You have a choice: pursue your dreams, or be hired by someone else to help them fulfill their dreams.
Being the boss of your own career, you get used to having veto power and getting what you want, or as close to what you want as you have mapped out.
Do not be intimidated. Go where the story goes. Report the facts. Make sure you've got it right. And don't let things that the president says or that the White House does throw you off your game.
Everybody's career has ups and downs. I like to take chances; I don't like to stand still. And I don't give a damn what the market is interested in; I want to try things.
I don't have to work just to work anymore. More interesting parts come my way, so I can afford to say, 'I don't want to make that.'
I've always felt like I've had the ability to choose which roles I was going to play. I don't think that the industry agreed with me, but I've always had a bit of a headstrong attitude of only doing the things that I really believe in and want to explore.
When my colleagues went to endorse Rob Garagiola, nobody asked me for my opinion about that. And I didn't ask anybody else. I did what I thought was the right thing to do, and I made a decision, just like they did.
My dream was to not work for anyone. There's only so many things I was good at - and how am I not going to work for anyone? I just don't want people telling me what to do.
I don't think I make decisions as an actor based on what I think the fans will or will not want at this point.
What's been nice is that I've been able to direct from a very idealistic place. I've never had to make my living as a director, which gave me a chance to choose material I feel passionate about. The directing allows me to not have to grab any acting role that comes along. I can pick and choose a little bit.
Accept that no matter where you go to work, you are not an employee you are a business with one employee, you. Nobody owes you a career. You own it, as a sole proprietor.
I'm at a stage in my career where I don't expect or get too much editorial input into what I'm doing. I have a proven track record of success, so my editors are willing to cut me some slack even when a particular approach is not to their personal taste.
I'm a freelance writer, and I work alone at a big desk in the living room of my apartment. There are many days when I don't utter a single word to anyone but my husband.
I've been wanting to produce for some time because I want to have more creative control over the things that I do and not be victim to the whims of other people's desires.
I am very picky with my career. I don't need to do it for the money or the fame. I'm very choosy, which is why I haven't played the typical role that people expect to see from someone of my stature and size, as the mean jock or the preppy. It's very easy to see me like that. That's why I go against it in different roles.
A lot of the reason I wanted to become an entrepreneur and avoid working for others is that you get to create the world you want to live in and the company you want to work for, and I've loved that. It's a part of entrepreneurship that women should really embrace.
I've accepted loads of criticism and sacrificed so much money to do what I wanted to do - which, in a very small way, contributed to making things easy for my kind of actors.
I wanted to work strictly as a freelance actor, and that's the way it turned out.
When you're by yourself and not with WWE, you are your own business. And I was very successful in that business because of all the lessons I learned.
It really was total heaven to be a writer. As a model or actor you are employed on someone's whim. As a writer, you are in control.
I always feel like I want to do my career my own way.
From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.
I want to work for myself, and I do work for myself. I make plenty of money working for myself.
I've tried to move on with my life and my career for the last two years and do my own thing, and 'American Idol' and FOX, they've just been making it really tough for me to do that.
For a long time after I left 'Bonanza,' I was considered too independent. That meant I got the rejects other actors could afford turning down. I did theater which I loved, but it cannot pay the bills.
