I’m With the Brand
It’s not easy being an actress of a certain age. And that age may not be the one you think of when you hear that phrase. It’s not easy being an actress in Hollywood, period. In 2016, the entertainment industry reached a high-water mark in female lead characters appearing on movie screens: 29 percent. The trade press celebrated this as progress. But while women represent half the world’s population, as far as Hollywood is concerned, they are less than one out of three.
Say what you will of actors, they are observant. Even the most optimistic ingénue knows that men in the entertainment industry have it easier than women. If you want to be on camera, not being male is going to cost you. Quite literally. A 2014 “Study of Hollywood Movie Stars,” published by the Journal of Management Inquiry and reported by Variety, showed that actresses’ salaries rise steadily until age 34, then rapidly plummet.
Keep that age in mind.
The lowest rate a Screen Actors Guild actor can be paid for a week’s work is $3,239, and while that sounds like good money, it could be one of three weeks’ work she gets this year. And if the project is non-union, the actor can be paid as little as $50 a day, or be paid for a single day’s work on a national commercial and never see another dime. There’s more work than ever, but there’s less money
