E165: Hollywood Lessons on Risk, Reward, and Relationships with Alexander Ludwig
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What are the brutal realities of Hollywood?
Audiences don't come to see you, they come to see themselves. So you want actors that have that sort of vulnerability. When actors start to put themselves on a pedestal outside of their work, I do think that that translates into your work and suddenly you're not seen as like the everyday guy that you want to root for. Welcome to the How to Invest podcast. I'm your host, David Weisberg. Today, I'm thrilled to sit down with Alexander Ludwig, actor, producer, and star of hit series Vikings and The Hunger Games. Alexander shares his journey from child actor to landing his first major role in a movie. We'll dive into the business side of entertainment and how he approaches risk and reward as an actor and businessman. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Alexander. When we last chatted, you quoted Pitbull that if you chase money, it runs. How do you relate that to the movie business?
Steve Jobs talks about this too. If just making money is the object in my business, I think you would quit because it's just such a... brutal business to be a part of if you don't love it. If you're chasing things like fame or money, you're going to be, I think, in for a really rude awakening. So much of luck is involved in this business and every business in a lot of ways. The only thing that really... guarantees a semblance of success is persistence. The only way you'll be persistent is if you truly, truly love your craft. And I think that applies to a lot of, you know, a lot of businesses, if not all of them. And the luck is not only about getting your first big role, it continues throughout your entire career.
Absolutely. The misconception in our business and the misconception in, um, I think actors have in general, is that once you get that role, you're set. I've been in this business now for about 20 years, which is crazy to say. I'm 32. And the longer I'm in this business, the more I realize it's the exact opposite of how it works. Just because you have one great win. It doesn't insure anything. And then you realize it's no different from pretty much every other business. I mean, you need investors to say yes to you. You need people to believe in you. You need mentors. It's the exact same thing. Literally the other day, I was at an amazing birthday party for a friend of mine in Austin. His name is Hayes Barnhart. He started a company called Goodly.
it was an amazing birthday such incredible people there and we got went to this bar and this one guy was a big fan of vikings this tv show i did and he came up to me and he goes you know my god i'm such a big fan you know and then we kind of got into the you know my process and and how it works and then he starts asking like well why haven't you done this right like well why haven't you you know why have you done a marvel and i go let me ask you a question um what do you do for a living? And he's like, I'm in commercial real estate. And I'm like, okay. So like one of my best friends in Austin, her dad is one of the biggest developers in the state. And I said, why aren't you as big as him? And I said, you know, it's no different, you know, it's like, don't get me wrong.
Like we, we actually, I have signed Marvel deals and we have, you know, had the potential of possibly being a part of this, but like so much of this business is just timing and luck and just keeping at it. If you think about Hollywood, like a casino and you have different odds at different tables, how do you stack the deck in your favor and how do you create your own luck? What does that mean is a very interesting thing because acting is very different than a lot of other businesses. There are coaches that I work with one in particular named Ivana Chubik, who's, um, one of the most celebrated coaches in this business. And I work with her on literally every single word of dialogue on everything I ever do, because she has seen it all. She's worked with the great.
She's worked with Charlize Theron and Allie Berry and Brad Pitt and all these people before they were who they were. She's like my secret weapon in that everything I do, I break down every project with her. And that's a way that I can ensure that at the very least,
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Chapters
4 chaptersSpeakers
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