It’s hard to think of a cushier job than working at the highest levels of the film industry.
You get your own plush trailer, cash checks with an embarrassing amount of zeroes and get to list “make believe” on your W2 form.
I wanna be an actor just to get a crack at one of those cool swag bags.
Yet a surprising number of talented folks in the industry can’t wait to call it a career.
Even if they don’t mean it.
Director Chris Weitz, the man behind “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and the great film “About a Boy,” says his next film will likely be his last.
“Every time I make a movie I’m pretty much convinced it’s the last time I’m going to be able to do it and that really it’s a rather silly occupation to undertake,” Weitz told MovieMaker Magazine. “I think I have maybe one more film in me.”
Others who have discussed retiring in recent years include Hugh Grant, Robert Downey, Jr. and Joaquin Phoenix.
Often such talk is just that – talk.
But it’s hard to process someone in the arts making it to the very top of their field -and beating near impossible odds to do so – and then being so eager to toss it all away.
Update: Alec Baldwin joins the retirement bandwagon.
(Photo: Robert Downey, Jr. shot to the top of the A-list courtesy of “Iron Man,” but the actor isn’t sure he wants to spend the rest of his working days in front of a camera/Paramount Pictures)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t retire yet, Mr. Weitz! There’s still plenty of franchises you haven’t ruined yet.
Keep him away from Bond!
Frankly, some franchises (“Twilight”) run on autopilot, I suspect.