Recently, I watched Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained. Both were amazing. In different ways. But amazing, nonetheless. One thing they had in common was Christoph Waltz, a German-Austrian actor.
I’d never seen him in anything before, which isn’t surprising, since he was mostly in foreign films/tv shows before Tarantino cast him. As I watched these films, and really enjoyed his part in both of them, I started to think how he was a hidden gem before Inglorious Basterds came out; that we, the audience, were lucky he was finally discovered.
And then I caught myself and wondered why I’d thought that.
A quick look at Waltz’s IMDb page shows that he’s got 119 acting credits, most of which are in either German or British productions. Is it only because 2009’s Inglorious Basterds earned him US success and an Oscar that we can now call him successful? Was he not successful before this? Are some successes bigger than others?
Sorry, that’s a stupid question. Of course, some successes are bigger than others. But who determines the size of your success? Is it you and how a certain success makes you feel? Or is it based on what others can see?
Success as a concept has always been so fascinating to me.
It seems that being rich and influential is how most people define success.
But only a small percentage fits that category.
Does that mean a majority of Earth’s population isn’t successful?
I mean, the obvious answer is no, right? Most people would probably say that there are different kinds of success. Which I agree with. Career achievements, familial achievements, health achievements, personal achievements. But have we, as a society, placed a certain kind of success above all the rest?
Is everyone’s dream to become rich and famous? Would everyone respond with ‘ha obviously’ if you asked them if they wanted to be rich and famous? Not just famous, though – famous in America. That always seems to be the invisible tag at the end of these ‘rich and famous’ dreams – cracking the US market.
Kylie Minogue is a mega famous Australian singer. She cracked the Aussie market, obviously, and has done really well in the UK – she was in a Doctor Who episode – but she never managed to crack the US market. It just never worked. Though she tried. Of course she did. Because that’s the dream! Apparently. So, is she not successful? Should she count her life as a failure? Are all those who never crack the US failures?
I don’t have any of the answers, if you were wondering. I’m just asking out loud, on my blog, into the void.
And it’s just something I’ve noticed through the years. Do you ever think the same? Or is this just a ‘me‘ problem? Am I completely delusional to think that, to most people, success is being rich and famous in America?
I don’t know. Let me know. And while you think on it, I’ll leave you with this quote that’s attributed to Bob Marley but I don’t know if he actually said it:
fabwrites 