An actor needs a public. Popularity is everything.
In 1939, Kenji Mizoguchi pulled back the curtain on a kabuki theater troupe to tell The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum. In it, Shôtarô Hanayagi plays the adopted son of renowned actor Gonjurô Kawarazaki, who's worries that his hand-picked progeny is letting his popularity go to his head, turning him into a preening ham at an alarmingly early age. (As one curious onlooker observes, "Talented fathers rarely have talented sons.") Then Hanayagi has a frank discussion with his baby brother's nursemaid (Kakuko Mori), who is the only person willing to tell him that he's a bad actor, but if he only applied himself he could be great. Unfortunately, Mori is dismissed after the two of them become the subject of malicious gossip and he's disowned when he goes after her, at which point he decides a fresh start is just what he needs to prove that he can make it on his own.
One year later, Hanayagi has found a place with a company based in Osaka, but on his own merits he's not very popular with audiences. Mori still seeks him out, offering encouragement and pledging to stay by his side. She even accompanies him when he takes a job with a touring company, but four years in they're left high and dry by the leader of the troupe and Hanayagi is no closer to being able to return to Tokyo. That is, not until they learn that one of his old friends (Kôkichi Takada) just so happens to performing in town and Mori goes to him to ask if there's anything he can do for Hanayagi. Turns out there is, but Mori will have to make the ultimate sacrifice for him. And if you think she won't, then you clearly haven't seen enough Mizoguchi films.