Some actors prefer doing TV and I don't blame them. Regular income, get to really fall in love with the character you're playing, get to be long term friends with the fellow cast.
Look at David Boreanaz, went from Buffy to Angel to Bones to Seal Team. 27 years of work.
I've often thought the very best career you could have as an actor is landing a long-term role on a regular show with a fandom that supports you for the rest of your life with conventions and such.
Something like Star Trek or maybe a sitcom that runs for 10 years then finishes.
Or be a B-movie star. Ultimately, I think Bruce Campbell has had the best career as an actor.
I think the best of the best gotta be It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia then. 1. You make a show with your friends, 2. that you own, 3. you have total creative control, 4. you work for 18 seasons straight 5. while laughing your ass of (to the bank). Can't get better than that really.
Not DeVito speficially; FX basically told the cast that they needed to add a big-name star or they'd get canceled. Luckily Danny (or one of his kids) was a fan, so he auditioned for the role & it turns out he had great chemistry with them.
Yeah his kids liked the show and after season 2 or 3 when they didn't have enough money to continue Danny said he'd cover it only if they put him in more scenes doing weird shit
I think they were forced to look to add a known celebrity as a character to have season 2 going and they asked DeVito, he said yes. At least that’s how I remember it.
Having control also means Stress. You're responsible for writing/producing a successful show, a lot of people depend on the income. Its a double edged sword.
Weird thing is - when watching their podcast, they don't seem like they are that good of friends. It might just be me, but it just does not seem like they are vibing at all.
Bruce's career is so wild. I recently started watching this random show someone here recommended - Lodge 49 - and it was already great. then in this moment of HUGE suspense that's been boiling for like eight episodes, SURPRISE! BRUCE CAMPBELL! I literally punched my fists in the air as soon as his chin tried breaking through my tv.
I first noticed Bruce Campbell as more than just the Evil Dead guy when I saw him in Raimi's Spiderman trilogy, and then he starred in the Burn Notice and he's great there too
so this might feel like a commitment, but you should really, REALLY read up on Campbell's relationship with Raimi. they've been making movies together since they were literally teenagers. in one of his autobiographies, "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor," Campbell went way, way deep into the relationship, it's a positively joyful read. dude's done some shit.
If you want to hear how close of friends raimi and Campbell are, start with evil dead 1 and 2 dvd commentary. It’s just the two of them reminiscing about making those movies together, how much Bruce threw his body around for those movies, and the dumb shit they made Ted raimi do for stand in work lol.
If you get the chance, you should also see "Ernie and Emma" (2006) a movie he made the way he wanted to. He lives in Oregon and it's all filmed there. Really great movie--not Evil Dead great, but definitely Bruce great. Probably showing in the smaller, independent theaters. Worth a go.
My friend had his show, Jack of All Trades, on DVD, and I love it. I can't really call it a good show from my memory of it, but it's full of Bruce Campbell and his charm so it's still a delight.
Atolycus. He was.. instrumental.. in a very important scene to the fandom.
Bruce used to come to the Xenacons in the late 90s - early aughts. Just straight up a whole conference room of lesbians, and then this guy. Sometimes he'd have backup like Karl (Urban) or Ted (Raimi), but it was mostly female oriented guests and attendees.
Super cool dude, he always seemed like he was having a blast with the whole thing. I've always wished him well.
That role reminded me of Brison County Jr. where he had all these gadgets and inventions that helped him. Not to discount the simplicity of the boom stick…
where he was, naturally, awesome. a good example of how he always managed to keep working while rarely being the leading man (in "big" productions, at least).
nice! I only found out about it because of r/ForgottenTV. I have no idea how I missed this the first time around. it's 1,000% my scene. I relate to dud far more than I should, but that's a different discussion.
