Hollywooditis is ravaging Australian television

simply put, the opportunities for young actors are perceived to be harder here in Australia then in the US. Whether that’s true or not I can’t say but that’s definitely the perception from my experience having worked with and have friends who are young actors.

Actors love acting, they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t, especially in Aus. But when the quality of what they have to work with is a ham-fisted script written as quickly as possible that doesn’t push their capabilities as an actor, they’re going to get bored, and when they’re bored they leave.

And when the only other alternatives in Australia are samey type roles in neighbourhood dramas or seedy crime/cop shows all credit to them leaving.

Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers are two examples of quality work that actors would kill to be a part of. A bit part on neighbours and home and away however is just a stepping stone. Make work that people want to be a part of making and you’ll have your loyal young actors sticking around.

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I think the issue is that networks are more concerned with producing low-cost reality programs which cuts out jobs for actors and crew. What little drama there is on television is cut after 1 season.

There are very few long-running series here in comparison to the US which is why not only our actors, but crew and screenwriters are heading there.

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I have to say that this is not a new thing, when I was fresh out of drama school, the place to go was London, to the west end or television; they did much more interesting things than we were doing and we all looked up to the place.
Partly because we read such publications as Plays and Players or London Stage Review, etc. America was a closed shop in the main, unless you happened to be Peter Finch or Rod Taylor, you see, they were going overseas then too.Many Australian and NZ actors went north of the equator but many returned empty handed and with empty pockets. I think we used to concern ourselves more with the craft of acting and the science of acting than we did with Hollywood, that was the place that dealt in Movies rather than Films, we saw Hollywood as a place that sold out on art and bought in to glossy images and scripts of spoon fed sugar pills. I think we all had dreams of becoming movie stars. but most of us, those who had read or read and played in Death of a Salesman, knew that only a very small hand full of people will ever make it to the top, the American Dream which poor old Willie Loman believed in so strongly, will only accommodate a very few, most of us were pleased to have a job, and in my case, I was content to be as good a character actor as I could possible be, given whatever came my way, and whatever I could go out and get. As the years pass, you become perhaps no better, but at least you gain a stronger and richer background. Good looks , acting degrees and a fancy agent can only get you so far, they do not a good actor make, though they have made stars occasionally.

We should concentrate upon better scripts, better production, better reasons for acting and writing and producing than simply fame and fortune. Get away from gloss and finance, get back to the craft. I have no idea how we should attempt that.

I have no desire to preach, I’m just an ageing character actor, saying some things that have been bottled up for a long time.

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The Australian casting community needs to adapt and become more aggressive in terms of discovering and developing new talent. They play it safe and tend to cast the same actors in every project which becomes boring to the audience and frustrating for new talent trying to make their way in.

We need to follow the example of of our US counterparts who pride themselves in discovering a new “star”. Pilot season is a perfect example… they try to bring in new faces along with the old stand-bys which keeps things fresh and interesting. GOSSIP GIRL, THE OC are good examples.

AMERICAN PIE is a example on the film side. Joseph Middleton cast the original film with a bunch o “no names” that went on to be big stars… he took a chance that paid off. GOSSIP GIRL, THE OC are further examples.

Its a shame that Australian actors feel that they get a better look in the US than they do in their own backyard. There should be a strong push to break new talent as to provide incentive for them to stay home… or split their time between LA and OZ.

PACKED TO THE RAFTERS should the case study. Maura Fay Casting combined bankable names along with fresh new faces which resulted in fantastic Aussie TV series. It attracted an audience that was excited to see new actors and, in turn, made those actors into stars.

The art of discovering, developing and providing an opportunity for young talent to flourish seems to have faded. At the end of the day, talent is what matters and unfortunately, there are a lot of talented actors in Australia that are turning their back on the industry here at home.

Another argument is the money. US SAG minimums are much higher than Australian rates. If we can find $500,000 to pay Paris Hilton to show up at a party, surely we can pay our Australian actors a fair wage. The money is there, its just not being allocated properly.

