Actor Richard Healy

G’Day. I met actor Richard Healy a few weeks ago and got the lowdown on the actor’s industrial dispute – whether I liked it or not. Richard agreed to do a piece for Webdiary explaining the insider dynamics of this most insecure craft. Actors Equity is part of the Media Alliance, of which I’m a member. For the facts on the actors’ other big campaign – to stop the burial of Australian culture under an avalanche of United States product if the Americans get their way in the free trade agreement negotiations – go to free2baustralian.

The actors dispute

by Richard Healy

The current actors dispute is not about money. The details are money based, but the core of the issue lies in respect, respect for the right of actors to basic conditions of employment expected by most workers to prepare and perform our jobs adequately.

In the case of actors, wages have been essentially frozen for 10 years, and in some cases (major advertising jobs) reduced. There are new players on the scene, such as cable television, which pays lip service to their obligation to produce Australian shows – where 10% of the budget for each station should involve locally created product. (Only one or two of the Fox channels comes close – yes, Mr Alston, it’s self-regulated.)

The hidden reality is that as advertising dollars on commercial TV (7,9,10) dry up, the networks are squeezing the producers. The producers, not wishing to offend messrs Packer and Murdoch and Stokes, take what they are given. They then budget for their allocation. And this is where it gets irritating. The producers budget for their programs according to the current costs. So, if it cost $1,000 to hire a house for a days shooting five years ago, but it will now set them back $1,500, then that is what is budgeted. A 50s straight-eight chevy may be twice the price of 1988, but, what the heck, we can’t do the show without it. But when it comes to actors, where there is an over-supply and limited demand, the price paid stays at 1988 levels. From a rationalist perspective, this all sits well – save on the talent, put out for the hardware.

Example 1 – Last year the TV show Mcleods Daughters celebrated its fiftieth episode with winning ratings. The next day Channel 9 informed the producers that their shooting budget was being cut by one day. It is shot on film (lighting takes time.) It is all outside broadcast (no studio on a farm 80 minutes from Adelaide). All the 1st Assistant Director could do was compress time allocated to scenes.

Example 2 – I performed in an enjoyable yet forgettable soap called Breakers for two years. All the cast was on “equity minimum”, the lowest possible pay rate. I got paid the same rate as a 19-year old on the show, even though I had 20 years experience in the trade and spent a lot of time coaching the younger actors. We spent two years asking for an awning in the carpark (you had to leave the building for a smoke) and air-conditioning in our dressing-rooms (more than twenty minutes with the door shut and you asphyxiated.) Nup. Budgets. After one year I was over it, but decided to ask for a 10% increase in my wage (I had a one year contract.) My agent told me the producers were “thinking about it.” A week later I was on set, about to do a scene, when the head producer walked onto he floor and took my hand. He said, “Sorry to let you go.” It wasn’t what he said, it was the act. I quit, then, in an act I shame myself for, returned. It’s that hard to get work.

Example 3 – In the early 90s a mate got a US TV ad. The producers were keen to avoid the payout in the states, where one ad can hasten retirement (you get paid every time it goes on air, it can be millions.) So, they paid him $25,000. He did a number of them and paid off his house. After a few years, he relinquished his position as the face of YYY so someone else could have a go. Six months later he met a friend who had always been on struggle street and the friend was over the moon about an ad he’d been cast in. My mate asked ” Are you going to buy a house” And the happy new face of YYY said, “Nuh, new gearbox.” His fee was $5,000. The US producers had worked out what they could get, with the collusion of local producers.

Example 4 – Scene: Casting Agent (reputable). Five different things are being cast. All running an hour late. One asking beautiful mature women to dress up in their finery. And they have. Because of space restrictions they’re all sitting on the floor being ogled by the part-time actors going for a jocks ad. Numerous mums keeping loose control over rampant tots in for a cutie ad. Three actors trying to focus on the script they got yesterday and are trying to learn (and understand) and a receptionist whose smile is a monument to the perseverance of humanity. The director (American, think Colonel Sanders) arrives 2 hours late and points to two people, says “Yep. Now.” Mr beef Australia and Ms skinny tampons meet Mr 2-minute noodles in a sea of confusion. Amazingly, one of them gets cast.

Example 5 – I went for an ad (you try to avoid them until poverty bites,) at a new agency and was told it involved fairies. An old inner-city converted warehouse. The waiting-room was next to the “studio” and we could hear shouting. People arrived at regular intervals, including an amazing array of elderly women dressed as fairies. They said they were told “Best dressed gets the prize.” An esteemed veteran actor with a penchant for the unpredictable arrived and sat under a painting of fairies in a field. Then a doyen of the field (think “You’re soaking in it,”) turned up with a costume, wand and scent. The other male sneezed and she said “Bless you” and we were off. Hysterical. As people left the studio in (not happy) tears, a woman fronted us and shouted, “We’re trying to do a 100 percenter!” “Shut up!” I was led in. Told “Stand there, hold up the sign with your name on it, say your name, age, agency and height.” I told the casting person I thought we didn’t have to do that these days. She screamed – “Do you want this fucking job or not !” I told her I didn’t and left. Someone else got the job.

Example 6 – A recent example. A lead actress in a new TV show didn’t have a car. She was asked to walk a kilometre and wait outside a bikie pub to be picked up, and dropped at the end of shooting. Maybe 11pm.

Example 7 – I worked on a new comedy show made for TV. The producers were Fox TV and it was being made for Channel 9. Clout. Five weeks into the shoot my bank account was empty. I was told money was coming. A young cast member asked if he could stay at my house because he hadn’t been paid. I investigated, and found out that due to a dispute between the union and the producers our agents had been told not to sign contracts, and the producers, knowing full well the ramifications of their actions, instructed their accountants not to pay the actors. The bizarre upshot was that we were working on a show that, to our minds, was a winner, yet most of the cast didn’t have the petrol to drive home. It was only when the cast threatened to walk that we were paid and the issue was temporarily resolved.

Not a long way from where we are today. The producers did not provide the basic respect accorded to any employee, that they know where they stand. Their schedules were, and still are, arbitrary. The fact that in our industry our wages can be held to ransom is a sad indictment of the way that the people who control the money view actors as little more than elements of an economic puzzle (locations, sets, lights, publicity, grunt, talent). Famous actors are being wheeled out as examples that the industry is thriving. There may be 25 actors in that zone. The rest (the workforce) suffer constant harassment by authorities (try getting a home loan when you say you’re an actor), have no expectation of promotion (you do your next job for the same money as ten years ago) and struggle to maintain a semblance of legitimate existence in an expansive material world. That actors continue to do their job is not because, as the press often puts it, that we are all after the “big break”.

The reason I, and many actors continue to ply our trade is because it is a trade, like any other. As a carpenter hones bevelled joints, actors hone subtleties of pitch, nuance, rhythm, space, emotion and energy. The more you do it, the better you get. Our central argument with the producers is that their “new” work practices are undermining our ability to do our trade.

A guest actor in a TV show might have their whole performance shot in a day …. for one day’s pay. Often there is no rehearsal. Preparation usually involves tow or three days learning the lines and developing the character (without any consultation with those connected to the programme). Imagine this in any other industry. We’re not shrinking violets. An actors life is hard; full of self-doubt, anger and economic insecurity.

The way I put it to the average lay person (because they’ve seen you and want to find out where) is to imagine applying for a new job every week of your working life. It’s a reality we accept. What we don’t accept is a working environment in which there is no respect for our creative role and no understanding of the time and energy needed to fulfil that role.