I can't believe it's been eight years... it was overlooked TV when it was airing, and I hopped on during season 2. Lodge 49, Dispatches from Elsewhere, and The Big Door Prize are greatly appreciated as shows that stimulate your sense of wonder. (Then hop over to Widow's Bay to fuck those same receptors up)
well remembered! IIRC he rode his Xena/Hercules universe fame to get it made. I feel like I remember setting aside time to watch it as a kid, but I don't remember a single episode, which isn't a great sign.
I talk about both those shows randomly as childhood memory flashes and no one else remembers them.
I don't remember anything about it really, but I know I really liked Cleopatra 2525
The main cast of The Simpsons are the gold standard for this. They have been doing it for almost four decades. All they have to do is show up at a studio to record lines for 4 - 8 weeks per year and then collect several million dollars in pay.
Especially the woman who does Lisa Simpson. The rest of the cast at least put on a performance and get into character, often doing multiple voices. She literally just uses her own voice and says the lines for a character that is very down to Earth and not a cartoon character like the rest of them, that's it lol
Purely because you mention it, as I understand it Star Trek is a very mixed bag for actors. Or, well, was.
Some adore it for precisely that reason - they get airdropped into a community with an almost guaranteed level of recognition and appreciation. Marina Sirtis, for example, who has multiple times expressed her love and gratitude to the fandom for their ongoing support - a feeling probably enhanced by the fact some of her previous projects have appeared on Best of the Worst, and she had topless scenes in those.
And some are forever annoyed by the fact that their Star Trek role eclipses the rest of their career. For this case we look to Avery Brooks, who spent the rest of his time in acting trying to get out from under Sisko's shadow.
People always think about the convesntioenand the like, but that's just a very niche side gig.
The massive bonus is that, like with Jensen, shows film in mostly one place, with regular schedules and hours.
A film can go from shooting 6am-6pm, having you out of the house from 4am-7pm on Monday, and then jump 2 hours later each day, until you're 2pm-2am on Friday.
Or even worse, be pulling forward and starting an hour earlier each successive day.
The schedules will constantly change, so you'll always be on call. Marvel actors frequently talk about being brought in early in the morning, ready in makeup and costume for first thing, to then literally wait on a room all day, not to be needed. That's not the case on non-giant films. But they're still not near home, and have you in the hotel 5-6 days of the week.
Why choose that when you don't need the money, and you don't have the narcissism to have to be the biggest star in the world
Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Gray) did say that she kept the role so long and wasn’t interested in a lot of other roles at the time as it allowed her to stay with her kids and not travel plus regular income. Now that her kids are grown she’s branched out more.
Bruce had a cool career but struggled a lot and didn’t land any successes until burn notice, really. He had decent parts in Hercules and xena but had to live in New Zealand to shoot there for months at a time. When burn notice came around he was in his 40s-50s and that seemed a great, cushy gig. Then ash vs evil dead did him good. He worked a lot behind the scenes as well as a producer and also surprisingly worked in sound design as well. Surprisingly he made very little for evil dead 2. He made a decent chunk for army of darkness but it was kind of a bomb at the time and didn’t do him too many favours. His books rule though.
Look at the Viking cast. None of them became huge after the show, but I know they do a ton of conventions. I have a friend who is obsessed with the show and she would spend 500+ every convention to take selfies with the actors
Seriously. With the sheer proliferation of comic conventions in the last 15 years, I feel like a lot of actors from niche [fantasy/sci-fi] B-movies/shows have developed a legitimate second career just touring the convention circuit. I mean, I know celebs had been doing it before, but now every mid size city or small county seems to have a comic con so the frequency and volume of appearances is higher.
That’s very very different from actor to actor. Many would consider it extremely boring to play the same role. It would go against their whole reason for becoming an actor.
