BRACING FOR A ‘LONG TAIL OF RECOVERY’
The Actors Fund is helping members suffering from financial insecurity
A week into the pandemic shutdowns, the Actors Fund cast its virtual “safety net” onto the web.
The national nonprofit provides for the welfare of entertainment professionals, including those who work in front and behind the scenes in film, television, theater, opera, dance, music and radio. It offers social services and financial assistance, mental health and career counseling, and health care services.
As western regional executive director Keith McNutt puts it: “We do not believe in starving artists here at the Actors Fund. You should be able to pursue your dreams and your craft and still have a decent economic life.”
The Actors Fund has looked after entertainment professionals one way or another for nearly 140 years, all with no strings attached. Famous showmen “Buffalo Bill” Cody and
P.T. Barnum and Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth, John Wilkes Booth’s big brother, helped found the Actors Fund in 1882.
At the time, prejudice against members of the theater profession was widespread in society.
“It was so scandalous to be in the performing arts that churches wouldn’t bury people in consecrated ground,” McNutt says. “They were literally dumped in potter’s fields, six people deep, in anonymous graves. So we started to raise money to bury people with dignity, which, interestingly, we did a lot of again in the AIDS crisis.”
Today, as entertainment professionals feel the pandemic pinch, the nonprofit continues to meet their needs. Financial hardship, food and housing insecurity, and concerns about the future were among the top issues affecting the community, according to a new Actors Fund survey of more than 7,000 respondents from across the United States shows.
The majority of the respondents work in television (67%) and film (64%), followed by theater (49%), music (24%), digital (19%), performance art (15%), radio and audio (15%), dance (13%), cultural center and performance venues (11%), clubs (6%) and theme parks (4%). Their median income was slightly more than $34,000.
We asked McNutt about the
survey’s findings and the Actor Funds’ work.
Q What prompted the survey?
A We wanted to understand the full impact of the pandemic on our community so that we could start to develop services that would continue to be responsive. Our CEO Joe Benincasa said many times that any natural disaster or crisis like this has a long tail of recovery for artists. Audiences have to come back; all of this intermittent work has to come back, and it staggers. It happens over time. So we have to be prepared over the long term to continue to meet people’s needs.
Q Were you shocked by the findings?
A It was sobering to see the number of people who a year into the crisis are still in housing jeopardy. Another surprise was that 10% of respondents lost their health insurance and didn’t replace it. That’s a serious situation at any time, but it’s a bigger concern in the midst of a pandemic. And I guess it’s maybe not surprising, but it packs an emotional wallop to look at the numbers of how people were affected economically and mental health-wise.
Seventy-six percent lost income. Eighty-four percent had to use savings. Sixty-one percent went into credit card debt. Forty-two percent had to shut off utilities. Thirtyfive percent lost transportation. Twenty percent had to change their housing. And then almost 80% of the respondents said their mental health was negatively affected by this past year.
So it’s pretty dramatic.
Q The Actors Fund saw a 71% increase in the number of people it served last year than in 2019. Has it experienced anything like that before?
A In an average year, we do about $2 million in emergency grants. Last year, it was $19 million. For people with AIDS and HIV, this was a very reminiscent time from the early days of that crisis.
The beautiful part connecting them is that the community pulled together and helped us do our job. Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS grew out of the AIDS crisis and did unbelievable work to support the Actors Fund, and they continue to do that.
This last year, we went from an average of 9,000 individual donors every year to more than 50,000. Donors included individuals and major corporations such as Netflix, Tik Tok, the film academy, the television academy, Sony Pictures Entertainment. So everybody knew that people were going to be in crisis.
Q Looking ahead, how might the pandemic affect the work you do?
A Well, one of the nice things about the survey was that the responses reflected what our staff told us about the community’s needs. It all fits together with our strategic planning process for the next three years. For example, we have done affinity-based groups before for different ethnic-racial groups. We’ve had LGBT seminars and support groups. We’re bringing on a consultant to provide similar support services to the (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community in the entertainment world.
The other big opening is when we switched everything over to online. We may have a support group for people facing anxiety and depression. Instead of everybody being from L.A., you might have five from L.A., two from Houston, one from Seattle and two from Atlanta. They’re all supporting each other through these Zoom-based services in ways we’ve never been able to offer before. Now the question is volume and having enough staff to provide enough time for people to connect and continue to use these services.
Q What’s the best way for people to help or apply for COVID-19 help?
A They can go to actorsfund.org.