You are now listening to post-mortem with Mick Harris, where the most influential voices in horror cinema will spill their guts, literally.

To the renowned horror director, writer, and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

From Nice,

the glamorous San Fernando Valley, I'm Mick Garris, and this is post-mortem.

Today I'd like to sing the praises of actors.

Their lives may seem cushy and glamorous, but it takes amazing work and

dedication to get to a place where you can make your living playing roles on the

screen. First of all, it is pretty psychologically challenging. You have to be deep enough and

sensitive enough to convincingly play a wide range of emotions and yet strong and

resilient enough to face rejection from every direction.

You're judged by how you look. Are you getting wrinkles? Did you gain a few pounds? Is your hair thinning?

And your life becomes an open book.

If you are lucky enough to attain recognizable status,

it is hard to live a normal life,

having worked with many notable actors

from Michael Jackson to Angelina Jolie and beyond,

I've seen lives lived in public surrounded by paparazzi and fans and spotlights.

You have to have a sensitive constitution to portray emotionally demanding roles,

but the hide of a rhinoceros to withstand petty jealousies and rejection and living under a microscope.

For all of the work that goes on behind the scenes on a film set, from the writer to the director

and all of the hardworking crew, it's the actors who have to physically bear themselves to the audience.

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