Advice For Those Just Starting Out

What Stops People From Having A Successful Career In The Entertainment Business – Billy Van Zandt

Get up and write. Maybe you’re writing garbage but at least you’re in the process of doing it.

Filmcourage

Published

December 19, 2024

[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]

Film Courage: What type of ambition do you think it takes to make it to the highest levels of the entertainment industry?

Billy Van Zandt, Comedy Writer/Playwright/Author: I think you’ve got to have a healthy ego, you just do because there’s so much rejection in our business that otherwise you just go cry every night but I think you need to want it more than anything else, you really do because there’s so many other people who want the same thing and tunnel vision helps.

I’ve never taken no for an answer. If somebody says no I find a way to go around it. But I would say family is more important to me than any of this stuff and if it gets in the way of that, I don’t want it. Life is too short.

That’s the other thing, if I’m not having a good time, I don’t want to do it. That’s why I use the same people all the time because I just like being with them.

But there are people who are only interested in fame and the celebrity and then there are people like me that’s only interested in the work. That’s the important part. I think if you want the celebrity, you may get it for 10 minutes and then it’s going to go away. You need to work at the craft.

In terms of writing, I get up and I write every single day. I do not believe in writer’s block. I think that’s just a lazy person. Get up and write. Maybe you’re writing garbage but at least you’re in the process of doing it and then you can look at what you did and go Oh, I can fix that.

Also the thing that inspires me is not to see great work. I see great work and I get it’s like Oh, I can’t do that but show me something terrible, I can go home and write for years. I can do better than that.

Film Courage: How did that get on Broadway?

Billy: So anyway…I don’t even know if I answered your question?

Film Courage: You did! You said having a healthy ego. Did you always have this or does it come with the knocks and bruises that you spoke of in another segment?…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).

About:

Billy Van Zandt and his writing partner, the late Jane Milmore, are two of the most often produced playwrights in the world. Billy and Jane met at a high school acting competition in their home state of New Jersey. Together for 46 years, they wrote and starred in 25 plays together. Billy’s solo play “The Property Known as Garland” starring his ex-wife Adrienne Barbeau broke box office records at Off-Broadway’s Actors Playhouse. The plays have been produced in thousands of theaters worldwide, including two productions directed by Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (“Billy and Jane are funny, outrageous, off-the chart writers/performers”) and one by film legend Burt Reynolds. For television, these award-winning writers have produced over three hundred hours of television comedy, including “Newhart;” “Martin,” which won them a People’s Choice Award; “The Hughley’s,” which won them a Prism Award;” “Suddenly Susan” for Brooke Shields; “Daddy Dearest” for Don Rickles and Richard Lewis; “Anything But Love” for Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis; “The Wayans Bros.”; and “I Love Lucy: The Very First Show” which won them an Emmy nomination. As an actor, Billy made his film debut in “Jaws 2”; Billy lives in Los Angeles, when he’s not touring the world in the last Van Zandt/Milmore musical, “The Boomer Boys Musical.”