My son is an actor.
He always has been, since he was a little guy, hamming it up for
everyone.
And now he works at Marvel Studios. He’s not acting on camera, but he’s still “acting”
for other people. A person has to fit
in, obviously, to get a gig making movies.
People who want to make movies usually want to call themselves “actors”,
but all the beautiful parts of movies are behind the scenes: the writer, the producer, the director, the cinematographer,
the video people, the audio people, the stand-ins, the extras, the caterer …
Movies may have only a few main actors onscreen, but the
number of people who work on the movie (in some context) is enormous. Think about someone who makes epic
movies. My first thought is Steven
Spielberg. He produced E.T., Poltergeist, The Goonies,
Back to the Future, Empire of the Sun, Schindler’s List, Twister,
Men In Black, Saving Private Ryan, Transformers,
Super 8, Lincoln …
Are you fucking kidding me? How
many people did it take to make all of these iconic movies?
The answer is: a lot.
So, my son, he got a little older and then “acted”
differently. Acting in high school is
different than when you’re little, so people become a version of themselves (as they are in high school), and then they
act as the senior class president, or the president of a marketing club, or the
president of the German Club, or the starting quarterback, or the starting wide
receiver, or the dutiful suburban boyfriend … and they lose themselves a little
bit. Because they’re always acting.
But take it to the next level: college.
According to the movies, college is one of the following
things:
- · Animal House
- · PCU
- · Old School
- · American Pie
- · 21 Jump Street
- · Neighbors
Yes, these people exist in college. No, they aren’t real.
So … everyone is acting, yes?
And then, my son wants to actually be a part of a community
of people who act for a living. But the
community is nothing like the movies, where all the good parts
make it to the film. The movie-making industry is not the same as
the two-hour movie we watch at home. It’s
a culmination of thousands of people working together to get to a final
product, which (hopefully) is the product of a genius, like Walt Disney, or Quentin
Tarantino, or Clint Eastwood, or Martin Scorsese, or Stanley Kubrick, or John
Carpenter, or Woody Allen, or Cameron Crowe, or Darren Aronofsky.
These people had a vision, and then they systematically created that
vision – on film-. How fucking cool is that?!
And you know what? My
son is a perfect superhero, because throughout his entire life, he has tried to
make the world a better place, be kind to other people, be the best possible
version of himself, be educated in as many ways as possible, be a lover not a
fighter, and listen to art (music, films, words) in the active tense.
He is (at the same time) the best
and the worst version of himself, every day. We all are.
He will become Ubermensch some day, because all Nietzsche was trying
to say in that book was to be the best possible person you can be, every
day. And when you look at your life
(said Nietzsche), imagine having to live your life – forever – in exactly the
same way – over and over.
- Would you make the same choices?
- Would you chase the same demons?
- Would you love more deeply and strongly and internally?
- Would you want to wake up, tomorrow, and be in the same place?
And (if not), then you have to do something about it. Do something different, until you feel better
about your choices. If you change
nothing, well, you’ve chosen your life. If
you do something and fail, well, at least you did something. And if you do something which makes you more
whole, well, take the positive
endorphins and channel them into something else which builds the best possible
version of you. (Because you are
beautiful, in all the ways a person can be beautiful.)
I love you.
