As the Screen Actors Guild strike threatens to bring TV and movie production to a standstill, I can’t help but have ambivalent feelings about their claimed unfair treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I feel for my fellow actors who seek to get their fair share of streaming revenues so they don’t have to wait tables, drive taxis or perform other work unrelated to their art in between jobs.
If streamers like Netflix are truly turning huge profits on the backs of veteran journeyman actors, they should see fit to pay those who help generate all that money. But there’s another side to this story — the one about non-union actors whose plight is even more dire than that of SAG-AFTRA members.
I am what they call a background actor — or an extra. I am not in any union — and get paid (or underpaid) accordingly. Over the past two years, I’ve appeared (however nominally) in Law & Order, Succession, Amsterdam, Gossip Girl, Billions, and The Blacklist, among several other productions I can’t recall.
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Some of my colleagues are in SAG — and do enjoy several benefits I don’t. They’re paid more — especially when there’s overtime involved. They eat and board buses first. They’re wrapped and propped-out first. (There can be long lines when productions use hundreds of extras.) They get paid if productions cancel shoots less than 24 hours in advance. And the perks go on and on.
Looking at my list of appearances (I keep that list to make sure I get paid for every job because experience has taught me if I don’t, I’ll miss a paycheck or two), and doing a rough calculation, I found that the pay differential between working non-union as opposed to union would have netted me the $3,000 SAG initiation fee within a 7-month time span.
Thus, assuming an actor has the three grand and expects to work as a background actor for more than 7 months, it would make sense to join the union. But guess what! Forking over three grand won’t get you into SAG. It’s an exclusive club with specific entry requirements that have nothing to do with acting proficiency, or the number of shows, or days you’ve worked in the industry.
SAG has a negotiated deal with signatore production companies that dictates how many (or what percentage) of actors on a set must be union members. If the number or percentage falls below the minimum for whatever reason, the production must issue a waiver (or Taft Hartley as it’s also called) and pay a few of the non-union actors union wages to satisfy the ratio.
As you might guess, those waivers can be few and far between, yet an extra will not be allowed entry into SAG until he or she has three of those waivers. Almost two years and several work days into background acting, I have just one waiver. At the current rate, it would take me 5 years to qualify for union membership.
Personally, I find this grossly unfair. Given all those shows I’ve worked on — and the fact that I have the $3,000 to join and wouldn’t need an installment plan — I feel I should be allowed entry into SAG. But I have no union to prevail upon the striking union that’s currently screaming foul to right this wrong. And it all strikes me that what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.
Let me take you through a day’s work for a non-union background actor. After applying for the job online (some listings are free for savvy actors while others have a monthly charge) and actually getting hired, it’s time to fill out multiple forms online before arriving on set. I mention this because there is work involved culling through listings and filling out forms.
The rate for non-union actors is $165 for 10 hours with time-and-a-half thereafter. Just barely the minimum wage even if you exclude the commute and paperwork, though on the occasion that we wrap early (fewer than 10 hours), we still get paid $165.
Extras are fed constantly during the day or night to the point where I’ve observed “Food for extras is like heroin for junkies. It’s what keeps us coming back.” SAG members are fed meals first and have “crafty” trucks (for in-between meal snacks) with more options than the non-union fare.
Often, we report to buses that take us to out-of-town sets. SAG members board first and enjoy hourly pay toward their day’s wages from the moment the bus starts rolling. Non-union pay hours start when the bus arrives — which is generally an hour later. So SAG people generate more overtime (OT). If I earn $250 on a long day with OT factored in, SAG members doing the same job will earn close to twice that.
Having arrived on the set (which for me has been as time-consuming as traveling for 2 unpaid hours just one way — to right around the corner in Manhattan's East Village where I live), we then spend a couple of hours standing on line to report in, standing on line for wardrobe, standing on line for hair, standing on line for make-up, and standing on line for props we’ll need for the scene (could be cameras, attaches, placards to demonstrate with).
When all that’s taken care of, we’ll sit and eat while the director prepares the set. And of course, once we get to set, production might shoot 20 different takes of the same scene and/or multiple angles of the same sequence. It gets tedious at times — though admittedly, it’s something that comes with the TV and movie-making territory.
I’ve driven a taxi in New York City for 18 straight hours — and I’ve pedal-biked food deliveries (Doordash) working a 12-hour day. And I can tell you an OT gig on a movie or TV set with a bus ride thrown in is equally tiring.
Then there’s climatic discomfort added in the mix. Too often, we wear ski jackets in summer (for the scene), just a sweatshirt when it’s 20 degrees, and work through significant precipitation roasting, freezing, or getting soaked.
Even though one production gave us dime-store rain gear on what was a cold and rainy day, any actor with long hair looked like a beaver who’d just gone for a long swim in the river in short order. I was so uncomfortable on that shoot, I actually sneaked away and camped out in a porta-potty for 15 minutes just to get out of the wind and rain while nobody was looking.
On another set, I played a cameraman and unlike the other extras, wasn’t allowed an umbrella as we shot the scene over and over again in a sleet storm.
During a break, one of the principles (lead actors) walked up to another actor I was talking with (a guy in SAG he apparently knew), and without even acknowledging my existence, offered his friend shelter in a warm place. Off they went leaving a buck private non-union extra behind.
My message to SAG members is this: While you’re complaining up the ladder that you’re being treated unfairly, you might consider the buck private non-union extras' plight as well. You’re shutting us out in much the same manner that the streaming companies are you! Maybe it’s karma that’s got y’all by the short hairs. I’ve done my work roasting in the sun, freezing in the cold, and getting drenched in the rain. Where’s my fair treatment? You need a check, cash, or plastic? I gotcha. Just let me know!
OK! Let me get real for a second. I’m a retiree in search of stimuli to make life interesting — and not really an actor. But I’ve spoken with many background actors on set who take their careers seriously. They’re young, ambitious, and getting shut out of a union that holds itself above them.
In my opinion, the current waiver requirement is elitist. Who decided that criterion for membership? Why can’t SAG allow actors who’ve worked a certain number of days in the industry — or earned a certain amount of money — or just plain have the initiation fee entry be allowed through the hallowed portals?
If the strike continues and we non-union actors find work that could have been reserved for union members, I have no doubt they’ll call us scabs. But you won’t let us in — or you’ve set up barriers that prevent seasoned extras from joining.
So yeah, I feel for my fellow actors who are SAG members — but apparently more than they feel for me. Or else they’d let me join and enjoy the perks they’re forgetting their union has negotiated for them.
When all is said and done, SAG members will gain something. But non-union actors like me will not. And I just thought that might be worth mentioning to enlighten those who are concerned for the entertainment community.
