How much money will I make?

I get this question a lot, and the problem is, it's a tough one to answer, considering actors can make anywhere from nothing to millions and there's very little to regulate it.

There's a very big misconception that actors make a lot of money. It is true that unionized actors *do* make a lot of money per day, but the reality is that most jobs are only one or two days of shooting, and jobs are so few and far between that really, it's not much money at all.

If you're working on a non-union production, you likely will not make any money. Many student films and independent productions are on a volunteer basis.

Once you join the union, you are required to be paid scale, which is a set minimum amount of money. Scale changes as the agreements between the union and producers are re-negotiated every few years, but as a rough estimate, a person with 5 lines or less makes around $350 per day, and a person with more than 5 lines makes around $450 per day. Although, being in the union doesn't guarantee that you'll be paid - if you're cast in an independent production and they can't afford to pay you, you may be given permission by the union to either get a waiver, meaning you agree to work for free, or you'll be paid on deferral, which means you'll only make money if the production makes money (but the chances of the production actually making a profit are slim to none).

Once you have a few major credits and are becoming in demand, your agent can negotiate more money for you. And in that case, the sky's the limit.

Very few actors actually make a living off of acting. Less than 2% make more than $100,000 per year, and that's a very small number. The average income for an actor in the SAG union is less than $10,000 per year.

There IS a lot of money to be made as a performer, but don't get your hopes up. You need to be in this business because you absolutely love it, not for the money!