Radio Blues
Much like any other twenty-something year old who graduated from a liberal-arts college, I am entering the job market hungry, inexperienced, (a tad inflated) and thoroughly impressed by nearly any job that may pay me more than a cheap week of groceries. Things get even more interesting when you’ve just completed a degree in acting performance. It really doesn’t matter what school you went to or how great of a performer you could actually be, because identifying yourself as an ‘actor’ still makes peoples heads tilt, with a sympathetic frown/smile while they grab your shoulders and say, “Aw, you’re so brave!”. But honestly, the more pity I get, the more I start to believe that these people are really onto something.
Weeks before I graduated college, WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers began a strike due to failed negotiations with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) to push for better pay on projects, as well as proper pay when a show is used for streaming platforms. Weeks prior to my graduation, and much to my fear, SAG-AFTRA joined the writers out on the streets in Los Angeles and New York City, striking against the large companies that refuse to pay us livable wages (unless you’re within the two percent margin of SAG-AFRTRA performers that live luxuriously, who are probably sitting in their two million dollar homes, retweeting that the stand with the strike as they quietly prepare for their next film with Apple TV).
Now more than ever - at least in recent years - has the general public been incredibly vocal with how they view actors and their livelihoods. I can’t help but scroll through the countless Facebook comments under a video of (our beloved) Fran Drescher as she gustily defends our rights, just to see the people who mock our careers.
“I hope they all go out and get real jobs!” one writes, as if most SAG-AFTRA members and performers in generally aren’t correctly stereotyped for stacking multiple jobs - usually minimum wage ones at that. Another one: “FCK HOLLYWEIRD. THESE PEOPLE ARE EVILDOERS”. And another: “If they had to live the daily grind of most average Americans on a tight budget, a lot of them would self-terminate”. My favorite: “Good they are all pedophiles anyway”. If by that you would be referring to Bob Iger or perhaps Woody Allen, then yes, I would agree. The people at the top 1% of this industry do, in fact, make the millions and most likely do throw strange, illuminati themed parties with their rich friends. As for the rest of us, we’re just trying to eat and live fairly average lives.
In fact, this has been one of the most frustrating parts of being an actor. The baseline assumption is that pursuing this career means one of two things: you are rich and famous or you want to become rich and famous. I would say the percentage of people who crave the fame and fortune may be higher than the amount who have it already, but once again, for the rest of us, we just want to create art that is entertaining and meaningful, as well as make a decent living (I know, shoot me). With the current strike, the people who laugh at it are the uneducated who truly believe that actors are striking because they want even more money than the millions they already have. As Drescher announced, “Tom Cruise and top people make their own deal. That’s not who we are striking for. We’re striking for the journeyman”.
Us journeymen typically pay our own industry upwards of hundreds monthly to just get by. In order to browse and apply for auditions online, I pay around $50 monthly (notice how I say apply for auditions, not the job itself). Additionally, we spend around $50 for a self-taping studios because casting directors refuse to see us in-person (it saves them money). On top of that, we have to pay at least $300 for headshots, $20 to print them out (because keep in mind, casting directors don’t like flaky papers), and even more costs to just get yourself noticed. As of right now, I pay for this stupid website that tracks around two visitors daily - one of which is myself.
If I’m calculating correctly, I spend around $1000 annually to be an actor. And currently, I don’t book enough jobs to compensate for that.
Jobs have been especially scarce the last few weeks, simply because all unionized actors and writers are refusing work. Even though non-union, there is much to gain standing with the strike instead of against it. WGA and SAG-AFTRA are fighting for so much that might make careers in film and television a little more accessible and a little less expensive to pursue. In addition, we are actually pushing to actually receiving proper payment when you perform in a show - instead of all the money going to the streaming platform that runs the shows. These residual payments especially matter for actors in the 97% who do not make a living off of this career. Logically, we would be taking a little less money out of the billions that the company already has to pay actors for their work. Seems fair enough, right?
Being non-union in a time like this does make the strike a little easier to survive. I can audition for all non-union projects, theatre performances, as well as some SAG-AFTRA approved projects that are either low-budget or not in association to the studios who we are striking. In a way, I consider myself fortunate applying for jobs that pay a $100 stipend for three weeks worth of work.
Just the other day as I was discussing the strike with someone close to me, a non-actor, I was shocked to discover that they really didn’t care all too much about the difficulties that union-members who make television and movies are currently experiencing. Not a single care for the hundreds of people who make a living by working behind the scenes on craft series, SFX, lighting, post-production, etc. Their logic was that yes, some actors don’t make enough money, but - oh well! - that’s what it means to be an actor.
It’s this exact logic that I hate is associated with being an actor. Are we too dumb to not get well-paid jobs? And are we even dumber for thinking that we might?
I can see that thought beam through that sympathetic frown/smile whenever I tell someone that I’m an actor. I can see it every time I walk into an audition room from casting directors who seemingly hold my dignity in their hands.
However, these are the same people that tweet about their Succession viewing parties every Sunday night - the same people who keep comfort reruns of Friends on while they drift away to sleep at night. We make the shows for you: we want to entertain you, we want you to escape from your reality and feel a sense of hopefulness, a sense of home within the characters we’ve made. We think about you when we spend twelve hours a day on sets. And all at the same time, I am constantly thinking not about the audience but rather the people on the screen. No, not Brian Cox nor Jennifer Anniston, but rather the background actor in a crowd or the actor who has one line - hoping to be discovered, praying that they were worthy enough for your viewing.