Melissa Peterman Quotes

I've never been in jeopardy, but being an actor is a pretty shady place to be because you never know where your next job is.

The hardest part of acting is not being guaranteed work. Every job could be your last.

All actors think every job will be their last.

I think a reason why actors get reputations for being crazy and neurotic is because your life task is constantly in flux.

As an actor, you always feel like you're not going to work again. You're always unsure about how things are going to work out, and you start thinking you're going to just fade off into the distance.

Acting isn't a sure thing. We're not set to have jobs for the rest of lives, and fame is really fickle.

I do love my work. As an actor, you live from job to job, though, and you have to be prepared for that.

Even the greatest actors have had dry spells where they've wondered if they were going to work again.

I didn't have a huge amount of security when I was a scientist from one contract to another. You're always thinking, 'Am I going to have a job this time next year?'

I won't say I'll never go back to a soap because an actor's life is so precarious. You can have the most wonderful patch where everyone wants to work with you, and in the blink of an eye the phone won't ring for a month, even a year.

As an actor, there's always that fear. You don't know where the next job's coming from, so you say, 'I'll do that, I'll do that, I'll do that'. Your choices are not always clearly thought out, and you can end up taking mis-steps.

I'm an actor, so I am always scared. You never know if you are on vacation or that you have been retired and they just didn't tell you.

It's either feast or famine, and that's the way it's been for as long as I can remember. I've spent my whole career thinking I'll never work again. Every actor lives with that insecurity. You just have to negotiate the rapids as they come.

And, hey, I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow.

When I left 'Days of Our Lives,' I was like, 'I don't know if I'm ever working again. I'm going to do the best I can. If it happens, great. If not, well... it sucks for me.'

All actors who have been around for a long time, which I have, and have been skint for long periods, which I have, find it difficult to turn down jobs. If I turn anything down my stomach turns over. I feel sick. It feels like gambling.

The life of an actor is very random. It can be exhilarating but terrifying - you do wonder day to day where the next job will come from. Some of my friends are very talented people, but you see them out of work - which can be tough. If you wanted that kind of security, though, I guess you wouldn't be an actor in the first place.

I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow.

There's only two givens with choosing acting as a profession: one is you will always be unemployed, always, and it doesn't matter how much money you make, you're still always going to be unemployed; and that you have no power.

You never can take for granted that you have a job.

You feel an affinity with younger actors, because, you know, it's a very insecure job. And it can be a long time before you feel like, you know, things might be all right.

To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.

No one really has any job security anymore, including myself.

Many years ago, I really didn't know where the next work was coming from.

I think it helps, as an actor, to never know when you're going to get that next script and you're done.