An Actor's Code Of Ethics: 14 Rules To Live By
By: Eddie Ramos | Updated: March 3, 2022 6:00 AM
Last week, I came across a book that included a code of ethics for actors. I love the idea and want to eventually create a list of my own. For now, these are the 14 rules to live by from the book The New Business of Acting: How to Build a Career in a Changing Landscape by Brad Lemack.
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The truth is actors spend much of their time worrying about things about the business that only stands to get in the way of their own creative expression. Brad Lemack, created a code of ethics that I believe all actors should live by. This list of 14 simple edicts will help actors take the pressure off themselves and focus on what really matters: The craft of acting.
1. I will be respectful of my fellow actors and helpful to them.
2. I will be supportive of my fellow actors, not compete against them.
3. I will celebrate the successes of my fellow actors with them and not be jealous or envious of what may, at first, seem to me to be their good fortune.
4. I recognize that no fellow actor has the ability to take away from me any opportunity that is meant to be mine. We will each get what is ours to get.
5. I will not sell out.
6. I recognize that I do not now know everything that I am going to need to know to have the professional career I desire.
7. I will never doubt my ability. But I also recognize that my ability, like my potential, will grow only if I nurture it in a healthy environment.
8. I will value my friends and my family more than any professional opportunity, for I can be driven and motivated without becoming distant and removed from those I most care about.
9. I will always be true to my passion and to myself by recognizing that every professional journey needs a happy, challenged, and fulfilled navigator.
10. I recognize there is a difference between what I am given and what I earn.
11. I will never lose my true sense of self in the perception that others may have of me.
12. I will sometimes not talk, but rather just listen to what the world around me and those I cherish have to say. I recognize that sometimes they will know more than I do.
13. I will give back to my community, my family, and my friends in ways that say I value what I have gotten from them.
14. If any day on my journey ever seems to be too great a struggle or delivers too great an accolade, I will remember, simply, that tomorrow is another day.
Hope you enjoy this.
What would be in your actor’s code of ethics? Share in the comments below!