Every artist has to make their money

The notion that your artistic career will be untainted by commerce and compromise isn’t just a wasteful daydream—it’s also a complete myth. Every artist has to make their money. 

I’ve shared this quote about Mozart on my blog before, and I’ll share it again. Mason Currey describes Mozart’s life as “a frantic round of piano lessons, concert performances, and social visits with the city’s wealthy patrons.” One of history’s great composers couldn’t just focus on composing. He had to make his money.  

For a laugh (and some condolence) Google search “actors in commercials before they were famous.” My query just brought up a young Brad Pitt chomping Pringles on the beach, Meg Ryan selling McDonalds, and Morgan Freeman promoting cigars. Not as celebrity spokespeople, mind you—as commercial actors getting a day rate. 

You’ve probably heard the phrase “one for them, one for me,” referring to movie directors’ propensity to bounce between blockbuster projects and films of their own creation. Greta Gerwig is a good example of this, writing and creating Lady Bird, then directing Barbie. Ryan Coogler is another filmmaker who directed “a few for them” (the Black Panther movies, the Creed movies), and now is seeing great success with his “one for me” in Sinners.

If making money to pay the bills along the way is what keeps you in the game long enough to finally create your magnum opus, then by all means, do it.

You’re in good company.