The American actors officially went on strike Friday at 00:00 (07:00 GMT), thus joining the screenwriters for a double social movement. Dominic Burgess, an English actor who has worked in Hollywood for fifteen years, has noticed a drop in his remuneration, for the same services. Testimony.
At 40, Dominic Burgess’ life is quite far from the glitz and glitz of Hollywood. For this actor who has seen his income decline for ten years, the historic strike of actors which started on Thursday is essential.
This British actor starred in hit series like Modern Family, Star Trek: Picard Or Dahmer: Monster – The Story of Jeffrey Dahmera production that has just been nominated for the Emmy Awards, the equivalent of the television Oscars.
And yet, even after 15 years of career in the United States, his reality does not resemble the daily life of stars on the front page of the people press. For “99% of actors” daily life goes on “in the field, auditioning, jostling and fighting to get into the audition rooms”, he explains. And that often requires taking on a little job.
During his first six years in Los Angeles, Dominic Burgess worked part-time at a small movie theater for $7.75 an hour to supplement his meager acting income.
Today it “fully support” the strike called by his union, the SAG-AFTRA guild, which represents 160,000 actors and other professionals of the small and big screen in the United States. “We all want to work, but at what cost, when salary and residual income are no longer viable for actors?” “I need to be able to pay my rent and my cat’s insulin”insists the actor.
“Less well paid for my services than ten years ago”
Most actors have two sources of income: their fees for each series or film, and the famous “residual” income, currently at the heart of negotiations with employers. These are paid for each rebroadcast of a work, and are very low for a passage on a streaming platform.
Despite a stature that now allows him “to be able to support oneself by acting”, Dominic Burgess has seen all of his salaries drop over the years, regardless of type. Studios and TV channels are constantly “tighten the screw”.
Currently, it is often offered “the bare minimum” provided for by the union scales. A particularly pronounced trend among streaming platforms, according to him. “I worked this year for a company for which I worked in 2012, and I am paid less for my services than ten years ago”says the actor.
“Unsustainable”
The union minimum may seem high: a television actor must be paid at least 1,082 dollars per day on a shoot. But between the agent, legal fees and taxes, half of this sum flies away, recalls Dominic Burgess.
And producers can ask an actor paid for just one or two days to stay available for weeks, because of the uncertainty of the shooting schedule. “It’s quite common”, he assures. “That $500 then has to last eight days, 16 days or 21 days if it’s a high profile series. It becomes unsustainable.”
Studios and platforms are also increasingly resorting to other cost-saving measures, such as downgrading actors from official hiring categories (“series regular”, “recurring guest star”, etc.) to pay them less.
fierce competition
The actor did not expect this life when he arrived in the United States 16 years ago. Work in Los Angeles “has always been my goal, because I was raised with X-Files, Buffy, Twin Peaks and Star Trek. These are the series that I liked, and it is therefore towards them that I gravitated”he recalls.
Upon arriving from England, Hollywood was in the midst of the latest writers’ strike, which lasted 100 days in 2007-2008. “Back then, casting directors met people in person. I met more casting directors in three weeks in LA than in three years in London.“, he recalls.
But since the pandemic, most auditions are “self-recorded”: actors have to film themselves, often without even knowing if their performance will be viewed well.
Dominic Burgess, however, does not imagine doing anything. “We are artists, actors, writers and creators, and I think some take advantage of that sometimes – the studios know we love what we do”he sighs.
But what else can you do, in the face of fierce competition? To refuse a production paid at the minimum wage is to expose oneself to “450 other actors right behind you, who will say: Yes, I do”.