My gift to you for the holidays is an email newsletter that isn’t asking for money. Unless you owe me money, in which case, no biggie, pay me back when you can.
Alternate intro: my New Year’s resolution is 240p. Lo-fi for life!
Actor’s Equity Association: now featuring me.
The thing about being a professional actor is that, practically speaking, it’s often more like a very expensive hobby. I have never recouped on a project, usually spending more on transit alone than I’ll make back in wages. Word to the wise: don’t ask an actor to calculate their hourly rate.
(Not for nothing, UNESCO estimates that the single largest subsidy for the arts, globally, is artists themselves going unpaid or underpaid for their work)1
There are many reasons for this, all of them stupid, with very little to be done short of quitting. But very little is not nothing, and I love my work and would like to keep doing it (although love doesn’t buy flour), so I did the big available thing and joined the union.
There are benefits too numerous to list (hello, Midtown bathroom), but they’re ancillary to the primary benefit: when I do my work as a union actor, I’ll get goddam paid for its value.
There’s a certain hesitation among artists to talk about our work in these terms. This is an error. I think there’s a fear that by speaking frankly of labour and money, the efforts of our hearts are somehow diminished. That’s because the diminishment is real, but it’s not our recognition that makes it so. It’s just the world we’ve got, and pretending otherwise is a trap.2
Is this a gamble? Yes. Is this a statement of confidence in my abilities? Also yes. Will the likely and somewhat counter-intuitive result be that I simply will not work for a little bit until I’ve made inroads with a new circle of casting directors? It’s certainly believable! But you know what I believe? That we all deserve more.
We have nothing to lose but our [debt].
Other concerns, briefly noted
Please join me in a hearty congratulation of Dr. Norah Woodcock, newly minted PhD in Philosophy, on the successful defense of her dissertation, “Aristotle on Eggs.” That’s my wife!
Podcast episodes! Most recently talking shop with the lovely Andrew Dunn, plus upcoming episodes with Alexandra Acosta and Mari Blake.
Also, happy New Year. It’s going to be a hard one, and the years that follow promise the same. I’ve got nothing to say about any of it, but I’m right here with you. I wish you good luck, and I ask for it in return. We’ll need it. What a life.
With love,
Carl
This is the Carl Bindman Newsletter, for members of my professional or personal networks whom I think should get the scoop and be kept in the loop.
This newsletter was written on Lenapehoking, the occupied land of the Lenni Lenape.