I’ve noticed that most actors and actresses are attractive, seem to fit a certain “look” or niche that perfectly suits a storyline. Beyond basic training, is acting talent something you’re simply born with—and if that’s true, does being an actor really require much effort? Like Brad Pitt is a legend and would probably be a legend again in another life because of the persona he fits and the way he looks not because he learned some skills from an acting class or something.
Are there similar innate qualities required to succeed in finance, and if so, what are they?
Acting, at a world class level, is incredibly difficult. Genetics play a part as you will sometimes see sons and daughters pick up acting naturally.
Could nepotism be a confounding variable here?
For some "actors" sure, that's how they get the role. But nepotism has nothing to do with whether or not you're actually good, the same as every professional example you can think of. Bella Ramsey is a perfect example. She's ugly as sin and sucks at acting, yet got a starring role in an HBO series. The series is still shit and her performance is garbage, but at she did get the job at the end of the day.
You really swallow the entire shaft of every corny “culture war” issue in existence, don’t you?
“Bella Ramsey is so ugly bro The Last of Us is so woke why aren’t video games girls hot anymore” Facebook ass comment
There is a concept called "survivorship bias". Go read about it and then come back
I don’t think survivorship bias is that relevant here
I think it is. There are plenty of insanely talented actors. The ones who happen to also be very attractive are more likely to do well.
Brad Pitt is a great actor. He's also extremely handsome. Chad Sitt might be a great actor too, but if he looks like someone hit him with a shovel, he's far less likely to become a huge star. That's pretty much the definition of survivorship bias; only focusing on the fact that the vast majority of movie stars are attractive makes it easy to ignore the fact that they're almost all good actors to begin with
Give it a try and see - pick a line / scene from a movie you like and try and do it convincingly a few different ways. It's very hard to do well! It's harder when you're the center of a big operation and you're working with other people and you can't just do everything the way that comes most naturally to you. Some people are both conventionally attractive and borderline magicians at something that can make a big difference to a hugely lucrative venture and so they get a big fee.
I think a lot of the nepotism stuff is a bit overblown because being attractive is a heritable trait and acting itself is a weird niche profession that's probably best passed down from generation to generation? I think being immersed in the business from a young age creates a real advantage that's hard to make up with theater school etc.
Also, most people have no idea how a movie is actually filmed.
For the most part they are not filming in chronological or even shot order of the finished movie, so you don't have the emotional continuity when filming any given shot. You need to be able to channel the emotion of any given scene independently of your real life context. Plus you may need to do the take 5, 10, 20, 40 times before the director is happy. Fincher is famous for shooting scenes dozens of times to get it just right. If you can't redo a scene 30 times and maintain some sort of consistency across them you will not be employed for long.
Then there is the issue of the camera, practically every movie and most prestige drama TV shows are single camera (exceptions are obviously made for crazy practical effects that will have multiple set-ups, but standard dialogue scenes are shot single camera), which means when filming a normal shot-reverse shot conversation you film one side of the conversation and then the other. You have to reset the camera position, the lighting, etc. to get the reverse shot and then redo the entire scene, with the exact same emotion as the first one so they can be edited coherently. You might be ADRing lines months later in post-production and you haven't thought about the project since you left the set but have to bring the same energy.
Finally, you need to be able to perform when the director needs it. If you're doing a single by yourself in a room you may have a bit more time to prepare and mess around, but if you are in a scene with moving cameras, lots of extras, multiple actors with lines you need to be ready to execute perfectly as soon as the director yells action. There is hours of costume, hair and makeup, lighting, scenery, blocking, etc. (not to mention practical effects like squibs, explosions, etc. that action movies have) that goes into just getting the scene ready to shoot. If you start at 6am you might be shooting at 9am, have to be wrapped by 9:30 because they need to reset it for a different angle or move onto the next scene. You can't just take your time. When the director says action you need to: 1) remember all of your lines, 2) say all of your lines at the right time, 3) with the correct emotion for the scene, all while 4) remembering where to walk/stand/gesture. If you flub it you need to reset the whole thing and go again. If the next guy flubs his line and you were perfect, doesn't matter, reset and redo. And on and on.
This gets dramatically compounded if you have any sort of practical effect in the movie. Say you're filming a simple shot in a gangster movie or something where someone gets shot and there are a few squibs on the guy's shirt with some blood. If you mess up the shot you need to clean the area up, redo costume, redo makeup, reset the practical effects, reset the camera and run again, all of which costs money. If you can't get that down and be ready for action you will cost the movie time and money, both of which is in short supply for filming. The days are long since they want to push as much into the filming schedule as possible, you're often waiting around for hours before you actually hop in and "act" for ten minutes, and then back to waiting.