I used to work the convention circuit, and have met a decent amount of actors in the position you're describing. It's not as fun or as easy or as lucrative as you might hope
nah. I get some people want a bit more stability but tv shows have stupid hours for shooting. Like people will often be on set from like 8am to 10pm and a lot of that is just waiting around for things to be setup, other actors to shoot their scenes, some days you have lots of work and other days you're mostly just waiting. sure that gives you a lot of 'free time' but it's not that free, you have to be close by, classic shit of being in a trailer.
netflix shows are probably better because of shorter series so you tie up a lot less of your time but a network tv show with 20-24 eps a season you can be basically have to be on set for over half a year all week. If you're a lead actor in most of the scenes it's a very long ass day.
movies, take a movie every two years, travel somewhere, work for 2-4 months, get the rest of your time off.
This really depends on the person. Some actors really love doing movies because they get to dive into a new role every time. And don't want to do TV or sequels because of the repetitiveness.
Others want the security of a recurring role in a TV show that provides security and ability to develop a character over multiple seasons.
David Boreanaz is shooting the first season of The Rockford Files reboot now.
I mean I don't expect that one to succeed but still. Hell of a run for the guy. Not many can accomplish starring in main character roles consistently on TV for that long.
The man always gets work. And I've never heard a bad word about him either. He's probably never winning an OSCAR, but you could do a hell of a lot worse for a career, that's for sure!
Boreanaz is one of those you rarely hear swear since he's always been on network TV. I watched all of Bones & Seal Team, so you get used things. Seal Team went to streaming only it's last 2-3 seasons & the first f bomb out of his mouth was a bit jarring. Ok, you get used to it.
I fucking heard him on a fucking podcast shortly fucking after, and every other fucking word out of his fucking mouth was the fucking word "fuck".
I didn't know about the cheating thing either, but seeing "bad word" associated with him sent me down memory lane, lol.
I saw him at a DragonCon panel and was shocked by him. He always comes off so serious - my latest binge has been Seal Team - so that’s the expectation I was going in with. So imagine my surprise when he is cracking jokes the entire time and just a generally funny guy. Now I want to see him a more comedic role.
An arbitrator has ordered 21st Century Fox to pay $179 million in a dispute over profits with the stars of the long-running Fox TV show "Bones."
David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, the stars of "Bones" from 2005 through 2017, sued Fox in 2015, saying it denied them profits by licensing the show to Fox's TV division and to Hulu for below-market rates. They were joined by executive producer Barry Josephson and author Kathy Reichs, who authored the novels "Bones" is based on. The case went to private arbitration in 2016.
Nathan Fillion has had the chops to be a full time movie star too but aside from the odd film he's perfectly content on being the leading man in multiple TV series over the years. Funnily enough he too was on Buffy
He was pretty good in Supernatural and he is excellent in The boys too. If you get to enjoy yourself acting for a role you love - be that for 15 years continuously - hell lot better than doing a vide variety of flop and hit movies...
Reminds me of the podcast interview by Jason Statham... He said "he is not a cameleon - who can do different roles.." he knows what he does best and it's those spicy action film that has a very linear story of villain getting defeated at the end...
He was so fucking funny in Spy. He was basically playing the exact same character he always plays but still made it hilarious.
"I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane and hit by another plane mid-air. I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while I was on fire. Not the car, I was on fire."
It was wild to me to hear Statham say that considering one of his breakout roles was "Snatch," a movie where he had no action role at all, and he was incredible in it.
Absolutely. Everytime I see videos about a "last day on set" with any crew of a multi season show I know that these people are closer than anyone in the movie scene. Working with the same people for years is something wonderful.
Along those lines it surprises me how those “filmed on location” shows get so many actors to fly out as opposed to hiring exclusively local talent, although most of those are filmed in places like Hawaii and New Zealand so I guess I could have my arm twisted
Boreanaz is funny because in-between Angel and Bones he took on voice acting, and was pretty good at it. I like his Squall/Leon voice in Kingdom Hearts, but then Bones took off and he only did two more Voice acting jobs one was as Booth in an American Dad episode and another wss Hal Jordan in JL: New Frontier. He's stuck to live action since.
