Max Thayer: Avoiding The Look
Hollywood 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.
The difference between actors of WWII and today’s thesbians is that back then they did something beneficial for Americans. Most were patriots who helped America win WWII by either participating as real soldiers, or raising morale by portraying the best that America had to offer. Actors like Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Reagan, Charleton Heston, David Niven, and Katharine Hepburn made real contributions as Americans - and they never forgot that there were bigger and more important things than themselves.
But if Max Thayer’s anxiety wasn’t enough, he writes:
The odds of being hired (as an actor)… are about the same as winning the lottery. Meanwhile, waiting for our number to come up can mean a lot of downtime, and not many of us can pass off as “character study” a prolonged period of sitting around in our underwear and watching daytime TV. With a notorious underemployment rate, it’s hard to ignore the siren call of a straight job’s steady paycheck. The wail of a needy baby can leave the toughest, most determined dream cracked open like an egg.
The wail of a needy baby cracks dreams like a broken egg. Oooooh, that’s rich, Max.
May I suggest that the next time someone asks what you do, tell them you’re a “Hollywood liberal.” It’s not only your most convincing role but, when they give you That Look, you’ll know why.
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Clark Baker is a senior contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is an author, filmaker, father and retired LAPD officer. You may read more of his work here and here.
January 14th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
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January 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am
THEY WERE BETTER ACTORS BACK THEN ALSO BECAUSE THE HAD TO ACT THEY COULDN’T RELY ON ALL THE TECHNO CRAP TO MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Hey, where did you see that Max Thayer was a “Hollywood liberal” ? All I could see in his piece were bittersweet reflections on the ups and downs of an actor’s life, when compared to the glamorous image people have of it. No more, no less, and no need to pounce on poor Max. I really can’t see the connection with those rantings about “liberals”.