Side hustles take center stage in paying bills for Hollywood workers on strike
It's been nearly five months since the Hollywood writers strike began and more than two months since actors joined them
NEW YORK — Lighting for the entertainment industry is Ryan Meyer's lifeblood.
Before the Hollywood strikes, he worked 40 hours a week or more as a gaffer or director of photography. He also has a company that usually earns more than a million dollars a year in production support.
Most of that is gone, for now, dried up in the contract disputes that have led to months of picket lines by writers and actors. One day recently, the 50-year-old Meyer, who lives in Los Angeles, lit an actor's home foyer, “so when she opens the door,” he said, “she looks good.”
While waiting out the strikes, Meyer and many thousands of others in the business are taking most any paycheck they can get, from Trader Joe's to teaching to hitting up friends for writing gigs. Some are turning hobbies into money. Anything to pay the bills.
“We've become handymen,” Meyer said. “My neighbor needed help with his Jacuzzi so we powered that up for him. Somebody else bought a trailer with a saw and is cutting people's firewood.”
Side hustles are nothing new to many actors and writers. Turning them into life support is the issue now. That includes industry workers not striking but thrown out of work.
Jesse McLaren is a staff writer in Los Angeles for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and has written for the Oscars and the Emmys. As a hobby during the pandemic, he bought a 3D printer and began making custom snow globes featuring the houses of loved ones. He doled them out as gifts.
“They’ve become my full time living, basically,” he said.
McLaren has sold about 40 custom snow globes since the writers went on strike, at $299 a piece, through his Etsy
Read more on abcnews.go.com
