“SAG-AFTRA Strikes the Empire Back” (Photo: Katharine Collins)
“Two more hours!”
“Thank you. Two.”
Strikers laughed as they busted out their on-set jargon. Tuesday, 19 September, the day before the writers were due back at the negotiating table, hundreds of actors descended on the famous Melrose Ave, marching, chanting, and cheering in front of the entrances to the exceedingly posh Paramount Studios. The tops of signs clacked a plethora of high-fives in solidarity. To an observer, they seemed joyful, so I asked multiple participants the same question: how has the writers’ impending return to the bargaining table affected the mood on the picket line?
One older gentleman told me that everyone was very excited. Not a single person was unenthusiastic. The first woman I stopped said it was awesome, and probably responsible for the really good turnout. An Australian woman called the vibe, “Really great.” However, one gentleman had a more sobering take. “It’s all performative from the producers.” He was waiting for that side to put something substantive on the table.
Indeed, the last deal offered, the first in 4 months, failed to come close to meeting conditions that would enable writers to make a respectable living and support their families with their craft. Formerly a sustainable career, artists of all stripes have lost their ability to earn a living since the revenue model shifted from Nielsen ratings and advertising numbers to streaming. Since the advent of Netflix, jobbing actor salaries, which used to afford a comfortable living for those working regularly within the industry, have plummeted to where these costars and guest stars, many with numerous, well-recognized credits, can often not keep their heads above water.
(Photo: Katharine Collins)
On this day, which sent me to Melrose Ave. in Hollywood to get my computer fixed, I couldn’t help but notice how the town itself serves as an apropos metaphor for these artists’ struggle. Driving past Paramount Studios, one is struck with its grandeur. Greek-style columns frame two almost golden arches at the main entrance. Just behind the ornate iron gates stands a security booth: the gatekeeper granting and denying access to what was once a public street. A fountain adorns the original, less grand entrance with only a single ornate arch. The interior boasts 800,000 square feet of full-service office space, including custom cabinetry. In addition to high-end dining services, Paramount provides a fitness centre, medical services, car detailing, dry cleaning, and even a shoe repair.
Finding a list of current occupants, with the exception of The Rookie, proved difficult (read into that what you will), but popular shows, such as This is Us and Truth be Told filmed there, and the studio houses Magnum PI’s Los Angeles production offices. Executive producer salaries, according to a WGA table from 14. December. 2021, run between $40,000 and $125,000 per episode. This is Us films an 18-episode season, making an executive producer between $720,000 and $2.25 million. The Rookie’s 22-episode season earns that executive producer between $880,000 and $2.75 million. While $720,000 may not buy the executive producer a 10,000-square-foot Malibu mansion, it will buy him or her a very nice, large home in a good, safe neighbourhood and allow his or her children to attend an expensive private school.
Conversely, the jobbing actor’s earnings potential has dropped significantly since the turn of the millennium. The current rate for a 1-day guest star runs between $1,082 (scale) and $3,000 per day. While that seems like a lot, if the actor booked five roles in a week (a tall order which rarely happens), that actor would gross between $5,410 and $15,000: less than 1% of the studio executive. Costars earn even less than guest stars. And seeing as how the majority of jobbing actor work is unpaid: prepping for, filming, and submitting auditions, networking, creating their own content to try to get noticed, etc, working guest and costars have increased struggles to make ends meet in an ever more expensive Los Angeles, where the average rent currently sits at $2742 per month. Actors also have new expenses either for proper equipment to film auditions, or to pay a professional, so their tape can compete in quality with all the other submitted auditions. And while a guest star could earn their rent in a week, the reality is that this job is more famine than feast. Dwayne Johnson may have earned $270 million in 2022, but only 12.7% of jobbing actors earned enough to qualify for SAG-AFTRA health insurance: a paltry $26,470. This is not a middle-class wage even in the least expensive states, and in Los Angeles, it will not keep an actor housed.
Because of the famine nature of the business, actors had counted on residuals to sustain them between bookings. However, due to the rise of streaming, actors are now deprived of this necessity. Instagram has a whole host of pictures of residual checks, which it cost far more to send than the money earned from the residual, including checks for as little as $0.01. Gumball anyone? Maybe in 1923, but not in 2023! TMZ’s Instagram hosts a video of actor Page Kennedy showing his residual checks. From the FX show Justified, on which he guest starred in the first 2010 episode as Curtis Mims, he earned a respectable $123. However, Kimiko Glenn, who acted in over forty episodes of the Emmy-winning Orange is the New Black, which put Netflix’s original content on the map, earned only $27.30 in residuals. Twenty-year veteran, Kellee Stewart claimed in an interview with CNN that residuals from network television and Netflix are night and day, a claim the numbers back up. According to Stewart, “they’re not even in the same conversation.” And actor Rod McLaughlin, with credits on series such as Blue Bloods, constantly struggles just to meet the insurance threshold.
(Photo: Katharine Collins)
Surrounding the lush grandeur of Paramount Studios, the neighbourhoods where the actors parked their cars and through which they walked to the studio to picket sit in stark contrast to the luxury offices the executives occupy. Rundown businesses tagged with graffiti, dirty apartment complexes with bars across their windows, and tiny houses, some in need of yard work, others needing repair, pervade Melrose Ave. and its adjacent streets.
(Photo: Katharine Collins)
My initial thought as I entered the area was a concern for my safety, and indeed, the computer shop had locked doors, requiring me to knock to be let in. The sight of Paramount Studios juxtaposed against this destitute backdrop shocked me, and I thought of the dichotomy of struggling actors fighting these rich executives for a livable wage. One person’s sign: “SAG-AFTRA strikes the Empire back”, captured this disharmony perfectly.
Now that the WGA has reached a tentative agreement with the AAMPA, we’ll see first if the writers ratify the new contract, and second, if it helps SAG-AFTRA reach an agreement with the AAMPA that will help jobbing actors support themselves in a sustainable way.
