Thinking on your feet to get that job

The world of acting is a hard graft and actors need buckets of perseverance, says Shane Nestor

TOO often as artists we play the victim. Yes, actors are underpaid and undervalued, but if you wait to be fed you’ll be kept hanging with your begging bowl. The problem with some of the most talented actors is, they are ready to believe in an imaginary world over a real one, which is very useful on stage but not so useful off-stage.

To quote Joe Purcell (Mail Online), our most famous Irish actor of late: “The stage was always easier for me to do than real life... real life is the problem for me, I still find it hard as I don’t have much self-confidence but it was a love for me, I certainly wasn’t doing it for the money.”