How I Invest with David Weisburd
E165: Hollywood Lessons on Risk, Reward, and Relationships with Alexander Ludwig
20 May 2025
Alexander Ludwig is best known for his breakout roles in The Hunger Games and Vikings, but behind the scenes, he’s a multi-hyphenate: a passionate actor, a devoted entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Their Jewelry—a sustainable, recycled gold and silver brand he runs with his wife. In this episode, Alexander opens up about the brutal realities of Hollywood, the myth of overnight success, and how ego and humility have shaped his 20-year career. We also dive deep into how he's channeling his platform and resources to build a purpose-driven business that could help tackle the e-waste crisis. This conversation covers everything from surviving the actor’s feast-or-famine cycle to the importance of storytelling, Stoic philosophy, and finding peace in a hyper-competitive world.
Full Episode
Audiences don't come to see you, they come to see themselves. So you want actors that have that sort of vulnerability. When actors start to put themselves on a pedestal outside of their work, I do think that that translates into your work and suddenly you're not seen as like the everyday guy that you want to root for.
Welcome to the How to Invest podcast. I'm your host, David Weisberg. Today, I'm thrilled to sit down with Alexander Ludwig, actor, producer, and star of hit series Vikings and The Hunger Games. Alexander shares his journey from child actor to landing his first major role in a movie.
We'll dive into the business side of entertainment and how he approaches risk and reward as an actor and businessman. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Alexander. When we last chatted, you quoted Pitbull that if you chase money, it runs. How do you relate that to the movie business?
Steve Jobs talks about this too. If just making money is the object in my business, I think you would quit because it's just such a... brutal business to be a part of if you don't love it. If you're chasing things like fame or money, you're going to be, I think, in for a really rude awakening. So much of luck is involved in this business and every business in a lot of ways.
The only thing that really... guarantees a semblance of success is persistence. The only way you'll be persistent is if you truly, truly love your craft. And I think that applies to a lot of, you know, a lot of businesses, if not all of them. And the luck is not only about getting your first big role, it continues throughout your entire career.
Absolutely. The misconception in our business and the misconception in, um, I think actors have in general, is that once you get that role, you're set. I've been in this business now for about 20 years, which is crazy to say. I'm 32. And the longer I'm in this business, the more I realize it's the exact opposite of how it works. Just because you have one great win. It doesn't insure anything.
And then you realize it's no different from pretty much every other business. I mean, you need investors to say yes to you. You need people to believe in you. You need mentors. It's the exact same thing. Literally the other day, I was at an amazing birthday party for a friend of mine in Austin. His name is Hayes Barnhart. He started a company called Goodly.
it was an amazing birthday such incredible people there and we got went to this bar and this one guy was a big fan of vikings this tv show i did and he came up to me and he goes you know my god i'm such a big fan you know and then we kind of got into the you know my process and and how it works and then he starts asking like well why haven't you done this right like well why haven't you you know why have you done a marvel and i go let me ask you a question um
what do you do for a living? And he's like, I'm in commercial real estate. And I'm like, okay. So like one of my best friends in Austin, her dad is one of the biggest developers in the state. And I said, why aren't you as big as him? And I said, you know, it's no different, you know, it's like, don't get me wrong.
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