Actors in the family

Extraordinarily, in my extended family there are a total of four people who are either professional actors, or who aim to become one. In fact, only one of them has achieved this already - and she is quite happy to tell the others how much waitressing and bar work she still does. She has appeared on the (professional) stage in Sydney and Melbourne, and has had television work (All Saints and Bed of Roses, and commercials). She is self-assured, fairly humble, tells self-depracating stories, does not gossip about colleagues, whispers things like "I can't tell you what's going to happen, but it will really be worth watching!" She left school some ten years ago, and has worked mainly to support her acting ambitions ever since. She has great experience as a waiter and bar manager in both Australia and Britain. All the time her aim has been to be an actor, and she has worked so hard top that end. When she scored her first TV role we were all so proud of the achievement - a reward for years of effort. She is still a 'poor' actor, needing other work to support herself.

The other three are staggeringly different people. Two are school leavers, and the other still in Yr 11. They all think they will be able to make it.

No 1 is a braggart and always has to have a better story, a more outrageous incident in which she has been involved. She doesn't seem to understand the whole concept of appropriate beahviour or language - there's a time and a place, and frankly I don't want to hear her crap. She has struggled over the past year with mental illness, and while I haven't seen her in action, so to speak, she can put on an extraordinary display of petulance, for which she apparently never apologises. Since she's 'sick' everyone will understand. How she can cope with a university course and the demands of acting are beyond me, but that's what she plans to do next year.

No 2 has also just finished school, and is planning to work for a year before studying theatre at university. Less of a braggart ( or perhaps he just couldn't compete over Christmas with No1) he is actually a bit of a snob wanting only to perform on stage, and preferably in musicals. Good luck - there's not that much work going around.

No 3 acts all the time, much to her family's distress. She's sick (dreadfully) or upset (a tantrum) or hates everybody (comes as a shock when she can be all smiles one minute and melting down the next). While I understand there are some temperamental actors, those in regular work have, I believe, some talent to make up for the crap everyone else has to endure.