Smart Actors, Foolish Choices: A Self-Help Guide to Coping with the Emotional Stresses of the Business

One of the most important things you can do for yourself as an actor is take care of yourself emotionally. This book has some good stories and some interesting tid bits, but it is lacking in real how to's. I recently bought a book called Twelve Step Plan To Becoming an Actor in LA and found it not only fun to read but extremely helpful. The author is also a therapist so she really arms you, to go to battle, with daily and monthly excercises to keep you grounded even when the going gets tuff. Do yourself a favor and carry this book with yo ,no matter what city you live in.Mark CarlSeattle

Judy Garland could have used Katherine Mayfield's book. She,like so many unique,talented and sensitive actors allowed the business of acting to define them, with tragic consequences. Smart Actors, Foolish Choices is not an artificial feel-good book;it is an honest book about the necessity of knowing and accepting yourself so that you can deal with the business of acting in which actors are product. The interviews with actors are excellent in bringing, in 12 unique personal stories, this reality to light. As one interviewee observed, Who you are as a person, how good you are as an artist, and how well you do in the business seem to be completely unrelated." (Johnny Kline) Katherine Mayfield's extensive experience with acting herself makes this a credible and insightful guide for actors. I would also recommend this book to non-actors in its ability to make you appreciate the human being behind each actor and the courage it takes to choose acting as a profession. The paricularly mean-spirited review she recieved from the actor in California discloses the depth at which an honest critique of the business is offensive to those needing a feel good fix. I highly recommend this book for its unflinching look at the realities of choosing acting as a career.

The most useful and informative book ever put to press! Anyone working in the "business" should make this their personal bible. Ms. Mayfield's insights speak directly to the struggling actor with a clarity only made possible by her intense personal experiences within the acting field. Don't miss this one!