Even though the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have spent more than 100 days on strike and performers have joined them on the picket line through the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), there seems to be no agreement in sight with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
While the strike is happening in the U.S., that hasn’t stopped it from hurting the province’s film industry. Victoria actress Darlene Tait typically gets 20 auditions a month, but since the strike she’s been lucky if she can get six.
“I think my years of business experience has taught me that when there are slowdowns in whatever industry, this provides opportunity,” said Tait.
During this downtime, the actress has been using her time to update her demo reels, resume, websites, the various platforms she promotes herself on, and take courses.
Tait started seeing how the disagreements the WGA and the SAG-AFTRA had with the AMPTP were affecting the local industry and, just like many, braced for impact.
“Because we are home to so many American films and TV shows, when there is a strike possibly south of the border, everyone starts to schedule their productions to avoid any potential issues while they’re mid-production.”
Looking inwards, the industry has to shift focus on its local productions.
“They have some great little projects which some of our actors are able to continue to keep their professional availabilities,” said Barbara Coultish, who owns the agency Coultish Management. The agency promotes talent to local productions and TV stations.
She calls the strike “deadly slow,” and said she has never seen anything like this before. During the 2007 to 2008 writers strike, Coultish said that “at that time it really brought our industry down next to nothing here on the Island.”
However, the current Hollywood strike has been hurting many who are facing rapidly-increasing inflation in their everyday lives.
Luckily, Coultish still has a strong network of clients and independent producers in Victoria.
“As far as the independents, bless their heart,” said Coultish. “The independent producers from CineVic, and just here on the Island, and we have major ones that are winning film festivals from all over the world they are coming up with more opportunities for the local actors.”
Building on that, she’s grateful for Canadian productions keeping the movie industry afloat nationally and that Victoria isn’t struggling as bad as other cities.
“It is our local area, as well as Canadian content coming across to bring us stuff to keep us all going,” said Coultish. “We’re sort of slow here, but compared to Vancouver … I can’t even imagine what they’re going through.”
Coultish works directly with actors in the talent division of the agency and, like many, is patiently waiting for the strike to end, but she can still rely on a second source of income.
“If I was just relying on what happens in my division, then we would probably have to take some time off,” she said.
Along with actors, she also relies on models and different types of performers to take headshots of and promote their talent.
In this day and age, there are few actors who could exist on their performing salary alone, according to Tait.
“The reason being is the roles are so competitive. For every role that comes up, there is probably a couple of hundred actors in southern B.C. that are vying for the role.”
Even before preparing for downturns, not always getting a role is part of the industry. In her entry-level acting course she teaches at Spotlight Academy, one of the first things Tait tells her class is that “this is a very competitive industry. If you are committed to making it, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you have a funding source other than acting.”
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