So many people WANT to try acting. Then they find out how much work it is, and how little control you have, and how little respect many directors have for actors. They'll cut a celeb a little slack early, but embarass yourself on screen, and they forget your name in a hurry.
Has any pro tennis player EVER made an impact as an actor? I mean an actual CAREER, not just a one-off. Movies? TV? Music? How about any athlete in any sport?
Well, I can name a few actually, but there aren't many, and they're almost all men.
Chuck Connors (baseball) --> starred in TV show "The Rifleman")
Nick Nolte (american footoball) --> Movie career. "48 hours" w/Eddie Murphy, among a LOT of others.
Howie Long (american footoball) --> Moives "Art of War", "Broken Arrow", plus commercials and he's a sports announcer)
Jim Brown (american footoball) --> 35 year film career continues, form the serious to the silly. "Ice Station Zebra", "The Dirty Dozen", "He Got Game", "Mars Attacks"
The only woman I can come up with is Nany Kerrigan (Ice skating). But virtually all of her TV and movie appearances centered around ice skating. Youcan't say she hasd a career in acting. Her skating career was simply shown on movies and television. A lot.
Professioanl Wrestling, at the moment, is providing an interesting cross-over point. Is it athletics, or entertainment?
Bill Goldberg (American Football) Currently stars as a professional wrestler. Is that Athletics to Entertainment? Or Athletics to Athletics? A lot of footballers went into Wrestling when it still portrayed itself as a sport. Ernie Ladd, Kiven Greene, and from basketball, Dennis Rodman.
Now it portrays itself as entertainment, and more athletes are moving to it.
Kurt Angle (Three time Olympic Gold medalist in qwrestling) has moved over to the pro Wrestling circuit. Which is now sold as a king of opera with more vidoe and no fat ladies, near as I can tell.
Brock Lesnar (NCAA wrestling champ) Has moved over to 'WWE' as well.
Okay, so that's wrestling to pseudo-wrestling, and who takes that seriously, anyway?
Well a professional Wrestler saw a movie he was THE start in open at #1 in the box office lst week. Is that Athletics to Entertainment? Or Entertainment to Entertainment? The athlete/actor in question also played college football.
So Dwayne Johnson AKA "the Rock", has to go on our list.
And if you were t all a fan of the "mortal Combat - The Series", they used pro wresters as villians in almost every episiode, mostly cause they could handle the fight choreography, and came with their own fan bases.
Notice the near total absence of women?
So you CAN make it from sports to movies, but it ain't easy, and when you figure the number of athletes, it doesn't happen often.
So who on the WTA tour do you think could make the transition?
Couple of caveats.
Looks doesn't mean much in Hollywood. It means everything of course, but five makeup people, a ten thousand dollar gown and four hours in amakeup chair can make 90% of the world beautiful. They're vicious about weight, but as long as your looks are in the better looking half of the population, Hollywood can take care of the rest.
Serena of course has a leg up. She's already appeared on TV without embarassing herself. We'll see this fall if she can handle a slightly bigger part.
Anna got through a small movie role unscathed, but I wonder if she can get bigger parts on her name if she's not a top twenty player.
I can't imagine Venus wanting that kind of attention focused on her on a regular basis.
If I HAD to bet money, though, I'd bet on Amelie. She has a face that quiet emotions show through on. I find her interviews quite fascinating because you can almost SEE the little feelings run across her face. I have no idea if she'd want to do something like that.
