Big Questions 2011: On screen

Passion and determination are two big things that well-known faces from the film and TV world often credit with helping them to successfully pursue careers in the screen industries. For anyone else hoping to do the same, the exclusive videos below offer a glimpse into what has inspired others to get into the industry and their advice for making a start in your own career…

Iowa-born Elijah Wood was influenced to get into the film industry at five years old, auditioning for TV commercials in LA after his mother thought it would be fun for him to do.

“[I] got my first job in a Paula Abdul music video, fell in love with it and it sort of just spiralled from there,” he says.

Despite growing up on the “big classics”, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, and Star Wars, it was Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Delicatessen which Wood remembered watching in his teens and loving. Reflecting on the experience of watching it, he says: “That gave me an appreciation for cinema in a different perspective.”

Inspired by the phrase “You can always do better,” advice he received whilst working with Mel Gibson, Wood also emphasises the importance of having integrity when accepting roles. “Everything I make is [always] true to who I am… there’s another challenge after an accomplishment.”

Although Robin Williams initially started his acting journey at Julliard, he recalls not giving up on his ambitions despite having to take an alternative route to get there.

Williams says: “I left Julliard to go home to San Francisco; I couldn’t find acting work so I started doing stand-up comedy and then the stand-up comedy eventually led me back to acting.”

These principles of his are still evident in the advice he gives to young people starting out: “Just keep going. Find that thing you love because it’s tough work. If you can find that thing that brings you joy, that’ll be it.”

Joanne Froggatt knew she wanted to act at a very young age. “I don’t know where it first came from but it’s all I ever remember wanting to do as a child,” she reflects.

From joining youth drama groups to scouring stage newspapers for free open auditions, she set her sights on getting in to a stage school. She says: “My parents humoured me… thinking I’d lose interest”, but after nailing her audition, Froggatt got in and landed her first role in an episode of The Bill, all before the age of 16.

The determination she showed in her youth is an inspiration to people in their early careers. And her advice for future generations is: “You do get knock backs all the time, you get highs, and you get lows. [But] the people that reach a certain level of success are the just the people that haven’t given up.”