In full disclosure, I've been at this acting thing for over 20 years (professionally) and still regularly face the dilemma of working for scale (the lowest wage allowed by SAG-AFTRA) or not working at all. And while many actors, writers, and crew are in the same boat everyday, this strike season empowered me to voice the issue.
I've gotten great response from actors and other industry professionals so far, so I invite any additional feedback or anecdotes from your own career.
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Thanks for sharing, Matthew Cornwell! I'm not an actor but my wife is so I've been on the ride up and down for a long time. I think that actors always deserve higher pay - they are what audiences experience first and foremost - unless they've hit the magic golden ceiling like the biggest stars, in which case God bless 'em.
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Hi Matthew, Thank you for highlighting this. I agree whole-heartedly.
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Thank you Matthew Cornwell My thoughts exactly. Acting is the only profession where skill and experience doesn't seem to matter. I run into this myself, at 47 having been acting since childhood, theater and TV, my training, talent, experience all on my resume and people still expect me to do it all for free. If you want quality -great performance plus few takes than you must pay for that. I can make $40,000 a year as a security guard, ( a job that requires no skill just ability to pass a FBI fingerprint check) but I can't even make the minimum $26,000 a year to get SAG healthcare- is mind boggling. Lay people don't get what this strike is about so thank you. I have spent tens of thousands on sharpening my skills, training to be the best actor I can be, yet for some reason, actors are not considered skilled workers. This stirke is a long time coming. I'm sharing your video on my socials.
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Thanks for the comment, Suzanne Bronson. And I feel your pain. My wife and I are both actors, and more than once we've had to switch who is primary on the SAG insurance based on who qualified that year.
I'm just hopeful that this moment in time is truly the straw that broke the camel's back and that we stand firm until true change has been achieved.
Great insight, thank you for sharing. This is the time to be talking about all of this!
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Suzanne Bronson "people don't get what this strike is about so thank you." ==> You're so right in this and one tend to appreciate the existence of Unions way more when you live in a part of the world when unions don't exist at all... Here people and colleagues look at me like I'm a complete moron when I support Sag on my instagram, because they don't (understand) see the point in supporting something on the other side of the world... It's so far away from their bed.
I never really thought about it Geert Van Nieuwenhove about other countries and how things like wages are negotiated. Definitely an interesting conversation.
Interesting take. How's it working out for you?
Stephen Folker That's a broad question, so I'm not sure what you're specifically asking. If you're asking how I'm managing as an actor, I will say I'm one of the lucky ones who can make insurance off my acting income. But as I say in the video, if this industry rewarded hard work and past accomplishments the way other industries do, I'd be making more for sure (and so would thousands of others).
That said, I don't do it because I expect X amount of money. I do it because I feel called to. It's a fundamental need inside me. Most storytellers can sympathize with that. So from that standpoint, things are going very well.
Hi Matthew - sorry if wasn't clear with the question. I meant, from your viewpoint, asking for more money, how has it worked out for you? Do you feel most people are paying more when you ask?
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Stephen Folker AH! I understand now. My agent ALWAYS asks for more, but nearly 100% of the time the word comes back from casting "sorry, we just don't have it in the budget." With some Casting offices, I do fully trust that they would give me more if they could, while other offices I feel give this as a de facto answer even though they don't actually consult their producers first.
Either way, it becomes a tough decision for the actor. I have to decide whether my rate is worth declining the role or not. If it's a smaller role, they likely have 2 or 3 perfectly acceptable alternates they will move to the instant I stand my ground. If it's a bigger role, I may have the leverage, but it's also that much harder to walk away if they don't budge. And if I cave? Well, then it means next time they can play that game of chicken even longer.
Because, in the end, most actors just want to act. And that desire to just be hired so often will be the deciding factor, which means we lower our inherent value by not exercising our one true power to say "no".
It's such a tough situation for actors. My one hope is that after these strikes - at least in this Southeast US market - Casting will have a new appreciation for actors that might lead to them fighting for us when we have truly established we are worth more than scale.
Fingers crossed...