Much like how professional athletes have a peak period where they perform at their utmost best, it turns out actors also have times when their career at its zenith.
But whereas there are many variables for and athlete’s performance, some folk over at the Queen Mary University of London have used math and figured out an algorithm that predicts whether an actor’s career has already peaked or not with a not-too-shabby 85% accuracy.
That’s like, a HD!
Using the data from over 2.4 million actors on the Internet Movie Database from 1888 to 2016 and analysing how their careers progressed over time, scientists not only came up with this predictive algorithm but also found a number of interesting things that actors have to deal with in their chosen profession.
It is an industry where 90% of workers are unemployed and finding consistent work is preferable over getting critical acclaim with just one role. Unsurprisingly, it is also very hard “make it” as an actor as nearly 70% of actors have had careers that began and ended in the same year.
Sadly, when it comes to women, scientists found that they had shorter careers than men and there’s no conclusive scientific reason why.
Sure does.
In terms of career trajectory, scientists found that actors tend to peak early and then have to weather the subsequent drop in popularity as they find more work. For those who are riding on a neverending popularity wave, well those people will be consistently employed so no need to feel sorry for them.
What does this mean for actors who are going through a rough patch? In short, keep working and it doesn’t matter if it’s doing cameos or lead roles as this will eventually lead to more success, and don’t be worried if you’re going through a slow few years as this is actually pretty normal.
So next time when you have a feeling that your favourite actor seems to be in crappier movies of late or someone is officially a flop, chances are that you’re correct and you have science to back up that gut feeling.