Few of us get through life without a little help along the way. It may come from a mentor, a friend or a perfect stranger. Actors are no different, though they’ve chosen a field where the chances of success are milliliters thin.

Ben Affleck (“The Town”) says it was filmmaker Kevin Smith who helped him. “Kevin is the reason ‘Good Will Hunting’ got made,” says Affleck of the film he and Matt Damon wrote and starred in.

“Kevin is the reason I have a career and am playing meatier roles and not being stalked by obnoxious bad guys, bullies,” says Affleck.

“Kevin believed in me. When we were doing ‘Chasing Amy,’ he told Miramax — who’d already passed on ‘Good Will Hunting’ initially — that they should read the script. And that’s the reason we got it made. He’s always been a big believer in me; I owe the guy a big part of my career if not the whole thing …”

Mary McCormack (“In Plain Sight”) credits executive producer Steven Bochco (“NYPD Blue”) when she was cast in his “Murder One.” “I remember the first episode after the pilot was me, my trial, so there were these huge speeches, like closing arguments that were pages long, that they would rewrite the day before. I had no experience. I worked hard, and I think I pulled if off enough to keep my job. I remember going to Steven Bochco and telling him, ‘You have to bear with me. I’m completely over my head but I’ll work hard, and my learning curve will be sharp, but you have to look away for a while. It’s not going to be pretty.’ He said, ‘That’s all I ask.’ He was wonderful, really great, and wrote more and more for me. It was a great way for me to learn.”

Scott Bakula (“Men of a Certain Age”) recalls a fellow actor who helped steer him through his initial days in New York. “I had this guy I’d worked with a lot in St. Louis, and he’d been to New York and knew some of the ins and outs of New York, and he said, ‘When you get to New York, you’ve got to get this paper, “Backstage.” It has all the auditions and everything that’s going on.’ I didn’t have an agent, wasn’t in a union, wasn’t in Equity, didn’t know ANYTHING … I got there on Wednesday, bought a ‘Backstage.’ Auditioned on Friday for a tiny dinner theater in North Carolina and was hired by that night.”

For Cybill Shepherd (“The L Word”) it was her father. “I was the athletic one of the three children. I got (my dad’s) broad shoulders, so he was cool with that. He went out there and threw the football with me in the front yard. I feel I owe my father a lot. I felt he carried me on top of those broad shoulders to show me how far I could see. And he loved the athlete in me. Come to find out, girls who are athletes early just blossom in every other way.”

Kyle Chandler (“Friday Night Lights”) says it was a friend from college. “I grew up in a tiny town, and when I was in college I didn’t know I was going to go into acting. I’d met some people at 3 o’clock in the morning at the University of Georgia, and one fella became a very good friend of mine. He’s passed away since, but as they were leaving that morning, the one guy pulled me over and said, ‘There’s an audition in the Cellar Theater at the University for “A Comedy of Errors.’” And to this day I have no idea why I went there and got the script. I think because the people we met there were absolutely lunatics, they were insane. And I liked that.

“I went and got the script and studied it, auditioned, and got the part and played the one brother. When we did the dress rehearsal, and the teachers were sitting around, and when that applause happened, and I was center stage, I cried inside. It was like: THIS is it.”

Debra Messing (“Will and Grace”) owes her debt of gratitude to a casting director. “I kept auditioning and kept losing the job to two different women. I would see them and say, ‘This time I’m going to be the one.’ And it didn’t happen, and I was really depressed about it … Then this casting director called my agent. I think I owe this woman my career because I was auditioning for her quite a bit. But she called my agent and said, ‘Debra is sabotaging herself because she is wearing so much makeup that it’s like kabuki. And she looks 10 years older than she really is. They’d see the tape and say, “She’s too old.” Or they call her out, and say, “She’s way too young for this. She needs to go and learn how to put makeup on.’” I was putting stage makeup on, that’s all I knew. So between that and being forced to color my head red — all of a sudden everything changed.”

Hugh Jackman (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) says his dad — who raised five children by himself — is responsible for his success. “I wanted to do (study) this course. I auditioned. I got in, but I didn’t realize it cost $3,500, and I didn’t have $3,500. Three days later, a check came from the estate of my grandmother, who’d just died, for $3,500. I thought, ‘This is freaky.’ I went to my dad, because I didn’t think my dad wanted me to be an actor, I thought he’d be a little bit worried.

I said, ‘Dad, I want to be honest with you, this money’s come through, and I don’t know how you feel, but I want to go to acting school, and it costs $3,500. And do you think Gran would be upset if I used it for that or would you be upset?’ He said, ‘I can’t think of a better way for you to spend Gran’s money.’ And he was very emotional. That was one of those first signs that I’d started on that path for acting.”