‘Every actor has a second job’: Jack Black can afford to join SAG-AFTRA picket lines thanks to his alternative employment

One of the silliest accusations thrown at striking SAG-AFTRA members is that actors are all rich and privileged, so they have nothing to complain about. As anybody who spends half a second thinking about that sentiment will realize, the vast majority of gigging actors aren’t Hollywood superstars, and even those that are well compensated have things like stylists and agents taking a chunk of their pay, as well as often having to move around at their own expense when being filmed on location somewhere outside of the city they live in.

Most importantly, once one project finishes, an actor is effectively unemployed. As a result, a ton of relatively successful performers have to take multiple jobs — a group of people that apparently even includes the brilliant Jack Black.

The School of Rock star is one of many big names who’ve lent their time and energy to the picket lines, making sure that the cause of their union gets as much attention as possible. And although performers aren’t supposed to be working in the industry at the moment (for the most part, anyway), the notorious funnyman couldn’t help but turn it on in front of a camera and make a joke about how even he needed a second job — that bit of additional employment being his famous band Tenacious D.

While he was probably being a bit tongue in cheek in the TikTok, it’s fair to say that Black’s joke was paying tribute to a real truth about life for most performers. Many actors need to do all kinds of secondary jobs to maintain a half-decent lifestyle, as most of the cities where acting and performing opportunities exist are prohibitively expensive. The average rental price in L.A., for example, is over $2,700 per month, with houses now basically averaging over a million dollars. So, even if you’re earning decent money as a gigging actor, voiceover artist, or any number of the professions that fall under the SAG-AFTRA umbrella, life can still be hard.

Sometimes these jobs will be in related fields, like podcasting, modeling, or — yes — music, but just as often actors (especially newer ones) will be working in fields that only offer precarious employment and minimal benefits, like hospitality or administration. This is one of the biggest reasons we’re seeing more and more so-called nepo-babies in public life, as the opportunity to focus on artistic endeavors is left to the children of the wealthy, who have family money and the backing of loved ones to cushion any failures.

So, next time you wonder why SAG-AFTRA chose to strike, just remember that even Hollywood superstars are having to grind to make their cash.