An actor's life can be hard enough to make a living out of acting. Two American actors tell us how they manage.
Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable for intermediate students.
1 Scott Aiello is a very-well known actor.
2 Aiello's first audio-book has 40 pages.
3 Audible made a profit of 240 million last year.
4 Actors sometimes work as waiters.
5 Audio books are the main source of income for Aiello.
6 Books on tape and audio books are two different things.
7 Gabra divides her time as an actress between audio books and stage acting.
8 Grabra makes $3,000 per week.
9 Gabra keeps lots of medicines from when she worked at a chemist.
You cannot afford to be “oh I am a stage actor. I’m a film and TV actor”. You have to be open to everything if you want to make a living doing this.
This is Axel Gerdau for The New York Times. The name Scott Aiello probably doesn’t ring a bell, but what about his voice?
My first audio book was Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain, which is an awesome book with over 40 wacky characters, there’s rock creatures and there’s aliens that have no lips. They spoke but they had no lips. Trained at Juilliard, Aiello now works for Audible in Newark, the audio books publishers owned by Amazon.com and the leader in a burgeoning industry that saw revenues rise to 240 million dollars last year, creating more employment opportunities for actors.
The book I’m working on right now is called Kane’s blood. It’s sort of a cloning nightmare book gone wrong.
It’s a big step up from his previous day jobs, but Aiello still jokingly calls himself a starving actor.
It would be a lie to say that the sort of, the jobs like waiting tables and temping and stuff like that don’t drain your soul a little bit. I have found a way to live under very little but I will say that I support myself solely almost from the audio book work that I make. It really is like the dream day job for a young actor.
When I got started audio books were called books on tape. Now we call them audio books. I prefer the term books on tape, but of course we don’t use tapes any more, so it’s hard to get away with it.
Gabra Zackman lives what she calls the middle class dream as an actress due to her more than ten years in audio books.
50% of my time is spent acting mostly on stage with a bit of camera work thrown in for good measure, and 50% of my time I am recording audio books.
Zackman has recorded more than 200 titles and now earns up to $3,000 per book. Her advice to up-and-comers? Protect your voice.
I carry a bag that my friends joke it looks like a pharmaceutical store. Herbal resistant liquid vegetarian caps, Zicam herbal remedies spray, entertainer secret for dry throat and hoarse voice, Gaia throat shield sage and aloe, lip balm, Luden’s honey licorice.
Key:
1F 2F 3T 4T 5T 6F 7F 8F 9F
