‘It’s not as glamorous as you think’: Local actors weigh in on impact of SAG-AFTRA strike
LOWELL — Gilda and Chris James “got bit” by the acting bug in the late 1990s after starring as background actors in a film together. But the Lowell couple’s passion for the screen may soon be compromised.
For the last month, the Jameses have been striking with SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, to which they’ve belonged since 1997. Without a resolution to the union’s ongoing labor dispute, Gilda and Chris’s usual lineup of acting work just doesn’t exist.
Come this fall, Gilda and Chris plan to work a number of odd jobs, including at the polls during election season and at Spooky World, a Halloween-themed attraction park in Litchfield, N.H., where costumed actors try to scare patrons.
Chris shuddered at the thought. The gig — which he calls “stage in your face” — pays $10 an hour and is “the toughest acting I’ve ever done.” It would be their third season there.
“This one is really, really scary,” he said of the strike. “As they say, hard times haven’t set in yet.”
Actors are currently seeking higher wages, protections from the use of artificial intelligence, and stronger residuals, or royalty payments for appearances in productions.
While the strike — along with the concurrent Writers Guild of America strike, which began in early May — may appear to solely impact Hollywood, stand-ins, voice actors and commercial actors are struggling to find substantial work. Union members rallied at the Boston Common Aug. 9 and plan on rallying in Salem, M.A. Aug. 29.
Odis Spencer Jr., of Lowell, primarily acts in commercials, but the strike has changed things. Most of the commercials in the Greater Boston area are nonunion, Spencer said, which takes work away from himself and other union actors. It typically comes down to studios saving money, as those jobs don’t have to pay actors residuals, Spencer said.
His recent acting gigs are quite different. Spencer spent several days with the U.S. National Guard, running educational mass-casualty drills, acting as “a person blown up in a Walmart with mustard gas.” Some of his other acting friends are down at Massachusetts General Hospital, helping doctors by roleplaying victims of different ailments.
Even though he’s not in front of the camera and featured on screen, it’s educational and crucial to actors, Spencer said. They’re still able to do commercials, as that contract is still intact, he said.
“There are several independent production companies that have signed an interim agreement to the rules and regulations that the union wants,” Spencer said, “and they’re allowing these production companies to go forward (with) filming.”
Spencer shared a residual check he received in May 2021 for a film shot in 2010, which premiered in movie theaters and later moved to cable. (During the strike, union actors do not name their projects so as to not promote them.) Internationally, Spencer made 62 cents in Denmark, $4.67 in Spain, and a few more bucks across Spain and Switzerland. Comparatively, his first residual was $7,000, he said. He’ll now earn about $30 or $40 for the same film every quarter.
For streaming platforms, it’s even worse.
“I did a couple of productions for the streaming industry. I get paid for one year, and that’s it,” Spencer said. “Even the same thing with the stars. It’s hurting your income stream.”
Spencer earned his AFTRA card in 1977, and after his second commercial in 1978, two years out of college, he joined SAG. While acting, Spencer spent nearly four decades in the parking industry, but still works on call at Boston’s Seaport Hotel during events.
It could be another six months, possibly a year, Spencer said. In the meantime, the Jameses will be “living off our retirement,” Chris joked.
Most actors are not guaranteed health care, as one needs to make about $26,000 to qualify, Spencer said. Background actors and other nonprincipals may not clear $14,000.
“Unless you’re in Hollywood or whatnot, chances are, you’re not going to make that amount of money,” he said.
Much like a U.S. postal worker, actors work through adverse weather and conditions for their craft.
“That’s what being an actor entails,” Gilda said. “You take whatever’s given to you … It’s not as glamorous as you think.”
Donald “Donny” St. John, an actor based in Billerica, has starred in more than 50 films, many based in Boston — namely, he’s played a Boston police officer, Detroit fire chief, and a nonprincipal role for a film shot in Boston.
For nearly 20 years, St. John’s passion for the moviemaking process has kept him in the business. The excitement and camaraderie between actors, as well as the solidarity during the strike, keeps him going.
Since the pandemic, St. John said he’s noticed fewer jobs, and now with the strike, there “doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight.” Independent films and stage acting — including “Hunting Whitey,” a play centered on Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger — has sustained St. John’s acting career, but it’s his full-time real-estate business that pays the bills.
From his perspective, the strike is “long overdue,” St. John said.
“It’s just that small percentage of people that are making big, big money,” he said. “Everybody else is working basically for minimum wage because they love what they do. They’ll work all those long hours for short money because they love the craft of the movie business and acting and so forth.”
Without the hundreds of people behind the scenes and in the background, movies and TV shows couldn’t be made, St. John said. Though it’s unclear when the dispute will be resolved, St. John said it’s important that it’s happening.
“There’s a lot at stake,” he said. “I don’t think that the strike is going to end quickly. I think that the actors and the writers are really going to make sure that they get something good out of this. They’re not going to settle for peanuts, more peanuts.”
Put simply, actors are looking for equity.
“We just want to get paid fairly,” Gilda said.
Originally published at https://www.lowellsun.com on August 27, 2023.
