Industry Access Quotes

One of the tough things about being an actor, probably the hardest thing, is getting your foot in the door, and my father handled that for me at a very early age.

There is a need for new talent in the industry but newcomers don't know whom to approach and how. Social media has become a bridge.

There is no line of demarcation between the amateurs and the pros; everyone is using the same tactics and playing in the same arenas. The only thing that separates them is radio, but the artist doesn't control who goes to radio and who doesn't.

Now that I've got a way in [to the industry] - because it can feel a bit like, "How can I possibly write a film?" - but now that I've got at least some experience in the film world, I'd absolutely love to do it again.

I don't know how people get into show business if their family's not in it.

After two years of sending out query letters and failing to get an agent, I made friends with an author, who was nice enough to introduce me to his agent. That got my foot in the door.

Things are difficult for outsiders in the industry, and it is very evident, too. It does not mean that insiders have it easy or that it's impossible for outsiders to break in. More often than not, the difference is about how successes and failures are viewed and magnified.

I've been here 21 years, and I literally did walk up and down Music Row trying to break into the business. I felt very free to go into any publishing company.

I didn't have an agent until I got 'Hairspray.' I had to get a Broadway show without an agent to get an agent.

Everyone asks me how to get into television. Ultimately, you have to work for free for years. As much as we enthuse about diversity, we are never going to be truly diverse because the system means only a certain section of society can do that.

If you don't know the right people or have the right connections, you may never be discovered. With 'Opening Act,' we are democratizing a notoriously impossible process, pulling back the curtains on a consistently fascinating industry, and affording aspiring artists the chance of a lifetime.

If you're an outsider, you don't know how to get signed by the WWE. It's not like football where you can sign up and segue your way in. You've got to know somebody.

Social media being used to discover new artists is great. There's not a barrier to enter the industry. People can just post music and share it. And if it's good enough, and people like it, it will grow.

People don't know how to reach record labels, and a lot of time labels don't listen to stuff that's sent in randomly.

When you start, the world of publishing seems like a great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more difficult now, and take longer than when I started to write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there looking for simple talent.

You can go raise the money outside of the industry, and then what you're doing is fighting with your money to get back into the industry, or for them to use your money instead of their own. So, you got to figure out how to do it within the flow of the industry.

If you win the Oscar, you get to go into just about anybody's office for a month.

Film is more of a dream when you're younger. I found it almost impossible to see how you would get into the industry having no connections, nobody in the family being anywhere near it and never meeting anybody that had been on a set.

Despite what you hear about the publishing industry being a fixed game that you can only get in if you know somebody, I'm here in person to tell you it ain't so. If your stuff is really any good, sooner or later some editor will take a chance on you.

I signed at Sony and suddenly they've started to take an interest in Israeli musicians and to listen more, and I send them stuff. It's very important for me to open that window for Israelis.

There's a misconception that actors with no background don't get any exposure from big production houses. I think people should start rethinking about it.

I realized that the actors that I liked and admired all went to drama school and got an agent that way. So I started when I was about 16 in drama school, and then I knew I had to wait until I was 18 so I could go on auditions, and I tried to get into one of the ones that I liked and then go from there.

Ironically, I find it harder to get a foothold in Australia than I do in the U.S. When I was in Australia, I struggled. It can be a bit of a closed shop; it can be hard for a newcomer to break in, whereas in the U.S., it has much more of an open-door policy, and they will give anyone a shot.

Basically, one of the hardest things about being an actor is getting your first break. I'm a product of nepotism. The doors were open to me. I'd done several movies before I decided what I wanted to do.

Industries only vary in scale and not in content, so I was never star-struck about Bollywood. However, I am fortunate to make it to Hindi because several people aspire to be a part of this industry.