The Hollywood Lie: Should You Follow Your Dreams?
There’s a very prominent theme propagated over and over again in Hollywood films. It’s the message every aspiring artist wants to hear: “follow your dreams”.
It’s in everything from Disney films about chasing the horizon, to modern day musicals on Hollywood stardom. In many of these stories, our protagonist has a dream to pursue, and will actively push back against setbacks and the people around them in order to achieve that goal.
Keep persevering for years, put in the hard work, even at the cost of your own life, and one day you’ll find your name on billboards.
I, for one, am implicit in this messaging too.
Hot off the life-changing experience that was La La Land, I made films in high school about people with big dreams and a desire to succeed. Despite people telling them to give up, my protagonists learn to stand up for themselves and to keep trying until they finally become successful.
But I was wrong to think that.
“Following your dreams” is a narrative constantly pushed in Hollywood by the 1% of people who have struck gold.
It is a dangerous moral that preys on the young and naive that they too should keep chugging away at auditions and bothering producers until someone gives them their “big shot”.
And no better is this accentuated than the 2021 Netflix musical tick, tick, boom.
Written by the late Jonathan Larson and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it chronicles Larson’s life in New York as an aspiring playwright. Having spent nearly a decade of his life on Superbia, Larson will do whatever it takes to get his work shown on Broadway to make a name for himself.
tick, tick, boom has an excellent cast, especially by leading actor Andrew Garfield. The songs are catchy and well-written. And it’s a well-choreographed and gorgeously-shot movie.
I didn’t like it very much.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a profound respect for talented creatives like Larson who are able to dedicate themselves so wholly into their craft. It is easy to see how his trials and tribulations would be a huge inspiration for other creatives working in the field.
But from a purely narrative perspective, the Netflix musical has a difficult time setting up obstacles and justifying their vilification.
Throughout the film, Larson is constantly challenged in his pursuit to stardom. His girlfriend wants to move away from the city, his agent wants to change segments of his play. Worse yet, he thinks his best friend betrayed him to work in a high-end Marketing job, which is a step up from Larson’s current lifestyle. Not to mention, Larson is constantly being offered paid gigs to work in the Marketing department alongside his friend.
tick, tick, boom portrays these plot points so earnestly as negative obstacles in Larson’s way; to persuade him away from his career and into one that is more “stable”.
And while we know in retrospect that these ingredients helped to formulate the special success story of Larson’s Broadway legacy, the same cannot be said about every other aspiring playwright or actor that doesn’t make it.
In fact, I find it rather insulting to think that Michael — Larson’s best friend — is supposed to be portrayed as an antagonist in the narrative for wanting to live a comfortable life working an office job.
The movie affords the benefit of hindsight because we know now that Larson did indeed become a household name for Broadway. We understand in retrospect that that meant risking a stable income and close relationships, but encouraging an aspiring artist to quit their day job and abandon all their friends on the off-chance they’d become successful is by no means a wise suggestion.
Bo Burnham explains this best in an interview:
“I would say don’t take advice from people like me who have gotten very lucky. We’re very biased. You know, like Taylor Swift telling you to follow your dreams is like a lottery winner telling you, ‘Liquidise your assets; buy Powerball tickets — it works!” — Bo Burnham.
It’s onerous to reinforce these themes in Hollywood movies when they’re by the very people who have gotten lucky in the first place. It’s the same as taking financial advice from people who have been fed a gold spoon since birth.
One of Pixar’s more recent films explores this theme a lot more thoroughly.
Joe Gardner is an aspiring jazz pianist whose dreams of playing onstage is upended when he meets his untimely demise. The whole film serves as an existential reminder to enjoy the mundane and everyday life, which we see in the third act when Joe finally achieves his dream of performing, only to realise it didn’t give him the satisfaction he had hoped for.
This is fairly common in professionals who have a set goal in life.
For example, many Olympic athletes will spend years training for a gold medal, only to be struck with depression and a feeling of loss once they achieve it. Since they’ve essentially achieved their one goal, they no longer have a sense of purpose or direction.
Soul reminds us to appreciate the people we have around us, the everyday sights and smells.
It’s not always about the destination, but rather the journey.
A film that encapsulates the struggles of ambition better is the Netflix film The Disciple which follows a young Indian man’s journey to become a great classical musician.
That is, at least for the first half of the film.
As the movie goes on, he continues to lose competitions, be beat out by his classmates, display lacklustre performances and even face criticism online for his work.
‘The Disciple’ perfectly encapsulates the tragedy so many people are forced to confront when their passions don’t work out.
In the film, our protagonist is constantly encouraged by an idol of his, who he listens to frequently as inspiration:
“I have seen the best of them give up midway. But you must not. He who has control over his mind can never be swayed from his path no matter what the circumstances.” — Maai (The Disciple, 2020)
This famously private artist is idolised as someone who never performs in public, has never made official recordings, and was almost seen as some kind of deity to our protagonist. Which hits all the more harder in the final act when he discovers his idol was not who he had thought out to be.
Affirmations like the one above are meant to inspire people to work hard and believe in themselves. But when their dreams fall apart, the most common narrative is that they “didn’t believe enough”, or they “didn’t work hard enough”, implying that they were responsible for their own failure to manifest success into their lives.
And this guilt-tripping only further reinforces toxic mindsets around goal-setting.
So what does this mean?
Give up? Stop chasing your dreams?
Not at all.
The entertainment industry proves time and time again to be one of the most prolific and influential industries. And with the past few years forcing everyone into their homes, media consumption has never been at its highest.
Media skills are becoming more and more integral, especially as we move further into the digital age. Just the very nature of us reading and writing on Medium proves this.
Instead, there are plenty of themes that media narratives can instead focus on.
How to form relationships and create meaningful professional networks.
How to bounce back from criticism and take on feedback.
The toll of celebrity stardom.
Or even better, how to turn your passions into a meaningful purpose by helping those around you.
Ambitions are important, they always have been.
But instead of dangerously promoting falsehoods, storytellers should instead turn their attention to promoting healthier messages around pursuing ambition.
Only then will you actually learn to be “led by love, and not by fear”.