Australia has too much too offer… let’s work to make positive changes.

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To be brutally honest, the local shows which are popular in Australia are mostly so because they are forced upon a public who are largely too technologically feeble to seek out well written entertainment from elsewhere.

Government legislation dictates that a network must maintain a certain volume of Australian content, so they do, and that said content must be in front of the eyes of the viewing public during those times when the flashing light and sound box happens to already be most frequently switched on in their homes. The legislation says nothing about quality of content and the only concern is whether it rates enough to sell pizza and dish-liquid.

Of course this has a bearing on the budget for the shows, but you only need to look to the UK, or even YouTube these days, to see how more is done with less when creative risks are taken and constraints are treated as opportunities. Unfortunately, the Australian writing community is small and incestuous, and there is no value placed upon building new talent when the pool is so small that any new fish will be viewed as a drain on the already meagre and limited sustainable positions on offer.

With this in mind, an actor worth their salt will realise that all too soon, no matter how good the (ongoing) series was to begin with, it will eventually suffer creatively and begin to atrophy as the same group of four people churn out the plots and supervise their dozen or so freelance dialogue monkeys to write the scripts. Given the level of commitment versus reward in being the regular star or support in a local series, it should be little wonder why anyone would seek opportunities that DO exist, even at the expense of months on a couch eating dollar store ramen.

Limited series, miniseries, telemovies and films are a different story. The actor can still be available for ‘sexier’ opportunities should they arise. But the greater problem still holds, our writers are receiving training. Not like they used to. Maybe there’s the odd course in school or uni, or private course, but there’s no training ground. There are fewer than ever on the job training opportunities for writers in Australian rooms around the country than ever before. This is one more reason why everything looks and sounds the same, why everything is as Anglo and milquetoast as it could possibly be without being 22 minutes of watching a pot of watered down porridge boil. I guess audiences, actors and writers will just have to wait until those few currently strangling the life out of Australian television (and to a lesser extent film) retire or die before there will actually be something worth watching not just because it happens to simply be on.

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As a Kiwi, I would point to shows like Go Girls, where Anna Hutchison was written out for a series and a bit so that she could film Cabin in the Woods among other things, and other members of that equally talented cast, including Jay Ryan, have gone on to do likewise. If fiction agknowledges the truth that people are now very mobile, then this mobility can become part of the story… and actors get the benefit of developing their careers in multiple countries, potentially becoming more recognised and more of a drawcard in the bargain?

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Simon, Kiwi produced TV shows are in a whole other league compared to Aussie TV. Every so often late on the digital channels they throw up a one off episode of a random Kiwi tv series and I’m personally awestruck at the quality of the work.

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@ Christopher

You make excellent points , I agree on many of them. However, don’t think that waiting for the current batch to retire and die will make any difference, we have already tried that one 40 years ago, it didn’t work, we young actors just got older, and the old problem remains, alive and well.
Creativity sits squarely at the centre of this problem. There is not only an absence of will at the networks and within the corridors of power, there is a down right fear, a terror yet, of thinking and working outside the square or even at the leading edge.

Pre production meetings ( I have sat in on a few over the years) are very odd places indeed. there are well dressed people, sitting around , some with clip boards or note pads and they consist of the silent majority and the two or three vocal ones. The decisions are nearly always the same decisions. J and K are popular so they are in, we need a granddad so Old H is in, Uncle Bob ? what about LJ? smiles and nods all round, LJ is in. Production is even more predictable. J and K cost an arm and a leg and they are, after all, the stars. Therefore, all shots revolve around J and K, K and J close up, POV of daily feeding J or K, quick over shoulder shot of daily just to establish who it is actually talking to J and K.

Many a production is and has been ruined by star shooting (it has another name) and neglecting, what are considered, the lesser parts. If an actor is worth his/her salt, then the daily playing the sweet shop proprietor with one scene and five words of dialogue will know that the production is all about the sweet shop proprietor, unfortunately, directors and producers don’t seem to understand this.

I use the late (great) Cyril Cusack as an example, he often played the odd little man at the corner store, or similar, and was often as memorable as the star, sometimes more memorable.

