The Washington times., 1916-03-04
Anita King SO Advises Girls
Ambitious to Become Act
resses in Motion Pictures.
NO EASY WAY TO SUCCEED
Watchful Waiting and Ability to
Be Jack-of-AlI-Trades Are
the Biggest Factors.
BY ANITA KING.

Since the photodramatic art has
come into the eminence II now holds.
the old saying that q Jack of all
trades is master OF none" may have
to be revised.
A photoplayer must be al athlete.
a philosopher. a psychologist. One
must be able to ride. to swim, to
understand human emotions, life in
every walk. etc. Above all, one must
be ready to learn. TO understand
something now.
To begin with, you will notice
the word photoplay is used instead
of movies" There is a reason.
We do not speak OF the stage plays
as "ta;keys" because the audience
hears the players. Therefore we
should not call the screen plays. the
movies"
am often asked, DO you really
talk when the pictures are taken?"
In an address TO several hundred
girls at the University of California.
1 answered the question thus:
I'VE do really talk. We laugh-real
laughter. We cry-real tears. Some
times we do not finish our cry In
the pictures. We finish up In our
dressing rooms. This seems quite
incredible 10 some people. Yet you
need only analyZc yourself to know
II is true.
"Yod. who see the. pictures, laugh.
You arc moved to tears at times.
Though YOU know You are only see
ing pictures, your emotions never
thelesS run riot. So II is with us In
the studios. We live the same scenes
we enact. The tears you see 80
plainly on the checks of the sad
Hearted heroines are genuine tears
no mnke-belteVe."
asked: How do we get into photo
play work." My answer is Per
severance, ability. self-confidence.
1t is no path of roses. Once in a
great whils-and that only in the
cases OF well-known actors-does one
greatest majority. by far. have had
to wait their turn at the studios
for days and days, that ran into
weeks and months. before they could
even see the director.
Sometimes the assistant will take
your name. address and photo i'm
Inediatcly. He'll tell yoL he'll let
you know in a few days. lie for
gets. He's q busy man. You grow
discouraged. That is fatal. Discour-
agement has no place in this game.
You must persevere. You must not
ltl lVlBCNs hob 'tthS1 So yON'
chance tor an interview with the
director.
IT may take months. but IL you
think you have II In you. you must
keep right on asking for that in
tervisw. And then, when you get
It, that is only the beginning. The
director is from Missouri, and he
doesn't wait long to be shown. III
you are anxious to get into photo
play work. he sure Of yourself. You
must have supreme confidence In
YOUR ability. Then arm yourself
with q lot Of patience.
Another question is asked: us II
safe for a yolnr girl to enter the
photoplay profcssion?"
That mostly de,ends upon the
girl herself as 1t does in any other
line Of work. In the studios she Is
given the came care as In her own
home. In the Lasky studio We have
what we call o. studio mother who
occupies the same position as
house mother In a sorority house at
the university.
4 pretty face isn't necessarily a
prime requisite In Dhotcplays. Many
rrettv faces do not photograph we'll,
for one thing. The greatest asset is
personality. Somehow personality
asserts itself In the films as well as
in direct relations between people.