Thread by @ellen_adair

Some of the discourse around the #SAGstrike reminds me of an assumption about actors that I've come across for most of my life. Many people seem to assume that there are ONLY TWO kinds of actors:
1. Wildly famous, rich celebrities
2. Failed pretenders who are actually servers 1/

But the vast majority of actors are neither of these things. They are professionals; they have trained for this. They have worked at a high enough level, professionally, that they have been able to join the union, and at least get decent wages for the day or weeks they work. 2/

The vast majority of actors are the owners of their small businesses, working 365 days. Prepping for auditions with every hour they can find, taking classes, honing their craft, fostering relationships, marketing themselves, researching what's being made, refining how they fit. 3

Maybe they've had years where all their income is from acting. Maybe they've spent their entire career making at least the majority of their money as an actor. But they're still living middle-class, not-famous lives, and have no guarantee they will ever get a job again. 4/

Because the vast majority of actors, unless they're series regulars on TV shows, have jobs for a few days or a few weeks or a few months, at BEST, and they lose them again. If you have an AMAZING year and you book, say, SIX jobs--you're also out-of-work six times. 5/

And that's why the vast majority of actors--somewhere in the range of 87% of SAG actors--don't make $26,000 in SAG in order to qualify for health insurance. It is a scramble and a panic every year to see if you'll qualify, and a blessing if you do. 6/

This is also why the vast majority of actors have to piece it together with other, sometimes several other, jobs. You have to have flexibility to be available to drop everything to tape an audition. But not only are those people *real actors*...they're actually the majority. 7/

I'm often reminded of my friend Craig saying once, "There's nothing sexier than a working actor. And there's nothing less sexy than an out-of-work actor." And believe me: no one feels this more than we do. But an actor who doesn't have an acting job *right now* is still an actor.

Being an actor is not either getting to Tom-Cruise-level-stardom or failure. The majority of actors just dream of a life, however modest, where they can just work on their own business, and don't have to worry about if they'll have to also be waiting tables at 60. 9/

And now, I am bored by my own whinging. Thank you to anyone who read this. This thread is brought to you by 10,000 hours of cocktail party conversations. #SAGAFTRAstrong etc. 10/fin