Happy New Year

The new year. A time when we’re all supposed to crawl out of the comfort of cheesy leftovers and cosy pyjamas and start thinking about how this is going to be our year, the year that we truly make it. As January hits, actors across the land (whether emerging from the gruel of panto or the pain of experiencing the grinding halt that December comes to every year) start thinking about how they’re going to take this year and make sure it's their name stamped all over it.

The problem is that the world hasn’t quite caught up yet. Everyone’s still working out whether those last few slices of turkey are still safe and trying to convince themselves that their entire wardrobe must’ve shrunk in the wash. No one knows when they’re supposed to put the rubbish out and everyone’s enjoying that joy usually held exclusively by the self-employed where it could genuinely be any day of the week.

So, while I wait for the rest of the world to reluctantly prize itself out of its slippers, I’ve thought about how 2014 can be a good year. I make no secret of the fact that, acting-wise, 2013 was a bloody shocker. My worst year since I graduated 7 years ago, I barely worked. In fact, I earned more in a week at my day job than I did from acting in the whole of 2013. It was horrible. At first. Until I realised that everything else in my life was brilliant. I have a lovely life, a wonderful boyfriend, a truly brilliant family, an excellent day job, somewhere to live and Adventure Time Monopoly. And when I realised all that, things started to happen. I started getting to nerve-wrackingly perform Casting Call Woe and deal with the shock of people asking me to write things for them. And I’ve already had one acting job this month with another have another coming up in a couple of weeks.

That’s 2014. Not letting this silly industry get the better of me. If acting wants to ignore me then fine. Yes I’ll keep applying for work, yes I’ll update my headshots, yes I’ll finally get my new showreel sorted. But I will not let acting get me down. I’m not one for resolutions because I’m the crumble to the good intention’s custard but I do vow this year to stop measuring myself in terms of how much acting work I’ve done recently. Because it doesn’t matter. If I haven't had an acting job for 6 months then that doesn't make me a bad actor, it just makes me a bloody awesome rester.

So here’s to 2014. Good luck to all you actors determined to make it your year. I hope you all succeed. Unless you’re in my casting bracket, of course…