People employed by the networks and other production houses used to say “I am a producer, see its painted on the door of my office” Now they say “I am a producer see its painted on the door of my office and there is my degree in drama on the wall, right next to my degree in business management” How did Mozart get so far without a music degree I wonder, do you know, he wouldn’t qualify to teach music at a high school today.

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The actors are so good and so well trained in Australia that you can easily cast a series three times over. Seven Network should be defended in at least casting a lot of new young actors who are invariably surrounded by old hands who keep the shows together, rock up to work on time and don’t get arrested. The other commercial broadcasters are far more obsessed with name cast and also far less successful, forgetting it is the quality of the idea and the script which is fundamental to a successful series. The ABC also gets fixated on name cast and regularly drops the ball on script quality and idea. But ultimately the answer is to produce more Australian drama and offer more diverse, interesting work with actors. US shows exhaust themselves and the actors will return for decent roles and accept the far lower wages. But Bevan Lee like all drama executives at commercial networks is beholden to the programmers most of whom can’t get their head around any original idea and prefer tried and tested foreign reality/entertainment formats and foreign acquisitions. This is why we must fight and defend Australian drama quotas and not believe the bullshit about convergence and new opportunities for Australian dramas as espoused by the Googles of this world.

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On a top night, Packed to the Rafters snags 2 million viewers; just under one-tenth of the population. In 1974 when the population was 14 mlllion, Number 96, the blockbuster soap regularly scored 4 million viewers; or well over one-third of the population. 96 ran for five years against a slew of Aussie shows: Homicide, Division Four; The Box; Matlock Police; Cop Shop, The Sullivans and Class of 74.
Television was hot. Local content was the fire that kept it hot. So what happened?
Rafters is The Sullvans reinvented and you wonder why someone doesn’t give similar treatment to Number 96 or The Box.
The reason is they don’t have the people to do it..
70s television bristled with good writers, edgy directors, and powerhouse production companies like Cash Harmon, Grundys and Crawfords, outfits that aped the Hollywood Studio System of the 30s and 40s with in-house casting executives, directors, writers, editors, and camera operators on tap.
These people polished each episode of each production to a high shine and the punters were hooked.
If all we can boast today is Packed to the Rafters, Home and Away, Neighbours, the odd ABC crime shows,the dear-departed All Saints, short lived specials like Underbelly, Razor, and one or two actioners, no wonder our actors are crossing the Pacific.
Australian audiences have grown away from local content, especially in the cinema. The recent exception was Red Dog which yanked 12 million into the Aussie box office and hasn’t yet played in the U S (as fas as I know).
But Rogue and Red Hill, both well-acted, lushly-produced efforts, despite patchy direction(Red Hill) and familiar plotting (Rogue) failed to fill cinemas, and that’s bad news for investors, the life-blood of the industry.
You can’t have an industry without experienced back room people; the tough guys who know how to make ordinary seem extraordinary. They’re the experts who build the towers for actors to climb, and we don’t seem ot have enough of them.

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Apologies for the typos: Red Dog took 21 million; Last tine: we don’t seem to have enough of them

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As a fat old actor, I am available to be the love interest in any Australian TV series..

or i can play the nasty headmaster,

the leering dirty old man,

or man in crowd #3.

or police sergeant with big gut..

With all the hot young talent heading overseas, and thus finally work opening up for fat old actors, I am expecting Bevan to give me a call anytime soon!

