Quoted:
Is that you, Harvey?

Quoted:
I used to work with Selena Gomez's step-father before she really hit it big. He actually quit to move to California with the rest of the family. She was almost still a nobody and just getting signed on to Disney to do the wizard show.

We had some interesting conversations. She went to some kind of awards show and walked the red carpet. She got a "gift bag" full of like thousands of dollars worth of stuff. Like the newest Samsung phone, free weekends at resorts, high end personal electronics, etc. I'm assuming it was all marketing for young girls who needed the same phone "that Selena" has.

Is all that stuff considered "income"?

Granted you have to be working on projects or be one of the IN crowd to go to a red carpet event, but we seem to have these masturbation award shows all the time.

Interesting thing though, Selena was like 14, her mom was 45 and had milf written all over her. Step dad was 28 which all of my coworkers were like . I wonder if they are still married.

Quoted:
It is not much.

If you are SAG, you have some good available benefits and the bottom rung is still OK.  The problem is getting enough work.  Most opportunities are not SAG.  But they usually pay less.  The other issue with SAG is in most of the country, there are few to no SAG opportunities.    While you can work non SAG if you are SAG, SAG’s first rule is “thou shall NEVER work non SAG.”    You can find yourself on the shit end of a blacklist if you step out on SAG.  For an understanding, pretty much anyone you have ever heard of is SAG.  So is (ultimately)most  everyone who wants to be someone you have heard of.

You really have to live in LA or NYC  to make a long term go at it.

You can show up in movies and TV shows with a line here and there, a few times a year, and not make an average wage at it.

There are a lot of non performance income opportunities in orbit around the industry.   There are some personal appearance opportunities.   There are some writing, editing, production, whatever opportunities.   If you are SAG, and have a lot of years of small work, the royalties can help. Especially if something you did is in constant reruns.

There is some money in commercial work.  A national commercial can solve your income problem for part of a year.  A local commercial can solve your income problem for that day.

If you ever had a small part in something big, like a guy who had a line in a Star Wars movie, you can make a fair living just on cons.   If you ever played a mythical character or voiced one. (A horror or scifi thing). You get to be famous twice, in the sense that you are that thing and you are you who was that thing.  Again, if you are willing to hustle the appearance opportunities, there is a living to be made in that.

But the vast majority of people that get the occasional small role in film and tv are not making a good living doing that.  A lot of them have other normal jobs.

If you are a regular on a TV show that keeps getting renewed, you really aren’t “small”.  You are making a fair to fantastic living with good to amazing “other” income opportunities.   You may not be making 7 figures but you are making at least low six figures.

Quoted:

Are you Alton Brown?