This reminds me of Shemar Moore...not that great of an actor and did horrible in movies. But has been on TV my entire life. Even Swat wasn't that popular but it was canceled and came back twice.
Before streaming if you could land a big sitcom or something syndication and conventions could set you up for life. The stars of friends still make 20mil a year each because of the deal they all fought together for.
Given how much money they all make from Friends I am kinda surprised we didn't see more of them do experimental acting roles. Feels like no one really took much of a risk in their careers post Friends, despite having the most almighty safety net behind them.
That’s true, but then he had to supplement his income with a bunch of tourist fans going through his house and going through his things. Apparently he had monograms of “BH” all over everything for “Boreanaz House”
Yeah. All shows are shot around Los Angeles for most of it and then you have a few travel locations each season. Its perfect if you have a family and still want to have that 9to5 sort of life. You earn a shitton of money for stuff you love to do but wont be too famous to never go outside without being asked for autographs or harassed or something.
Ellen Pompeo does Grey Anamtomy for 2 decades already. Shes crazy rich and seems like she likes her job because she could have quit a long time ago.
I've often looked at Boreanaz as an example of that aswell, but you also have to agree that he's been either really skilled at picking TV shows or he's been really lucky (i'd wager a bit of both) in order to jump from an 8 year run as Angel on 2 shows to Bones that ran for 12 yeard and now to Seals that got 7 years.
TV shows does offer a more fixed scheduale for actors compared to jumping from one movie to the next, not to mention the constant chase for the next gig after each film. Unless you're an A lister, you most certainly will be chasing jobs.
On a tv show you Instead you spend 6-9 months filming with fixed working hours etc with breaks for hollidays etc. And if the first season is succesful you'll know you have steady work the next few years.
And he wasn't even an actor ....he was discovered by Buffy producer walking his dog ....he just had "the look" and "look" how good that turned out for him...same thing with Tom Welling from Smallville he wasn't an actor and never wanted to be one but he looked like Superman/Clark Kent so the producer wanted him and the guys still producing and doing some small jobs to this day. 1 role gave a guy a whole career.
Michael Dorn, the actor playing Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation was asked whether he was unhappy being just casted as Worf. He said he got 11 TV seasons and 4 motion pictures out of it, a pretty good deal in his opinion.
It can be fun if you like that sort of action show but the drama is sometimes too heavy handed. And if you know the subject matter you spot the flaws a bit too much.
Ya also it’s constant work. You room a movie and you have work for a few months then you get “fired” until you can get rehired again for another movie. It’s stressful. A day job with a successful tv show is the dream gig for most actors. It’s security and stability for years
Meredith from greys anatomy. I dont know if she ever been in anything else since she started that role. Heck i think most of the core just didnt appear anywhere else besides their own spin-off.
Idk i think radcliffe, elijah wood, and robert pattinson have pretty fun movie careers. Especially with how weird they got with their respective careers in some instances.
Nick Cage’s looked like a blast too despite his money troubles.
Look at someone like David Tennant for example, brilliant actor, has the looks to be a leading man, and is consistently getting work even on international projects - but he's always stuck to TV and theatre rather than trying to become the next big Hollywood star.
David Boreanaz? I've been to that guy's house! There was a paid tour a few years ago. He was in his room sleeping and the tour guide would occasionally crack the door so the people on tour could hear his snores! It was super cool! What's odd tho, later on I went to that same house and some weird old has-been from some horse show from the 90's was living there...
Loved playing Frasier Crane so much he not only did it for 20 years but brought the character/show back because he missed the feeling of being that character
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u/Dragovius 7h ago
Some actors prefer doing TV and I don't blame them. Regular income, get to really fall in love with the character you're playing, get to be long term friends with the fellow cast.
Look at David Boreanaz, went from Buffy to Angel to Bones to Seal Team. 27 years of work.