‘I Would Have Died Without SAG’

Members of the Screen Actors Guild have been on strike for more than a month. Among their concerns is the plan to eliminate residuals each time a commercial airs. Implementing this system of paying actors one set fee before a commercial airs would lower their overall wages and, according to SAG, jeopardize health insurance benefits. To qualify for SAG health insurance, members must make at least $7,500 a year from SAG shows.

MARCELA ROJAS spoke with a SAG actor who lives with permanent disabilities about the strike and his need for health insurance.

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JIM TROESCH

43, SAG member, North Hollywood

Iam a quadriplegic actor--I think the only quadriplegic actor in the Screen Actors Guild. When I was 14, I fell off a roof putting up an antenna and broke my neck. I have been acting for the last 20 years. In 1984, I became a SAG member after a part in “After MASH,” a series that ran for two years. Then I was cast on “Highway to Heaven” in which I wrote one episode and appeared in many.

For a quadriplegic, your career goes up and down. For me, work slowed down in 1989. It became a real problem because I had very little money to pay for nursing care. I need round-the-clock home care. By 1993, my income had dwindled down to nothing and it was then that I happened to get a commercial for Ameritech, a communications company. I made $12,000 off the residuals and qualified for SAG health insurance. At that point, had the insurance not kicked in, I would not have had enough money for nursing care and would have had to go to a nursing home.

With the state of nursing homes and my attitude about my independence, I would have been dead by now if the SAG insurance had not come through.

I had the SAG insurance for 3 1/2 years, which gave me enough time to start my own home-based business as a graphic designer. Now, I have Medicare and Medi-Cal. I qualified for this program, which is about 2 years old, because I’m disabled and don’t make a great deal of income. But my goal is to get off the dole by getting enough SAG work to get back on SAG insurance. But my ultimate goal is to make enough money that I can pay for care on my own.

If the producers win on this strike, there will be no residuals on commercials and what would happen is a lot of SAG members would not qualify for the insurance. On the commercial that I did in 1993, I made $12,000. Now, they’re talking buyouts at $4,000.

People think that actors are all overpaid whiners, but the average actor makes about $5,000 a year. That’s why we’re striking--for the rank-and-file actor.