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I am quite appalled with such an article, Mr Lee, like a lot of producers out there, you only concentrate your interest on a very little amount of Actors out there, mostly the ones with the NIDA stamp(funny thing, the NIDA cursus seems to have only a quater of Screen curiculum), the Sydney or Melbourne ones…guess what Mr Lee? there are other states and territories in Australia and a tremendous amount of very capable, yet anonymous Actors out there…so why don’t you start sorting out you false problem by stopping being short sighted and look beyong your pre-conceived belief that talent cannot be anywhere else than Sydney or melbourne

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Two things. There is a large contingent of professional actors based in Queensland, struggling for legitimacy because of the dearth of drama production up here. It is well known locally that casting occurs primarily out of Sydney or Melbourne. Secondly, I think part of this is people buying into the celebrity/fame route rather than opening up opportunities for actors to practice their craft per se – which, in essence, involves disappearing into character…. A lot of quality drama production occurs in the UK, yet Aussies don’t head there in the same numbers. I would like to see greater attention paid to distribution channels and removing financial barriers to entry to enable more low-budget/independent production to gain audience share, thus increasing the range of paid roles available – what is a ‘name’ actor but one who has been seen many times? Cheers, from the collaborative (as opposed to competitive) Quinceland. Sara (Actor & writer).

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This guy needs to pull his head out of his backside. Australia has a sh*t-tonne of actors and actresses just begging for a long running series to swoop them up. You guys are basing your facts on people like the Hemsworth brothers, and a few others obviously.

The truth is, nobody takes notice of Australian films and TV… and they all know it. The eyes for cinema fall on America, all these actors know it… and that’s where they wanna be. Where the action is!

The underbelly series is an example of a series in Australia that WORKS (for the most part anyway). Home and Away? Well, I’m not alone here in saying that it’s crap… but thats just a personal opinion… and it only reaches a small amount of viewers around the world.

Try stepping away from this Big Brother crap that you’re doing now (Beauty and The Geek, Biggest Loser etc) and actually write gripping shows… then, when you go into casting… have a look beyond your top agents… stick your hand a little deeper in the barrel. The best actors aren’t necessarily with the top agents. Heck, I know a lot who don’t even have agents, yet are better than over half the actors that currently work on Australian TV.

There’s my two cents worth.

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My god…I’m not surprised to have read this total nonsense from Mr Lee
“Concepts will have to have shorter lives upfront to lock in the best cast possible or, if wanting a longer shelf life, need to be constructed to move character focus without unsettling the audience.”
Well lets just say its a given that are you neither trying to unsettle or provoke the audience with Packed or Winners, its more along the lines of the drama somebody might conjure up to hypnotise a chook. So if what you’re suggesting is that the same pool of actors who keep cropping up in everything aren’t available then you can’t get the green light. Mmmm..here’s a hint.. lets maybe widen the acting pool away from the same old 25 actors we see popping up in absolutely everything and this might not be a problem.
You really know we are up the poo infested creek without a paddle to our name when the word “quality” is put next Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers. If this utter mindless dross is the benchmark of what we can produce as an industry or that it is even considered entertaining TV we might as well start passing legislation to make dam sure every school kiddie in the country goes off to school with a packed lunch consisting of a 2 litre bottle of coke, a bucket of KFC and Big Mac for an afternoon snack. Just because millions are eating that crap doesn’t make it a healthy diet option spurned on by saturation advertising during the peak period 2 Million people tune into whatever they can find that doesn’t resemble the worst thing on TV and this makes it a success? We might think that running our country like the worlds biggest mining company is the best we can do for our culture whilst we sit apathy riddled in front of our massive plasma’s scratching our collective asses mumbling “I’m gonna buy that thing” or “isn’t it sooo funny that fat people are sooo fat..look at the fatty trying to lose weight..sooo funny” or “Look he was married to Britney..now look at him sooo funny” I mean really, do we have to set the bar so low? Do we not care about each other and what we ingest? Obviously not.
Isn’t it so utterly frustrating that we have the talent, but we just don’t believe in it? maybe a little but not at the level we should be. We are living through the golden age of mediocrity.
Actors aren’t cattle to be herded into the the dramatic abattoir only to be put to sleep with mind numbing “producer enhanced” dribble. Look at America and the golden age of TV they have produced. How did this come about? Writers call the shots, they are the Showrunners, writers challenge themselves and each other to push the envelope of quality drama, so actors, directors, DOP’s, editors etc etc can then also rise to the dramatic challenge, which then, we hope will strike a chord with the audience, who will then also feel challenged by the cutting edge narrative. Very rarely do we see this method here. Nope we have Producers calling the shots and telling the jokes (Comedy in this country? I mean WTF doesn’t even begin to describe it?) and the writer is seen as some pathetic whinger. Either this absurd protocol changes or our industry will continue to look like taxpayer funded ingrown toenail that every now and then cries out for our attention. Seriously does anyone here think that a show like “Breaking Bad” could get up in this country? Not a friggin chance, why? Because it seems a little “too risky” and doesn’t fit the running narrative of the golden age of mediocrity.
PS: Underbelly #1 worked to some degree…everything else was just filler..sorry if you disagree, but we all know that’s the truth.
Suck it up.

