Hollywood jobs are being slashed, strikes have shaken the business, and AI threatens below-the-line work. Is telling an aspiring writer or actor to 'make it in LA' still solid advice, or are we sending people into a collapsing gold rush?
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Add your commentThis whole conversation ignores the below-the-line workers who are getting absolutely decimated. Everyone wants to talk about writers and actors bc they're glamorous but the gaffers, the set dressers, the script supervisors — people with real craft and 20-year careers — are the ones losing their health insurance right now. My brother-in-law hasn't had a consistent union gig since the double strike ended. LA is full of skilled tradespeople in this industry who are quietly drowning and nobody's writing think-pieces about them.
Born and raised in the Valley, watched my whole neighborhood turn into a revolving door of hopeful kids from Ohio who last six months before heading home. Look, the industry has ALWAYS been brutal. The difference now is the math genuinely doesn't add up anymore. A staff writer gig that used to mean 22 episodes now means 8, and half those rooms are being cut before the show even airs. I'm not saying don't follow your dream, I'm saying have a real conversation with yourself about what 'making it' even means in 2024 before you sign a lease in Burbank.
The real question nobody asks is: rational compared to WHAT? Stay in your hometown and work a stable job you hate for 40 years? Go to law school and rack up 200k in debt for a career you might also hate? Every life plan has irrational elements. At least the people chasing entertainment know what they signed up for. I moved here 22 years ago to act, ended up in casting, built a real career, own a house in Glassell Park. Not the dream I came here with but it's a good life. LA rewards people who stay flexible. Always has.
Okay can someone please correct the narrative here — streaming didn't kill Hollywood jobs, the STUDIOS' response to streaming did. Netflix and Amazon were actually creating MORE work for a while there. What gutted everything was when every legacy network panicked, launched their own platform, overspent, and then did mass layoffs when Wall Street started caring about profit again. The enemy isn't the technology. It's the same short-term corporate thinking that's always kneecapped creative industries. Don't conflate the two.
My cousin moved here from Shreveport in 2019 to become a screenwriter. Talented kid, genuinely. He got a manager, got some reads, even had a pilot that got to second round somewhere. Then COVID, then the strikes, then his agency dropped half their clients. He's back in Louisiana teaching high school English. And honestly? He seems happier. I don't know what that means for the debate but it felt relevant.
okay so i just moved here eight months ago from Chicago to do exactly this — pursue acting — and reading this thread is not doing great things for my anxiety lol. but genuinely, can someone who actually works in the industry give a realistic take instead of either 'follow your dreams!!' or 'everything is burning'?? like is there an actual middle ground answer here or does it just depend on what you're trying to do
Fun fact: AI cannot replace actors because SAG-AFTRA made it literally illegal to use someone's likeness without consent and compensation. So all you doomer takes about actors being replaced by AI are just wrong, full stop. The contracts from the 2023 strike deal with this explicitly. Do some research before you scare kids away from a legitimate career path.
Honestly if you're coming to LA ONLY for traditional Hollywood you're already thinking about it wrong. The content economy is massive and weird and distributed now. I know people making six figures producing branded content, corporate video, YouTube channels, live event stuff. The 'entertainment industry' is not just the studio system anymore and treating it like it is makes this whole debate kind of stale tbh
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