While friends put down $100,000 on a house, I clip coupons for $1.00 off deodorant. They lease a new car every 3-4 years, while my odometer climbs well into the triple digits. I don't order in pizza. I clean my own apartment. I wash my own car.
And I wouldn't change a thing.
Why do I forgo even the tiniest luxuries - and spend all my money on classes, workshops, headshots and filling up my car? Part of my answer is simple: acting is the most fun thing in the world. There is nothing like being on a set. The crew hustling cohesively to make something great. Getting the chance to act opposite a great actor for an accomplished director.
Then, there's the rush I feel when I really go through what a character is supposed to be feeling, physically and mentally. Feeling the warm sense of attraction in a romantic scene. Rage or heartache in drama. When I'm locked in, really feeling what I'm supposed to feel, the endorphins are pumping, my thoughts are clear and I am in that world. When the director yells "cut," I literally have to shake my head and snap out of that story and back into reality. There's no better feeling in the world.
Acting provides what few other things in life allow: a chance to be great. Not just great at my craft, allowing an audience to feel something they have never felt before, but to play/be someone great.
That's why.
