because when I say romantic I mean in the sense that all of the top people at one point
or another were waiting tables or a valet.
Those are the kind of jobs that top people see a young, aspiring actor doing and are
like “Oh?
Okay.”
They remember their experience at that.
“Oh…wow.
He’s going to really grow and isn’t that nice.”
But the industry people are less patient then people working in Corporate America behind
a desk somewhere.
Industry people are less patient with that because they know the difficulty in getting
out of those jobs.
And see those jobs they always start somebody off (from what one of my friends told me)
they always start somebody off with “Oh, sure…you can take off.
You’ve got an audition, go ahead.”
After a few auditions they start coming down on them like “Do you really have to go?
We really need you here to have to do this or that.”
Then that effects the actor with their agents and what not.
Then they have to say “Well I can’t make it because I have a meeting.”
That’s when the agents and people say “Okay?
What are we going to do?
I can’t be doing my job here submitting you speaking up for you to get in and say
“Hey she’s really good.”
Or “He’s tops.
You need to see him.”
And you can’t make it when I set the audition up.
So it’s starts working like that.
So it becomes a point if an actor or a singer or whatever you are in the industry, if you’re
really, really serious about being in this industry, you’ve got to eventually say “Okay,
I’ve got to leave that.”
And if it means…if you’re making 40, 50, 60 thousand (whatever) or a 100 thousand on
a corporate job and you really, really aspire to be in this business you might have to leave
and go get a job making $12.00 an hour to be able to do that.
And that takes a hell of a lot to do because if you’re married or have children or something
it becomes difficult.
Once you have children or something like that and it doesn’t matter to me if you’re
in the arts or whatever, to me if you have children, they come first.
The business and all of that comes after that.
No matter how much I love acting or whatever, if I’ve got a bunch of kids or I’ve got
a child, that child comes first and that’s the way it should be with anybody.
So it’s a real tough thing to do, it’s a tough nut to crack and you finally have
to just be real with yourself.
Like I was saying earlier, you can’t be with somebody who is not going to let you
be you.
This is the thing that is hard about this job.
And we’re not even talking about the actual rejection which is 99.9 percent of it.
And how people they have friends that were much more talented than me that had to leave
the business because they couldn’t handle the rejection.
And I’m like “Wow?”
And when I first got in it I had a little trouble at first and then I had somebody in
the business, my mentor that passed away several years ago he said “You better get over that
because you’re going to get rejected a whole lot more than you’re going to get accepted.”
I’m like “Wow, is that how it is?”
And he’s like “Yes.”
And I’ve learned that’s how it is.
I mean I’m not going to sit here and say “Oh I’ve mastered that.
I can handle rejection.”
It gets you at times because you’re human, you are real, you’re a human being.
And sometimes it hits you, sometimes it hits you not only because “Damn that job would
have paid me a lot of money.”
Other times it hits you because “Wow?
I thought I was really good and that’s the part I want to play.”
Not even considering any money.
It’s just the fact that your artistic thing “I could really get into that role.
That’s a challenging role.
That would be really good for me to do that.”
And then you don’t get it.
So it hits you in a lot of ways, so you’ve just got to eventually…and it’s a thing
I keep going back to, you’ve got to be true to yourself.
You’ve got to be true to yourself.
You’ve got to be true to yourself not only as far as a job, you’ve got to be true to
yourself as far as can I handle what I’m doing?
Can I handle this?
Can I handle the fact that I’m not going to have a lot of money at a certain point?
Or I’ not going to get a job and I’m going to be depressed about sh*t.
Can I handle this?
And you just finally have to say “Okay, yes I can" or “No, I can’t.”
All these friends that I had when they left the business or what not when I see them or
I go home for the Holidays or on Facebook or with some people we stay in touch and talk,
I don’t hold anything against them as far as not being an actor “You’re not an actor
anymore?
I can’t relate to you.”
No!
These are friends people that I love and care for.
And I tell people, I say “Hey!”
And what I aways do is, most of my friends who have to leave the business and go out
of here, most of them go home and don’t have any money and can’t really get home.
I provide everybody a way to get home, I’ve sent many friends home.
Not on the Greyhound because I wound’t do that to them.
Because if you’re coming from LA to Chicago or Detroit or New York that’s a hell of
a long ride.
So I fly them home.
I mean I’ve sent people home with one-way tickets and I have people say “You’re
always sending somebody home?”
And I say “I do that.”
Because if they’re broke or whatever and they can’t get out of here and need to go,
I help them.
I had a friend who left (she drove).
I said “Are you going to make it in that car?”
She said “I’m going to make it!”
And she said “Well I’m going to need about 200 dollars.”
I said “Okay.”
I gave her 200 dollars.
And other people said “You gave her 200 dollars!”
I said “Yeah, she’s got to go home.”
She’s like Dorothy, she’s got to go home.
She’s clickin’ them heels to get the hell out of here.
Go!
I’m going to help you get out of here.
Because that’s what you have to do and people thank me and I say “Oh man, I would hope
you’d do it for me if that were the case?”
I mean I’m sending two or three people home a year.