Hollywood's Great Depression: Meet the Entertainment Workers Left Jobless by Coronavirus
For the past six years, he’s made a living purely from acting, appearing in television shows like “Kingdom” and “Arrested Development,” and scrounging up enough jobs to pay the bills without having to tend bar or wait tables. But life changed drastically for Brandt and much of the entertainment industry in March, when work ground to a halt as theswept across the country.
The shutdown has lasted for less than two months, but in that short time the fallout from the pandemic has brought the film, television, music and theater businesses to their knees. It’s the greatest economic calamity to ever hit Hollywood, Broadway and other entertainment business hubs, dwarfing the wreckage left by such recent catastrophes as 9/11 and the Great Recession.
A-listers like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence may make headlines for their lavish paychecks and endorsement deals, but they’re the exception to the rule. People who enter the entertainment business have a high tolerance for risk and are no stranger to side gigs as they hustle to make money while waiting for a big break that may never come. But when work dried up during the coronavirus, it left them with few ways to earn a living.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever had to ask for anything from anybody,” says Owens. “I’m blessed compared to others. Things are paid through April, but May is quickly approaching.”Most people who work in physical production aren’t full-time employees. They’re freelance workers, who move from job to job, which sometimes requires them to decamp for different states as movies or shows go off in search of the best tax breaks.
Some companies, such as Netflix, WarnerMedia and Viacom, and unions have started funds to support people who have lost work during the shutdown. That’s helped workers string together a lifeline, even though many are worried that cash will run out if the closures stretch on through the summer or if work resumes, only to be halted again by another outbreak.
“We’ve blown past in two months what it took two years to get to in the Great Recession,” says Bill Rodgers, a labor economist at Rutgers University and a fellow at The Century Foundation. “We’re really at the mercy of the virus.” Howell, who is 39, has a 12-year-old and 4-year-old triplets. He says Disney usually makes up about a third of his income, with the rest coming from playing in bands.
The theater industry — which was struggling to begin with — has been hammered. On a single day in March, Cinemark declared that it had laid off 2,555 people in California alone, and the National Assn. of Theatre Owners predicts that as many as 150,000 exhibition workers have lost their livelihood. Broussard is able to stream movies on his theater’s website. Visitors pay $12 for art-house films, of which $6 comes back to him.
“When theaters reopen, a lot of people will have gotten used to watching things on their TVs,” he says. “I’m determined to reopen if I can — when I can — but they’re not giving me much hope.” “It’s not knowing the end of this that’s unbearable,” says David. “There’s no timeline for when things go back to normal. I’m just stuck staring into the abyss of the unknown.”
As with David, Chad Kimball’s career was buzzing when the pandemic gripped society. He had a prominent role in “Come From Away,” the long-running Broadway musical about a community rallying in the aftermath of 9/11. But Kimball, 43, didn’t just have to grapple with canceled performances and a lack of paychecks. He was one of the thousands of Americans who came down with the virus. In March, a dry cough developed into a low-grade fever, a headache and intense body aches.
it’s unclear when cameras will start rolling again and theaters will open their doors. Many who have lost jobs fear they will return to a business that’s unrecognizable. They expect that audiences will have to social distance, performers may have to wear masks, and cast and crew members will have to subject themselves to temperature checks and routine testing for the virus.
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