- Lara Ayad
There's No Such Thing as "Breaking In" to Hollywood
If you have ever searched online or talked with people about working in media, you’ve probably heard the refrain of what it takes to “break in” to show business. The industry holds the wonder of many, with its strange mix of glamour, intrigue, and elusiveness, and a mountain of self-help books out there have capitalized on this collective push against the shimmering gates of Hollywood with the promise of teaching you the formula for instant stardom.
Celebrities and famous film directors have become the gods of American culture, and we often assume that they skyrocketed themselves to success after that one audition, that one breakthrough film, that one screenplay that wowed all the big executives. But I’ve spent the past year talking with men and women who work in Hollywood as screenwriters, producers, and showrunners and here’s what I’ve learned: there’s no such thing as breaking into Hollywood.
Picture a farmer plowing a field.
Sennedjem (near center) and his wife Iieneferti (left) plowing a field and sowing seeds. Tomb of Sennedjem, Thebes, Egypt. 1295-1213 BCE (Dynasty 19).
Every day, he creates furrows in the earth in neat rows, driving forward with his oxen, his own physical strength, and his unwavering attention. The work is relentless, difficult, and not very exciting. The farmer has no idea if the weather or conditions of the coming season will even yield a crop after all the work he’s done. But he does the daily work anyway because he knows that, if he simply dreamt about a golden field of wheat while leaving his plow by the wayside, the crop would definitely never grow. The farmer has to have both the vision of what’s possible and the commitment and energy to do the work necessary, even if he cannot predict the future (and who can?).
Agriculture and Show Business couldn’t sit farther from each other on the Sexy Careers Scale, but working in Hollywood is a lot like plowing a field: you build a vision and commit to cultivating that vision into reality by putting in the work, often for many years. My own experience hosting a show on a local PBS affiliate and my conversations with folks who work in the entertainment industry show that it takes patience, creativity, pragmatism, resilience, and teamwork to create a TV series or film. And sometimes the final product is a spectacular failure, or, even worse, MEDIOCRE.
Every Hollywood creative cringes at the M-word, but he or she also knows that you have to make crap work before you make good work.
Below is a list of ten lessons I’ve learned from a number of incredible people who work in Hollywood and that I’ve had the honor of getting to know over the past year:
1. If you write something every day, you are a writer.
2. It takes tremendous time and patience to cultivate relationships, including ones with mentors who can show you the ropes.
3. If at least 25% of the work you produce is work you actually love, then you’ve found a job that makes you happy.
4. Build a network of people in the industry whom you could imagine being genuine friends with, and without the expectation that the relationship will result in a job, opportunity, or collaboration right away (or ever).
5. Expect to start off in show business doing low-ranking, entry-level jobs making people’s coffee, running errands, and sometimes being on the receiving end of people’s explosive moods. You will build resilience and learn how to see things from other people’s perspectives.
6. People will break promises they made to you, and they will flake on you. That does not mean something is wrong with you, and it does not mean you should stop working towards your vision.
7. It takes roughly 10 years of constant work to become a good writer or producer.
8. Share your work with others you trust, even when – and especially when – it’s not “perfect.”
9. Care about the work others do, and do what you can to help them make their idea reality.
10. Making great work that sells is not a guarantee of permanent success, or stable employment. Read Christopher McQuarrie’s (The Usual Suspects, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) wonderful and sobering Twitter thread on his filmmaking career here.
The best advice is often a bitter pill.