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Some good comments here. I agree wholeheartedly that there are zillions of good actors to choose from, if they only widened their net just a little and not opted for lazy choices.

The ideal of people only lasting a year before leaving is general in almost ANY profession these days. Young career-minded people will always go where the opportunities are, that goes for Law, Finance, Marketing – any profession. Even more so when network’s don’t reward actors for staying on, often opting to axe them for becoming ‘too tired’. We live in a global world.

It’d also help if a show like Packed to the Rafters to stopped using almost exclusively white-bred anglo Australians and looked at properly representing an average Australian street instead of an Aryan fantasy land.

Hollywooditis is more like ‘White Australia Policy’ when it comes to TV.

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Good on you Doug, you pinpointed what’s wrong in this industry: the overuse of the same 25 actors in everything!

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I’ll start by stating that I’m an ‘unknown’ actor, so you’ll know where my perspective is coming from.
This extremely sad idea amongst Australian Producers, that they need ‘name’ actors for a TV show to have any chance of success, is so far off the mark it’s laughable. The industry players form an extreme minority of TV watchers compared to the general public. When I’m not lucky enough to be doing a paid acting gig my day to day life revolves around the vast majority, that being the said general public. And do you know what? They rarely ever recognize who I’m talking about when I happen to make mention of yet another lead role casting of some ‘beloved known’ actor. Always I have to say something to the effect, “You know? he/she was in that show about you know what”…a couple more examples later and I finally get the reply of recognition, “Ohhhh, that guy/girl…I’m sick of seeing him/her, why do they always use the same actors?!”
Ok, so I’m an unknown actor, you could forgive me for saying anything that might give me a chance of a quality audition…note I didn’t say give me the role, I want more the opportunity to audition for quality roles, it’s my job to convince the powers that be to give me the role, but I have to get past the submission stage and audition for it first!
However, the above truly happens all the time. Bringing me to the point. Those people, that vast majority of TV watchers, will only watch and more importantly, continue to watch a show if the ‘STORY’ is engaging. They seriously have no care for who is portraying the characters…Tween voters of popularity for soapy actors aside, I repeat, they have no care for who portrays the characters, only that the story is engaging within a quality production.
The blame is most definitely not entirely with the Casting Directors. We’ve all heard stories relayed by the CD’s that often they would love to bring in or suggest some little known actor who seems perfect for the part, but they’re often limited in time and especially to who the Producers/Directors want to see because of the latter’s misinformed ideas of who the public want to see.
Improve the quality of stories away from the same old premises, improve production values at every level and you’ll rope your viewers in regardless of who plays the characters. Obviously the best actor for the role would be cast, not necessarily the alleged beloved ‘known’ actor.
I could say the same for the closed shop Australian film industry. Obviously the mind set of ‘known actor’ attachment is the same in order to secure funding. Again, the minority industry getting it partly wrong there. Aussies will watch Aussie films if the story is engaging or entertaining, not necessarily for who is in it…and I might add if they even knew an Aussie film was coming up to release! But the Australian film issue is a whole other kettle of fish not just about casting.
So there ya go Aussie TV Producers, straight from the authority of the MAJORITY of TV watchers, you no longer need to worry about who the hell heads overseas. There’s more than a great supply of well trained, professional actors at your fingertips, so you’re free to inform your Casting Directors to open the flood gates and all you really have to worry about is how good are the stories you’re telling!

