Day 9: Researching Past Greats

When you really want something BAD you need to research those before you. Pick anything you want to do and research that thing for facts, trends, pathways, etc... I did this a few weeks ago with acting...actually with women within the past ten years who have won Oscars for best actresses. I simply wrote done the list of women who have won and I broke down a number of factors: their age when they won, their acting route, if they made their start in NYC or LA, if they had a family while they were in the midst of their careers, the projects they took on before they won their Oscar, what country they were from, how many years did it take them to get cast in a project that got them on the radar of the press and so forth. By doing this background research...I found out several factors...

Like the fact that I have more in common with Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet than Halle Berry. I oddly, thought since Halle was brown like me...that our routes to success would be like each other. Wrong! There are a lot of other factors that are more important that race and acting. It matters, but oddly your city of orgin and character traits matter as well. Like with Reese, by her being a Southerner I identified with her...also by her having children while her career was unfolding. I desire to do the same! With Kate I speak out on what I believe like she does and again that kid factor and family factor. Hillary's determination is unmatchable. Halle Berry's professionalism amongst women was untouchable. Halle took to acting and beat the industry hard until she got what she wanted.

Another thing I noticed of course is that I am entering the game as an older actress...however...there was one actress that was near 60. So the common age of winners was around 33/34...but I take it all in stride. By conducting that little bit of research it empowered me to see what it took in the past to get where I will be headed. With screenwriting I noticed that many times a woman would write an original book or screenplay and a man would adapt the script for the big screen. This has been done several times. Of course Sofia won an Oscar and a few more before did as well---but as a group and not solo as she has.

Actress/Screenwriter - Emma Thompson is the only actress that has won an Oscar for best actress and best adapted screenplay. I admire her and I desire to emulate her success as it relates to winning for best actress and best screenplay.

Research is good...no its GREAT!

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