Spring 2015
THE
SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Conservatory
ue in what my guests had to say about investing, tax deductions, the importance of saving, financial wellness, and the absolute necessity of knowing exactly where you stand in the world, economically. What I didn’t expect was that I, too, would be inspired.
The Importance of Inspiration By Lee Garlington I had a discovery, an “Aha!” moment, when I moderated the March Actors Evening entitled, tongue in cheek, “Actors & Money: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” My discovery was: I got inspired and I didn’t see it coming. I set up the monthly Actors Evenings with the goal of providing panels that I would have wanted when I was an actor just starting out, or perhaps returning to my acting career later in life. The most popular evenings tend to involve casting directors, and I completely understand why. I knew when I booked this particular panel about why money matters during tax season that it was not IN THIS ISSUE: going to have much in the way of “sex How to Register for 3 appeal.” But I also Classes figured there were members of the ConWorkshop 4 servatory who Schedule would, indeed, appreciate the inforWorkshop mation.
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I’ve worked for years on getting my financial house in order and I am at the stage in life where I’m comfortable. I’ve always been “good” with money, cinched my belt during the lean years, never got in debt, saved money for my future and made investments. I’ve also been lucky to work consistently as an actor for the last 30 years, so imagine my surprise when it hit me that those money issues--you know, the ones we all have from childhood?--were perhaps not as resolved as I’d thought. I got inspired. I thought about the relationship between time and money, the value I don’t place on my time and my self-worth as defined by financial solvency. I thought about how we all compare ourselves to others, and usually not with people we perceive as less “successful” than we are. I had a new awareness about how and why I support various causes and individuals. The point is, I got inspired. It made me think. I remembered things about my financial reality as a child I haven’t thought of in years. I came up with a great idea for a character in a screenplay I’m working on. I thought about writing this article.
Then it dawned on me: What do artists need more than anything? We need inspiration. It can come when you least expect it, from someplace you weren’t even looking. We need to relish it whenever I was right. it fills us up, because inspiration can carry us when There were about 35 we need to be carried the most. of us there, and the artists who attended found enormous val-
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