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Not sure about how the current pool of actors has been completely drained. I have been working as an actor in sydney for over 10 years, have done guest roles on many TV shows and have worked continually in independent theatre to very good reviews. I have an agent who is continually trying to get me work. I have never had an audition for a major Australian TV show in a regular role and have not had a casting for ‘any’ TV series role for about two years. If the casting industry looked beyond NIDA and WAPA grads and beyond casting perfect looking pretty people, maybe you would find there were plenty of interesting, good actors out there. It is the narrow-minded producers and casting agents and the limited scripts holding Australia back, not the lack of actors.

Not sure why we are bothering to gripe here though. Mr Lee will not see the comments, neither will anyone who is creating the problems.

Head to the UK. I wish I could. They cast real looking people in their shows.

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Great insight Mark…thats exactly it. So listen up you creche of morons who seem to be calling the shots in Australian TV land…”you have know frickin idea of how out of touch you are”. The Australian people couldn’t give a stuff about using well known actors, what they want is well told stories, engaging narratives that hook them in that are well cast, as in the actor should actually be able to act, not just be a pretty face. Blaming hollywood for our problems is beyond laughable, made even more laughable by trying to force the Australian public to believe that all the money we have poured into educating actors over the last 30 years has resulted in our ability to have a pool of 25-30 actors who play absolutely everything. I mean can’t you see what a joke that is? Are you that out of touch? To actually sit down and pen this article is a total and utter slap in the face to every struggling actor trying to get a break and I feel its of no coincidence that this comes from somebody that I feel has penned some of the laziest TV I have ever seen. I mean really, is this what success does? Rewards you with being ultimately out of touch with the real reality that’s going on?The real problem is the minority of power brokers who seem happy to just accept that producing crap is sustainable and okay, because the Australian public have low expectations. We can do better, we can make quality and we should stop throwing praise at content that actually dumbs us down, because little by little those that we admire change the character of our country. So lets try and admire real quality not the garbage that has the loudest ad campaign labelling it “quality drama” What a joke we have allowed to be played on ourselves by a devious little minority of hacks.

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excuse the typo “know”..meaning..”no”..talk about lazy.

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I think you guys are slightly missing the point just a little. He’s saying that no matter WHO he casts in the show they are likely to get starry-eyed and leave for LA after only a year. So he’s saying this will still likely happen even if he cast unknowns – they’ll get a profile and then use it to break into LA, leaving him without a cast.

When your show centres around a family and the kids want to keep leaving – what do you do? You can’t bring in a ‘long lost son/nephew/cousin’ in more than once, and they sure can’t just pop out a 17 year-old kid during season break.. so essentially you have no show.

And Jessica Marais, Hugh Sheridan, Ryan Corr and George Houvradas were all virtually COMPLETE UNKNOWNS – give or take the odd role before Rafters – when they were cast in the show, and now all are extremely popular. Yes we are tired of seeing Rebecca Gibney and Michael Caton but do some market research of the ‘common suburban Australian’ and I’m sure you’ll get high points for each of those actors – and this is what pays the networks bills. I’m not sure what everyone’s argument is here.

My point earlier was that they need less white-bred characters and more than just a token idiot Greek mate in order to truely represent an Aussie street.

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How about focusing on the quality of your programming rather than making creative compromises to ensure it is a long running cash cow?
Ricky Gervais has done this with his programming to huge success both in terms of critical reception and ratings. If its a two season show, then great, you’ll have more time to create something different.
Just because its long running doesn’t necessarily mean its successful. Its thinking like this from industry leaders that makes me a little less surprised that great Australian programming examples are few and far between.

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Matt – you’re not making any sense. The point is that the show is extremely popular – whether you agree with that or not, the ratings are high – and right at the hight of its ratings the lead characters choose to leave in order to chase fame in LA.

This isn’t an argument about the quality of programming or making compromises! They’re happy to keep the show running as long as it’s popular, but that gets hard when the cast keep leaving!!

