I can totally understand why people say: 'I'm going to do this T.V. series so that I can buy a flat'. But you've got to see what's of value to you as an actor.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If you do a film with a studio, agents step in, they start saying, 'My actor has to get this amount of money', and it becomes about deals.
Some actors give you what you want. Some you have to make do what you want.
I'll admit, sometimes I've paid the bills with acting. You know the phrase, 'It's one for the money, two for the showreel.' I don't want that as a director. I don't want to compromise myself. There's a big old wide world out there. I want to explore it.
Really, you want to have variety as an actor. If you spend your career doing one thing solidly, people get burned out.
You do T.V. and movies to make the money, and then you do theatre for the love of it.
There's no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don't try to adapt it, make it commercial.
Certain actors wanna get paid, they think working in a low-budget movie is being ripped off. But for others it's like, 'Yes, let's do it.'
If you are the kind of guy who draws in 100 million people to see his film, you've got every right to be paid accordingly, but I qualify as a character actor. I don't put a bum on a seat.
Actors are sellers, and I figured out a long time ago that if you wanted to work a lot, you had to be on the buying side.
No matter how many people tell you, Save your money, when you've got a series, you never do. Somehow it doesn't seem important. Maybe it's because you've been without money for so long as an actor.