The Guardian (USA)

Glory days: what does success mean in 2021?

- Russell T Davies Screenwrit­er, It’s a Sin

Success in 2021 meant cold, hard cash. Not for me! For charity. Damn it. I created an in-joke for the It’s a Sin gang: “La” instead of hello. We said that when I was young, in Swansea, camp little kids that we were. So I put it on screen. The first episode was watched by a man called Philip Normal, the UK’s first HIVpositiv­e mayor. He turned “La” into a Tshirt and began printing. Eight months later, that T-shirt has raised £500,000 for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Half a million quid. You can stuff your awards and reviews. That money will change lives.

Finneas Musician/producer

It’s playing by your own rules, making whatever you want to make, worrying only about fully realising your own vision. Whatever formula once existed is gone. Nobody can tell you how to achieve it; it’s all about whatever you can dream up that the world hasn’t heard.

Hayley Williams Musician, Paramore

My definition­s of contentmen­t and success have changed too many times to count. This is Paramore’s 19th year alive – holy shit. I think we’ve only managed to survive this long because we’ve become hyper-protective about the space we take up, personally and profession­ally.

Today, nearly three years since we decided to take substantia­l time off, I feel prouder than ever of the work we’ve put out into the world. I feel even more connected to the people behind the work – myself, Taylor and Zac. There was a time I couldn’t say that. For many years, I lost myself to the image and the expectatio­ns projected onto me from the moment we came onto the scene.

Strangely, I believe it’s been the “no”s that have defined our career and successes. It isn’t easy to turn down a big payday or a huge opportunit­y that you know could set you and your family up for life. I tell my friends in this business that a thoughtful “no” can be just as lucrative as a thousand “yesses”. I’ve never stood by that more proudly than I do today. After coming off the road with Paramore, releasing two solo albums in the last year – neither of which I promoted very heavily – and, most importantl­y, coming to a healthy acceptance of living a public life while privately dealing with intense bouts of depression, I don’t regret any choice I or the band have made. We simply don’t believe success can be measured by the metrics we were traditiona­lly taught to trust.

Jamie Demetriou

Comic, creator Stath Lets Flats

When I was a tiny, curvy child, my wildest daydreams about working in telly were all about me being “big”. If I’m honest, a part of me probably still needs to grow up and embrace that true success has nothing to do with “big-ness”. I suspect real success is the ability to feel calm about work. I’m never calmer than when I’m involved in a project that I really get and love. Scale rarely informs that. That said: can I be the lead in a Marvel film please? I’d love to play a god made of guns.

Jack Thorne Screenwrit­er, Help/Kiri

Two things really had an impact on me this year. The world got uglier and the more we learn about what happened during the pandemic the angrier we should feel. The disabled world, in particular, was betrayed by this government. The second is that my dad got cancer. My dad is my Jiminy Cricket, the person on my shoulder nudging me. He’s always lived a good life and he’s always been the one who said if you’re not doing good in the world then what are you doing? I’m instinctiv­ely a coward, he’s not. For me, success is trying to live up to him, and to work out how to support him, and that struggle, frankly, is ongoing.

Siobhan Reddy

Studio director/video game producer, Media Molecule

During this time we need to look at how we measure creative success. Creativity connects us all and it covers a wide spectrum. It can be personal, like making a vegetable garden to share with family you haven’t seen for a long time; social, like making a funny TikTok that makes people think; or it can scratch an itch, like being a hobbyist games designer. When we look back to this time, measures like how thoughtful we were, how inclusive our designs were, how we connected people to make things more helpful, more real and more positive will be important.

Alex Horne

Comedian/Taskmaster creator

If I come up with a single idea for a task, joke or song, it’s been a successful day. If I can write that idea up and make it work, then it’s been a successful week. If I can perform that idea, make someone laugh and, mainly, have fun, then it’s been a successful month. And if I can keep doing that, while spending time with my family, who inspire pretty much every idea I ever have, then it’s been a successful year.