Gervais is a different example entirely. He’s an actor/writer and producer with his own productions that he – quite luckily – has complete control over, so it’s his prerogative to have a show last only 2 seasons and he’s lucky enough to have the power to have networks back that. However, on the flip-side while he axed the UK Office after 2 seasons, the US version is still going, even though ratings aren’t as good, so I’m not sure what your point is using him as an example. Rafters – and most network TV shows don’t have the luxury someone like Gervais has as there are generally numerous stakeholders making decisions – producers, networks etc.

They are a business – if it succeeds they want it to continue.

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JR..Matt is making perfect sense. Yep casting is a big ingredient for any successful production and some of these questionable “quality” TV shows can serve as a launching pad for the careers of a few lucky actors. But one or two popular shows isn’t an industry and we seem to be adverse to allowing drama that has a real punch to its narrative to get off the ground. Gervais is a good example of the kind of writing talent we should be searching for and developing. I think it was a very mature and measured approach to giving the office only 2 seasons, anything beyond that would have killed it. Does something have to run for a long time to be a success? Not if the show is well written, takes some risks, breaks new ground. Of course a business wants to milk a show for all its worth, but lets be honest here after a while the show itself becomes a burger flipping routine and the dramatic taste is pretty stale. The ratings might be high, but whats the real cost of watching all that junk? I think the network TV model here is broken and busted, timid and scared. Time to take a few chances, time to blood new talent, right across the board.

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I can perceive the tendency to haggle and squabble over the misconceived points here. I understand, only too well, the frustration that leads many film and television artists, particularly actors, to become anxious and slightly illogical about the topic of work in the industry. The naked truth of the matter is cold and cruel in the extreme, but must be faced by all who would write actor on their tax forms. No matter how much work becomes reasonably available, there will always be vastly more actors and “would be” actors consumed with frustration and envy, by the perceived lack of opportunity. Only a handful of players will make it into work and even fewer will make it into the star roles. I have had to sit on my hands with my mouth shut many a time as I have seen poor performances by lousy actors getting the popular vote and exceptionally fine actors working as waiters. This is the order of things in the entertainment world I am afraid, and nothing can be done about it, or will be done about it. If you want to work, get out and sell yourself, begin your own production company, busk if you must, but for goodness sake , don’t sit at home expecting to be employed or discovered and carp about the system getting it wrong. I know it is frustrating, but that is the nature of the horse you have decided to back. New talent will not step aside for newer talent, and neither should they.
Once in work, the out of work actor quickly forgets the pain of obscurity.

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Please feel free to break your long reams of comments into paragraphs…

It’s much easier on the eye..

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@ Tired eyes.

Sorry.

I won’t call hyperbole in this case, but I doubt that I have used even a short ream.

I do take your point.

If your eyes are really tired, you could try “Muream”

Regards,

Richard

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Richard..I’m not an actor..I have friends who are and I’m utterly sick to death of watching talent wasted in this country and witnessing smug self satisfied hacks branding what they produce as quality and saying that as an industry this is the pinnacle of what we can produce, this is drama/comedy at its best. As Leonard Cohen says”Everybody knows the game is loaded, everybody knows the fight is fixed” all this wrapped up in an industry where nobody knows anything. This naked truth doesn’t mean that you have to sit down and take it , keep kicking against the pricks, keep creating and maybe you might break in and infect some badly needed change. The monoculture is ruling the roost in the golden age of mediocrity it really is a sad state of affairs.

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A very informative article, well pointed out BL.

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i read with interest but have nothing to add to this discussion other than my admiration to all the actors who read it because they are far braver than i, who instead opted for a safe corporate gig but often laments his conservatism

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@ Doug.

I read you loud and clear. There is a definite problem, and it has the basic shape that you describe.

I am aware that I have had my share of space here, but I can tell you, if I got going in earnest, I could write a book with the stories of mediocrity and down right ignorance that I have seen and had to contend with over the years.

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Blimey, there’s a lot of spleens being vented here. If everyone out there who swears they’re the lost. forgotten great writing and acting talent, might I point you towards the new frontier of web series. Anyone can (technically) do it… so go on, give it a burl and stop your whinging!

