I don't like the nepo baby term.
I mean, I just try and say to my children,
just follow your heart. It doesn't surprise me at all
that my children wanted to do something creative with their lives.
But that doesn't necessarily translate to being able to actually get jobs-
Hello, Miss Winslet.
Or Mrs. or Dame?
Kate.
Is it okay if I call you Kate?
You're not going to see this,
but on the off chance that the algorithmic gods whisk this video to you,
I hope you don't mind that I address you directly.
By the way, massive fan.
You're an absolute legend.
I know you know that, but I mean it.
It's true. My name is Austin Archer.
I'm an actor and a writer
who's been working professionally
in the entertainment industry for almost 30 years.
I was born and raised in a relatively small town in Utah called Sandy
That's about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City.
My father worked in the office supply industry.
He owned a business that sold copiers and printers to other businesses.
My mother was a part time substitute teacher
and a full time mom to her four kids.
Nobody in our family, no aunts or uncles or grandparents or close family friends,
worked in any kind of professional capacity in the entertainment industry.
So my parents didn't exactly know how to help me
When I came to them at the age of 10 and said,
I wanna be in In TV Shows and in movies.
They said, that's great that you know what you wanna do,
but how do we help you with that?
And I said, well,
I found an agency in the newspaper
and I've written them a letter.
I actually did this at 10 years old.
And I gave them the letter and I said,
all I need you to do is mail it.
And that agency picked me up,
and they started putting me in local commercials.
And I started getting day player roles
on television shows that were shooting in my town.
And occasionally I'd even get a small part in a movie.
When I finally got the courage to move to New York City in my 20s,
it was only after I had done several shows at a local regional theatre
Where I had met and worked with several actors
who had a handful of Broadway credits.
And that gave me the confidence to move to a bigger city and a bigger market
Knowing that now I at least had a few connections there.
In fact, one of the actors that I worked with set me up with my New York agent.
It wasn't a massive agency.
They were still only able to put me in for day player roles and supporting roles
In off Broadway shows and regional shows.
But it was an agent nonetheless.
And it was an agent that I got through connections and networking.
When I moved to Los Angeles
seven Years ago,
I had to start all over again because my New York agency was not bi coastal.
So once again, I was without representation.
And I met this guy while I was working at a restaurant as a busser,
who worked as a commercial agent part time,
and he worked part time
as the head waiter at the restaurant that I was working at.
So that gives you some kind of idea of the size of agency he worked for.
But he offered to represent me commercially,
and he's still my commercial agent to this day.
And we've broken off a handful of national spots over the years,
and it's been a nice working relationship.
It took me four years in this town to finally land theatrical representation.
I sent hundreds of emails to hundreds of offices
explaining that since I was 10 years old,
there had never been a year where I wasn't gainfully employed as an actor.
I have never missed a calendar year.
I have always managed to book at least one job
where I am paid a professional wage as an actor.
And none of these offices responded to me.
They wouldn't even take a meeting with me.
I finally got a DM one day on Instagram
from a random guy who was a fan of my work on social media,
who asked, who represents you theatrically?
And I said, nobody.
And he said, well,
I'd like to do it. And I said, great,
you've got The job. And he's still my agent today.
As a writer, I've written 11 full length plays,
six of which have been produced and performed three times at professional
equity theatres and three times at independent theatres.
I've written five full length screenplays
and more shorts and sketches than I can even remember.
I also wrote a couple episodes of this show that's streaming right now
on Peacock. Shout out to Charlie Curtis Beard for giving me the opportunity.
I don't have a literary representative in Los Angeles or anywhere else.
I am my own representative.
I send scripts to people cold.
I set up my own general meetings.
Remember, I've been working professionally in this industry for almost 30 years.
I have a movie being developed right now that I wrote.
It's about halfway funded,
and we're still doing meetings with potential partners
to get us where we need to be to begin principal photography.
Every single time we send this script to a major production studio
the feedback is overwhelmingly positive.
They always just rave about the writing.
They call it original, unique,
exciting, interesting.
The problem that they have with it every single time is,
who is this guy? Nobody knows who you are.
We don't know who you are,
and we don't know anybody who can vouch for you.
How are we going to sell this?
by the way
I have almost two million followers across multiple social media platforms,
and that doesn't really help either.
If The executives at this company have never heard of me,
If their friends have never heard of me,
they don't care that other people have heard of me.
They don't care what credits I have on my resume.
And they certainly don't care how long I've managed to keep myself afloat
in this notoriously difficult industry.
To them, I'm just some guy,
and they don't owe me anything.
Not a meeting, not consideration, nothing.
And they're not wrong. They don't owe me anything.
I'm just saying all of this to try to point out
how overwhelmingly difficult this industry truly is for someone in my position.
I have devoted myself to this work and this industry for almost 10 years
Longer than your son has been alive.
Next month, I'll be 38 years old,
and I still feel so far away from ever being given the kind of opportunity
that your son was just given.
The opportunity to have a script that I wrote,
produced and directed by an absolute legend in the filmmaking world
with a cast full of bonafide superstars.
Listen, I am very proud of the little fledgling career
that I've managed to cobble together,
despite the fact that I was born in a very small town
with absolutely no connections.
But I'm also aware that this is probably about as good as it
It's ever gonna get for me.
I'm just gonna be some guy who occasionally shows up in things.
But I guess if you're Still watching this
I’d just like you to know when people say that your daughter or your son's careers
are largely the result of nepotism
we aren't saying that to diminish their talent
or their work ethic or their worthiness in any way.
We are just saying that because it remains an unassailable,
irrefutable fact
that the only reason you are directing and starring in Joe's movie right now
is because he's your son. Yes,
it's well written, but it's because he's your son.
If I had written the exact same screenplay and sent it to your people,
you would not be directing it right now.
You would not be starring in it.
You most likely would have never even read it at all.
And that's just a fact. And if you wanna prove me wrong,
feel free to reach out and I'll send you something I've written anytime.
I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. I remain a fan.