After years of low wages and abuse, Hollywood assistants are in open revolt over their treatment.
gained currency last month after “Chernobyl” screenwriter Craig Mazin and John August, writer of “Aladdin,” devoted a portion of their podcast, “Scriptnotes” to the subject. The screenwriters, former assistants themselves, were deluged with stories after they asked assistants to write to them about their own experiences.
She said not much has changed in 10 years. “There is no one speaking up for assistants,” Mangan said. “It’s easy to keep wages the same. If one person can’t take the job, there are hundreds who will take $400 a week behind them.” “The main thing to keep in mind is the fact that being an assistant in Hollywood has been viewed as a mechanism to get access to and basically be a producer, an agent, or become something with a higher-paid, significant profile,” said Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Milken Institute’s Center for Regional Economics.
“The sense is that you should be grateful to have a job when you have literally hundreds of people in line to take the job you have,” said Brogan, who has worked as an assistant since 2016. “It’s definitely hard not to feel that pressure. I was that person with an advanced degree begging to pick up people’s lunches for $12 an hour. The hope is, eventually this will all pay off for my dream of writing TV and show-running and I’ll make enough to pay off debt. I’m banking on my future.
A spokeswoman for WME disputed the claim that the agency discourages overtime pay. She said each assistant automatically has 10 hours of overtime allotted into their paycheck each week, with further overtime requiring supervisor preapproval.By one estimate there are over 4,000 assistants working in Hollywood.
Ezer, a former lawyer and currently a script coordinator, said it was important to unionize. “I wanted to see basic protections at the assistant level because they are the most vulnerable,” she said. “None of us are in these positions because we want to be assistants for life. We all want to move up.”
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