PORT ANGELES — Actors aren’t competing with other actors for paychecks these days, they’re competing with the guy who will eat a bucket of worms for $50,000 on national television.
“And that’s a frightening thought,” said well-known actor John Amos.
He and John Harris, director of Amos’ one-man show “Halley’s Comet,” addressed a packed house Thursday afternoon at Peninsula College’s Little Theatre.
The two were taking part in the college’s Studium Generale program, which is designed to expose students and community members to issues and topics of debate in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.
Thursday’s discussion revolved around the saturation of reality and low-quality programming in today’s television market.
“We have a situation now where the actors’ strike a few years ago created a phenomenon called reality TV,” Harris said.
In 2000, more than 100,000 actors went on strike to protest a proposed change in the way commercial actors are paid.
Although many people think of actors as riding around in limousines making millions of dollars, the truth is that 95 percent to 97 percent of unionized actors live below the poverty line, Amos said.
