★★★★★ 0/5

Actors face poverty, depression, homelessness.

A new paper highlights the paradox of being a well-known performer but struggling financially, emotionally & mentally.

8
Leave a comment

Many of Australia’s performing artists are facing increasing poverty, poor health, homelessness and depression with attempted suicide rates more than double the general population.

A new Platform Paper Falling Through The Gaps: Our Artists’ Health and Welfare, published Currency House claims artists are “falling between the gaps” of employment & welfare systems.

Entertainment lawyer Dr Mark R.W. Williams argues government industry services discriminate against those in specialised vocations who devote their lives to perfecting their craft.

Williams argues many well-known today in film and television barely survive on fees now trimmed to three-hour calls and largely denied public income support during lean times. With an average maximum of $58,000 in super, two thirds of performers believe they don’t have enough to survive retirement.

Early in his discussions, various actors told Williams words to this effect: “I’m a household name and recognised internationally, thanks to my regular appearance over several series on television or for up to twenty years in a regular role. I might not be in every episode but I will be in running story lines. My character has grown up, been promoted, developed a back story but, at most, it amounts to two weeks’ work. Sometimes all my scenes will be shot in one day. I’m scratching for work the other fifty weeks of the year. When people tell me my reputation has never been higher, I’ll tell them my bank balance has never been lower.”

Williams adds,”Performing artists who have achieved great heights and made substantial contributions to our culture and society will, by comparison to the rest of working Australia, end up poorer, have worse mental and physical health, and a shorter life span.”

Actors such as the late John Hargreaves previously wrote of the displacement facing performers, noting in his biography, “When you’re making a film, you sort of become this huge instant family […] you tend to become very close while you’re making the film. You seem to know people terribly well […] you seem to get terribly close to people. But the day after the shoot finishes, everybody vanishes and goes their separate ways, and you may never see these people again. You may not even want to. So where is the reality in that?…

“In fact, you haven’t become close at all. You’ve been as close as a family, by necessity, for the film. So you do it […] I have the feeling that in my life I’ve been on a train that’s hurtling through the countryside. And every now and then I pass a lighted window, and there’s a family in there, and I see a life going on […] but I’m not part of it. I’m observing it. I think for a lot of actors that’s very true.”

It echoes recent comments made by veteran performer Terry Norris to TV Tonight, “You know what this business is like. You have lots of acquaintances, but very few, what I would call, friends.

“You can sit in your room waiting for the phone to ring and you’re the loneliest person in the world, very isolated, very lonely, and get very depressed as many people in the business do.”

Launches will be held in the following cities

SYDNEY
Wednesday 1 August 2018 6pm – 8pm launched by Simon Burke
Denton’s Seminar Room
BUY NOW $15 includes entry and a copy of the Platform Paper
CLICK HERE for entry only (complimentary, however, bookings are essential)

CANBERRA
Monday 20 August Parliament House Committee
Room 1R2
2018 6.30 pm to 8.00pm
RSVP to Jane Boyer

MELBOURNE
Thursday 23 August 2018 3.30 pm to 5.00pm
45 Downstairs, Ground Floor, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
BUY NOW $15 includes entry and a copy of the Platform Paper
CLICK HERE for entry only (complimentary, however, bookings are essential

Lifeline 13 11 14
Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36

8 Responses

  1. The government could set minimum hours and basic working conditions etc (maybe they already do) but it then runs the danger of making the show or film unviable to make. It is a difficult situation.

    It can only be a good thing to raise awareness that being in the arts is not always the glamorous life it can seem from the outside.

    1. Isn’t that a bit simplistic though? Yes being freelance / self-employed / part-time / short-term is a challenge, but whether pursuing a career in education, health, administration, finance or arts etc. problems should be raised and addressed. The cost to mental health etc is worse.

      1. The vast majority of people who aspire to the most prestigious jobs (athlete, singer, actor) are not going to earn a living wage, and it would be utterly bizarre for the taxpayer to provide them with special support (rather than the universal safety net) when they fail.

        I always laugh in contempt when nurses and teacher’s wages are compared with entertainers, as nobody wants to be paid like the average athlete/actor/singer.

    2. I unfortunately agree with Seantheaussie, we all had aspirations of doing something at some stage but if it doesn’t pay the bills or provide you with the lifestyle you want then you have make the difficult decision to “get a real job”, it might be a simplistic view but let’s be honest there are many people working day in day out in jobs they hate to pay the bills each week.

      1. As someone with a lifelong vocation to the arts and less than $2,000 in super, who has like all those in the arts also paid tax my entire life, I resent your attitude – but not as much as the people who ‘had aspirations of doing something at some stage’ seem to resent those in the arts who actually did something they found meaningful and that contributed and contributes to society in a profound and needed way.

  3. I’ve often wondered how actors survive between jobs. It’s all very sad, but unfortunately it is the nature of the industry, and something they must all be aware of before entering the industry.

Leave a Reply