Have you ever stepped off of a show due to your own decision about not wanting to be there/it not working out? What was the reason and how did you go about dealing with that?
It happens. I had to do it once when I started a show and a few weeks in realized that the DP was not the person I thought he was. It got to the point where he was so abusive (this was long before HR) that I could barely even do my job. I wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t doing good work, and I realized that I was pretty much doomed. It was a big show for me but at the end of the day I recognized that it just wasn’t going to get any better. This was after trying to fix tings a lot of ways. I only told the EP the real reason (I had a relationship with him) and told everyone else that a family issue had come up and I had to leave at the end of the episode. I was depressed for quite some time but looking back I realize it was the right choice. Sometimes you just can’t make things work.
Can’t say as I have but in truth, there were one or two times I should have. There’s no shame in admitting that you can’t fix a broken situation. The adult thing to do is just to move on and not allow yourself to be abused. Sadly I didn’t listen to this on at least one occasion and I should have. Like a bad marriage, its simply not worth the stress.
Its happened to me. The big thing you learn is to put on your big boy (or girl) pants and be an adult. Sometimes those in the room around you can’t be. Screw them. Be the better person, hold your head up high and know that you are better than that.
