Actor Aaron Marcus spent three decades watching famous peers on set and noticed a pattern: secure celebrities thrive while insecure, ego-driven ones spiral into destructive behavior and rehab. He argues that a grounding support network—family and honest friends who treat you as human and call out bad behavior—keeps performers humble through industry ups and downs.
Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I want to share a really interesting vlog with you. It's how Thanksgiving can save you from ending up in rehab. And I know that sounds a little bit silly, but in many ways, I actually believe that it's true. As many of you know, I've been making my living as an actor and a commercial model for nearly 3 decades, and I've been on tons of sets and have seen stars. I've seen unbelievably famous people. I mean, everybody that you can imagine on sets. And what I find really interesting is that there are some people who are very, very famous and they seem like very secure people. These are people who feel good about themselves, people who know who they are. And you also find people on the sets who are stars and very famous who seem very insecure, who act out on sets, and I'm talking about in a mental type of way. I don't mean the physical act of acting, but they just do very silly things. They seem arrogant. They have temper tantrums. They act like children. They are very rude to people. And I find that those are the people who really need some help. These are people who have apparently really surrounded themselves With yes people, people who are afraid to say anything to them in a negative way. And the only way that these people seem to feel good about themselves is when work is happening, when people are still, um, you know, kind of screaming for them, people who are still saying how much they love them and things like that. And What I find is that the people who, instead of needing to hear all of that and just internally feel good about themselves, those are the people who do really well, whether they are having real success or maybe hitting some tough times as well. And so how Thanksgiving really connects with all this is that when you surround yourself With really good people, people who you love, whether it's family members, whether it's close friends, whether it's people you trust, people who are willing to treat you as a human, people who are willing to be honest with you, people who will tell you when you are acting out and tell you to cut it out. And, and those are the people who really do take advantage of just completely surrounding themselves with really good, helpful, uh, individuals. Those are the people that end up having a really good life. And so, yeah, hopefully during Thanksgiving you got a chance to spend it with some great people. And so as you continue to have success, uh, in your career, whether it's acting or modeling, make sure that you stay grounded, that you don't forget about the people who were around before things took off for you. People who you can trust, people who are willing to call you out, people who are willing to say, stop it and act in a more mature manner. And that's one really good way of helping to keep yourself grounded and also really handle the highs and lows in this industry. I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you have any questions at all, you can always reach me at howtomodel.com, and you can also join me on my Facebook page, facebook.com/howtomodel.
