When one gets beyond all the big names and starts getting into the supporting actors and those that don’t get mentioned that often it’s easy to find actors that are there and have been there for a long time but haven’t been given a lot of attention such as Polly Walker. She’s been in the business for quite some time now but looking at her filmography it’s easy to see that while she has been in a good number of movies and has appeared on TV quite a few times it’s still evident that she’s been one of the many that have continued to be kept around for slightly minor roles many times. There have been plenty of noticeable roles that she’s taken over the years but trying to justify that she’s been the star in a lot of her on-screen performances is kind of tough since she’s usually played characters that have something to do with the story but either don’t stick around that long or are pushed into the background at one point or another. Some might look at roles such as this and just shake their head as they wonder how anyone can stand it, being relegated to a supporting actor so many times when the training and the experience that a person gains should likely rate them a lot higher. But then one has to factor in the idea that there are a lot of actors that start out like this and that only a percentage of them are going to go any further, and by the time that happens those that haven’t moved on have either reached the conclusion that they’re happy to be where they’re at, or they’re going to keep trying and pushing forward to see what else they can do.
Acting isn’t really about feeling sorry for yourself since it doesn’t get anything done and it certainly doesn’t make a career. Polly had a chance to be a ballet dancer at one point, but a leg injury derailed that journey and left her with the idea of getting into acting, where she’s been ever since. The roads we want to travel and the roads we actually do travel can be widely different since where we end up wasn’t always what we were aiming for. What happens when we don’t get what we want though, and what we do with what we still have, ends up defining us as the type of people we are and hope to continue being. For some, that journey is a long one that has a lot of twists and turns that we don’t often expect and in some cases make the worst of poor decisions that are made from a place of ignorance or from what we perceive as wisdom. But the idea to get into acting has been one that, for Polly, has been wise since she’s continued to work for years now and the idea of not becoming a ballet dancer might still be something she thinks of from time to time, but it’s likely not something that she obsesses about. One might think that if she did engage in such thoughts that she might not have been as successful as she’s been over the years.
Taking a look at her filmography it’s very easy to see that she has been keeping herself busy and keeping her career moving forward in a very positive way since she’s taken on several roles over the years that have been successful and kept her in the spotlight while still being largely a supporting actress that’s there to help out and round out the story. It’s very easy to think that as a supporting actor that one might feel a bit neglected and even passed over from time to time but as another part of the business, this is something that many people have no doubt had to make peace with and don’t grouse too much about since even the big stars need to be reminded from time to time that there are plenty of new, up and coming actors that would love to take the spots of those that don’t believe that they’re receiving equal treatment or are somehow being treated unfairly. The idea that a lot of people are simply waiting to take that spot and accept a role that someone else doesn’t want is actually quite real, but it’s also something that might help to motivate a lot of people when it comes to keeping them on the job.
It does feel as though Polly has been pretty satisfied with what she’s done over the years and has been keeping a steady pace with her career as time has gone by. Likely, since she’s still working, we’ll get to see plenty more of her in the years to come if all continues to go well.
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