Max Thayer: Avoiding The Look
Sunday, January 14th, 2007Hollywood actor Max Thayer complains about not being recognized in this week’s Dog Trainer Magazine:
I found an open seat at a table full of cops at a recent LAPD retirement dinner for a friend. After quick introductions, the guy next to me asked if I was retired. He’d clearly mistaken me for a fellow cop, and because I’m pushing 60, I suppose it’s a reasonable question.Secretly pleased, I answered, “Well, I’ve played a lot of cops, but I’m an actor.”
“Oh,” he said, leaning back as if he’d touched the underside of something unusual. He gave me The Look.
You all do it.
The instant we identify ourselves as actors, a mixture of curiosity, bemused suspicion and pity crosses your face. After all, if we’re really actors, shouldn’t you already know who we are? If you can’t place us, it doesn’t quite compute. What have we been in? We know that unless our recited credits contain a featured role in the latest blockbuster or a guest shot on a hit TV show, we might as well tell you that we’re astronauts.
Is there anything more pathetic than a narcissist who suffers from low self-esteem? It should not come as a surprise to Max, who makes a living by pretending to be a real person, that he has misinterpreted The Look. Let me explain.
If I introduced myself to Mr. Thayer as a successful actor and he knew I have never acted a day in my life, he would probably give me the same look. It’s the same look I’d get from steelworkers, doctors, lawyers, or teachers if I told them that I made a living pretending to be a steelworker, doctor, lawyer, or teacher. And if I put on a Special Forces uniform and a chest full of medals and told soldiers of the 82nd Airborne that I was not really a soldier, I’d probably get more than The Look - and deserve it. (more…)