A Minor Consideration formally congratulates “one of our own” – Alisan Porter for her spectacular victory this week!
You can be sure than any former and current child actor who watches any reality TV was especially focused on, transfixed, and otherwise rooting for the unstoppable rise over the past few months of the lovely and gifted Alisan Porter on the just-concluded Season 10 of NBC’s The Voice.
I know I was.
From the moment it was revealed in her first “blind audition” that Alisan portrayed “Curly Sue” in the 1991 feature film of the same name, and her up-front honesty about overcoming addiction 7 years ago, you can bet that not only Christina Aguilera, whom Alisan wisely chose as her coach, but all of us former child actors (and probably a good part of the TV audience) immediately felt we had just become a part of her magnificent journey back to self fulfillment.
The fact that she is also a gifted vocal performer certainly helped.
And here is the point I’ve found myself coming back to again and again over the past year: when one of us rises, we take our fans along with us. Conversely, when one of us falls, in some way so fall people who care about us, and I don’t just mean friends or those we’ve personally had contact with, I mean untold numbers of fans who either identify with us or were attracted to us by our work. In this way, every celebrity, young or old, carries a responsibility with them that comes with the job.
One doesn’t become famous in a vacuum, and it takes a lot more than a good PR machine to rustle up fans…Its the fan who discovers and identifies with something special in the actor up on the screen which creates the Star. The connection is very real, whether we choose to accept it or not.
So, naturally it is our sincere hope that Ms. Porter enjoys the ride, is ready for the new workload, and continues to touch the hearts of millions more. It’s a sublime opportunity not just for one’s own transformation, but a chance to lift those who watch silently from the privacy of their home – to take them on a worthwhile ride as well.
May Ms. Porter succeed at this, too.
- Radames Pera – Vice President