Actor Crisis: Time to Point Fingers
Part three in a series about how it's all gone wrong (and how to fix it)
I’m writing about actors this week, and the industry’s problem minting stars. I’ve outlined the existential crisis and the issues with the pipelines of child stars and nepo babies. If you have any thoughts on the problem and how to fix it, I’m at richard@theankler.com.
Today, let’s look square in the face of the very harsh reality of the acting profession for those who have not broken through or are not yet stars. It needs to be acknowledged what the business has become for working actors before we can get to what causes for optimism there might be.
So consider this not so much an analysis as an autopsy.
The crisis of the working actor has been well noted and recorded. In Feb. 2023, Nicole LaPorte broke down the depths of the crisis, with the character actor Dave Higgins (Mike and Molly) saying, “I could no longer gamble on getting a regular old (acting) job to support my family. All that stuff has gone away.”
Related:
Yesterday actress Anna Lamadrid (The Rehearsal, This Fool) posted this video citing this series and reinforcing how this is a problem not nearly enough people are engaging with:
You may recall that between the Ankler feature 22 months ago and this social video yesterday, there was an entire strike that was ostensibly about these troubles.
Yet I’m here to break the news today that the crisis is over, the problem has been solved.
Of course, there are two ways to solve a problem: You can fix it, or you can kill the thing that’s having the issue in the first place.
In this instance, Hollywood chose the latter path.
Tough Love
I’ve had some bracing conversations on the reality of being an actor in the past weeks, but no one spelled it out more clearly than Lamadrid, an actress of years’ standing with a list of credits a mile long who also coaches and trains actors for auditions.
“I’m really sorry to say,” she tells me, “but unless you’re already established in the industry in some way, you’re . . .