When you hear actors being talked about as "difficult to work with", they are referring to being ready and capable for all of the above. Showing up on time, knowing your lines, putting in the effort for every shot, being ready when the set is, etc. is 85% of the job. If you're a mediocre actor but can do that you'll get work, if you're acting like a diva but put in a great performance you may not be as lucky. That's why you'll often seen people get work who aren't necessarily "great' actors. You gotta work with these people for 12-14 hours a day for months, directors and producers will hire actors who are easy to work with over who is going to deliver the best performance 9 out of 10 times.
Tom Hanks has a great little anecdote about this I love:
the blood/shot scene that you mentioned made me remember those scenes where they blow up a car or a small building without effects
how the heck you retake this shot if you fail to act on it lol no margin of error
I always worked in TMT and have covered entertainment and media throughout the years. After many visits to production studios and sets, I can only say that acting/singing/entertaining is among the most difficult professions.
Not only does training start early in life (many begin as kids), all other aspects are also very difficult to handle. You need a very supportive family, a network of industry professionals and coaches, representation and even your own management team (if you are relevant enough).
Then, this entire segment is among the most superficial industries there are. If you are a short, bald, fat guy - you will probably only be offered roles that represent such a character. But looks aren't the only aspect, acting professionals also need to come across a certain way through the camera lens. We have all seen our own photographs and wondered why we look so different. Not every attractive person, even if they have skills, has the ability to capture the audience with charisma.
If anyone believes that breaking into finance is difficult; making it in entertainment is pretty much impossible.
edit:
The other, far bigger problem would be the tremendous decline in the industry.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-04-14/filmla-report-first-quarter-2025
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-experiencing-a-decline-in-on-site-hollywood-productions/3680042/
https://www.vulture.com/article/hollywood-movies-film-industry-los-angeles-california-production.html
I know so many people who lost their jobs and have nowhere to go. Some of them are borderline homeless even.
On the job point, with how good these image generators are getting it's VERY easy to understand why they had that massive labor protest the other year. A majority of these people, actors included, are going to lose their jobs. Modern entertainment as far as movies/TV is concerned is going to get massively shaken up in the next 5-10 years and will be unrecognizable to what it was 5-10 years ago.
Edit: the shit tossers are just ignorant - I have firsthand exp. with this having almost led an investment into a content editing, distribution & security SaaS platform for film production studios but killed the process right as the strike got started, waited, and watched many of the jobs of current & future buyers + the broader industry disintegrate.
One of our clients "3D scanned" extras on their first day at the set and then let them go immediately without notice (actors were paid for eight hours instead of the full production time; it was a pretty unfair move).
This act then kicked off the largest industrial action (strike) in the industry which in turn started the massive decline. The jobs never came back and production left for Atlanta, Toronto, Vancouver and Europe.
I am pretty sure that this industry will see even more challenges ahead.
“I totally know how the movie industry works you guys. I almost did a deal with some trash ass SaaS platform that no one has ever heard of except for cringe LinkedIn posts. I’m basically a director.”
Such a complete dweeb
There are dudes making $300,000 annually by posting "day-in-the-life" vlogs on Instagram
This.
If anyone is seriously interested in making it these days, social media is one of the few solid avenues.
It doesn't matter whether it is modeling, acting, entertaining, singing, comedy, ..
Who? A little evidence would be nice.
There are also hundreds of mid 20 something year olds making 300,000 in banking. I recall you making a point on another thread that "vlogs" are the best and most "prestigious" avenue for a young person who wants to make a lot of money. Which was about the worst advice I'd ever heard, for a lot of reasons, but it isn't surprising coming from someone who can't even back up a simple claim like this one
I also think that starting from an extremely early age is a huge factor.
We as adults have characters that were developed since early childhood. It's extremely hard to do things that feel so outside of this character because our consciousness keeps us at check and we feel lots of resistance to change. It will come off. You can't fool your brain.
This is different if you have been trained specifically for those character changes during your most formative years.
It’s a skill just like athletic talent. You can be born with all the natural talent in the world but you still have to practice. That’s why actors are always taking classes and workshops and getting coached. Like pro athletes in the off-season.
Of course, it helps if you’re good looking. Danny Devito may be the best actor in the world but he’s not under consideration to play James Bond
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