We need a salary cap in Hollywood to make the film industry sustainable for crew members
Summary
A film industry PA and filmmaker makes a bold pitch: Hollywood needs a salary cap on A-list talent to protect crew members. He's spent ten years watching all the money flow to stars like Tom Cruise, who can pull $50 million while crews scrape by on "regular" pay. Kareem agrees everyone in entertainment is overpaid, including himself, though he jokes he's not making $5 million. The conversation turns hopeful when they discuss profit-sharing models like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Artist Equity, which shared profits with the crew on Air. Dwayne Johnson took a pay cut for Smashing Machine. That's the future. The rider also hosts a film series at Cabell Hill Cinemas, screening Palestinian films to raise funds for communities actually depicted on screen. His message: support local theaters and the people who make movies possible.
Full Transcript
A-list actors, producers, and executives need to have a salary cap uh in order to save the film industry and make the film industry more sustainable for crew members. 100% agree. I got to say everyone in entertainment is overpaid, including myself.
I honestly
I don't make $5 million. [laughter] Just just so you know, I've just been working in the film industry as a PA for the last 10 years. I'm also an actor and a filmmaker. And I've just seen how these crews are underpaid.
All the money goes to the top building. Literally Tom Cruise, $20 million, $40 million, $50 million. I love you, Tom.
I also love RDJ. I love RDJ as well. But I think these actors, they're just conditioned to want to have this money. And at the end of the day, if they're able to sacrifice a little bit of money, you're going to see the ability for people to do profit sharing with crews. Artist Equity, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon's company did profit sharing for the movie Air.
It made over its budget and the crew got to profit share. This very well known that that in Hollywood the executives are overpaid, talent's overpaid. Literally, everyone's overpaid except for the crew.
They're regular paid.
A lot of actors are going to just want to keep their money though.
I feel like if they want to make the picture, which most actors do want to make the picture, there's a couple stories out there in Hollywood where like somebody's like, "This guy took, you know, he did the movie for half his normal rate."
Dwayne Johnson did it for Smashing Machine.
Yeah. They just say, "Look, I want the picture. I'll take a pay cut. We'll make the movie."
Exactly. Yeah. Once that becomes more of a trend, we'll save the industry.
We'll get more movies, bigger movies.
Yeah. And we'll make movies actually benefit the communities we see on screen. I host a film series at Cabell Hill Cinemas where I get to talk to distributors and they give me these Palestinian films for free so that I can raise funds for Palestinians back in Palestine. Most of the major movie corporations won't even donate a little bit to the communities that they're putting on screen. Support the local movie theater
and the crew members.
I'll see you at the movies.
See you at the movies, bro.