Lena Dunham

Screenwrit­er/actor/producer

Creative success means something very different to me now than it did five years ago – but it sort of means the same thing it did to me 10 years ago. When I started, all I dreamed of was the chance to make work. I imagined I would make micro-budget indie films when I could and cobble together a life around that with other pursuits. The wild luck, and yes, some very hard work, of Girls allowed me to see a “bigger” life for myself, but in that bigger life it was easy to get distracted and think it was my job to try and take over the world. A combinatio­n of growing older and the reflection forced on us by the pandemic has me back to appreciati­ng the very fact that I get to do this job, and so creative success is once again the chance to tell stories in any form, for an audience comprised of however many people might want to hear them. The simplicity of a clear mission is comforting to me as the world starts to reactivate.

Liam Williams

Comedian/writer, Ladhood

At the beginning of my career I’d oscillate, in terms of creative ambition, between a craving for eternal, Osymandian approbatio­n and the hope of just being able to pay the rent each month. A decade in, I tend more towards the latter, though the idea of having some sort of “higher” social or political purpose matters to me too, even if it will all be forgotten in the end, buried under desert sands.

Adam Buxton

Comic, The Adam Buxton Show Hello, Adam Buxton here. I’m a multi-award winning writer, comedian and podcaster. Here are my rules for success in the creative industries:

If you do a thing and people like it, carry on doing that thing over and over again with very slight variations to create the illusion of change. Don’t make the variations too big or people might get confused and go elsewhere.

Don’t take long breaks to be with friends and loved ones or work on new things. If you take a long break, people will forget you and then you won’t be successful and your friends and loved ones won’t like you any more.

Try to win awards. Awards are proof that a thing is good. Things with no awards are not as good. Look at the things that win awards and make a note of what those things have in common. Can you put some of those things in your thing?

Act at all times as though you’re a genius and the success of your thing is well deserved. You’ll be surprised how many people will go along with this, including the people who give out awards.

See you at the success party!

Rina Sawayama Musician

It’s an ever-moving goalpost that I’m trying to find peace with. As an artist, it’s hard to predict what the next 10 years, five years, even one year is going to be like … I couldn’t have seen myself starring in John Wick 4! An uncertain future can make planning hard, so I’ve learned to be successful in the daily things I do. Otherwise I get defeated by the monstrous societal idea of success, which doesn’t necessaril­y align with mine.

Danny Brocklehur­st Screenwrit­er, Brassic

Whenever we put work out we share a piece of ourselves and I know I have succeeded when audiences respond on an emotional level. I’ve lost count of how many times people have told me that my potty-mouthed comedy Brassic has uplifted them, especially during the pandemic. With more serious dramas like Exile and Come Home, I’ve had responses so personal that I’ve realised the power of the television dramatist. To be able to connect with an audience, change their mood, make them laugh, cry, think or feel is truly a special thing.

Tolly, Audrey and Milena

Podcasters, The Receipts

Being able to create your own content and not wait to be given chances has redefined what success looks like. Before signing with Spotify, we had already carved out our lane: we came with a readymade audience, which means our presence couldn’t be denied. What we value is creating a space for black and brown women to feel safe in a world that often excludes their voices. So long as that remains the focal point, we’re happy to see where this journey takes us.

Digga D Musician

To me, success means finally being able to give my fans the live performanc­e I haven’t been able to give to them until now. Being able to showcase my talent live to those who have been supporting me throughout my career would mean the world to me.

Brian Cox Actor, Succession

The Covid lockdown has threatened the live performing arts – which are the lifeblood of my profession as an actor – in a way that I have never known in my lifetime. My own personal creative suc

 ??  ?? Success stories … (l-r) Hayley Williams, Russell T Davies, Lena Dunham, Brian Cox, Rina Sawayama.
Success stories … (l-r) Hayley Williams, Russell T Davies, Lena Dunham, Brian Cox, Rina Sawayama.
 ??  ?? Formula gone ... Finneas O’Connell. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty
Formula gone ... Finneas O’Connell. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States