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Oh Cath…the old whingeing tag..thats half the problem with this country you express a passionate opinion and you get the whingeing tag. Anything that doesn’t support the monoculture gets this tag and we suffer as a culture because of it. The majority of Australian content on TV has become bottom feeding dross..and thats apparently okay, because those that produce this garbage think the vast majority of Australians will suck up anything. Your pedestrian view of the appeal of the webs series is a little simplistic. Although I will say the rise of internet broadcast can’t come quick enough in my view and will slowly begin to erode the dominance of crap content on TV. The “spleen” trigger here came from the view of one of Australia’s most successful TV scribes, blaming hollywood for some perceived woe about not being able to work with the same handful of actors who appear in just about everything. Most people who have read the above article have seen it as yet another example of how out of touch TV Land has become and expressed their disgust at this continued mix of ignorant arrogance. There is a brain drain of Australian talent overseas, not just by actors but also from directors, writers, producers etc etc…why? Because the local industry has become stale and impossible to sustain a career in..it really is that simple. So when you read the above.. the reaction evolves towards a passionate opinion..or in your case whingeing. So Cath get out the DVD box set of Packed to the Rafters, make yourself a cuppa and sit back while you slowly begin to get that warm inner glow that comes from not having to think all that much..nothing wrong with that..it really does help in terms of stopping you from whingeing
regards
“The Professional Whinger”

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The problem of talent wanting to leave is a symptom of a bigger problem. The Australian system keeps supporting the same writers, producer and directors, who let’s face it keep making bad Australian TV and movies that about 10% of Australians want to see and about 0% of the rest of the world is interested in.

Unless your a super enthusiastic entrepreneur who can privately raise your own capital to start your career as a writer, director or producer, it’s near impossible to make a break in this industry, as you will not be eligible for Screen Australia, or any state based funding body to financially support you getting a project off the ground.

Now hypothetically, if you are that enthusiastic entrepreneur who raises private funding to launch your career, you’ll be smart enough not to make ‘Australian’ content as you know it has no real world-wide market value, so you’ll head overseas with your cheque book and make something that has market demand, and once you’ve succeeded there, you’ll never come back to Australia again.

So what’s left in Australia, the same producer / directors who Screen Australia and state based funding bodies who will keep supporting them to make bad Australian content.

If I were an actor, and I could get a small career start in a bad Australian TV production or movie, I would do that, but would be getting myself out of the country as soon as I possibly could to make it in the real world.

There are four big things that need to change in this country should we actually want to progress this industry:

1. Funding bodies need to provide a mechanism to finance first time writers, directors and producers.

2. Replacing the ‘Significant Australian Content’ test with a ‘Commercial Viability’ test, to encourage producers to make content that audiences, not only in Australia, but the rest of the world want to see.

3. Simplify the 40% rebate, relax the level of red-tape on applying for, and obtaining the rebate on a film production project, make it more accessible to off-shore producers who want to film in Australia.

4. Cut the bureaucracy within government funding bodies, it can take months if not years to get a project off the ground in Australia.

In summary, unless our entire attitude to television and film production changes in Australia, our country will continue to back duds and great acting talent will continue to migrate to La La land where they may have the chance to appear in something that gets a real audience.

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Fixing the Industry in Three Easy Steps.

1. Writers get no funding. You can either write; or you can’t. Full stop. Funded writers crowd the industry and foster mediocrity all the way down the production line to poor old Mr Actor, who has to act the shit the writer churns out. (Poor old Mr Actor up the thread, by the way, can write better than most film-school or funded hacks going around today.)

2. Get government the hell out of the industry. Their grubby hands lead to politically correct rubbish that infects every creative industry in the country.

3. No committees. Ever. About anything.

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Hang on

Sam Worthington was working in australia for over ten years befor he went got snapped up in avatar & Cate Blanchett was based in London for about ten years before comming home to sydney?
Chris who..oh thor..not a fair comparison

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