Mac Brandt was one of the lucky ones.
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 the coronavirus swept across the country. Movie theaters have gone dark, soundstages have shut their doors and productions have been delayed indefinitely, leaving tens of thousands of people like Brandt jobless and forced to navigate a grim economic landscape.
“I was on ‘Station 19’ the other night and people must be going, ‘Oh this guy’s on TV; he must make a lot of money,” says Brandt. “But it’s a working-class industry. You have to string together enough work and keep auditioning in order to keep going.
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 the coronavirus swept across the country. Movie theaters have gone dark, soundstages have shut their doors and productions have been delayed indefinitely, leaving tens of thousands of people like Brandt jobless and forced to navigate a grim economic landscape.
“I was on ‘Station 19’ the other night and people must be going, ‘Oh this guy’s on TV; he must make a lot of money,” says Brandt. “But it’s a working-class industry. You have to string together enough work and keep auditioning in order to keep going.
- 4/29/2020
- by Brent Lang and Gene Maddaus
- Variety Film + TV
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