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Even in the most incongruous settings - such as the red carpet of an international film festival - unions are key players, as actor Saffron Burrows explains
A sense of fair play
It would be all too easy to assume that actors are among the least in
need of, or even interested in trade union representation. Don’t
they all earn millions – pampered celebrities whose biggest problem
is avoiding the paparazzi?
Of course not. Equity believes that of its 37,000 members (which include
all manner of creative people, from directors and singers, to strippers)
just one third are making a living. So that’s 24,000 people who
are not.
“Very few of our members are permanently employed,” says Equity
press officer Martin Brown. “The majority go from job to job, which
makes them very difficult to organise, because – apart from bodies
such as the BBC or the Royal Ballet – there are no static workplaces.
Their lives can be very difficult and unpredictable.
“Actors are one of the most vulnerable workforces, because they
are only as good as their last role,” he says. “They have
no certainty of work, they go from engagement to engagement and sometimes
that might last no more than a minute. They need a union, perhaps, more
than many others.”
A passionate supporter of this view – and sterling proof that success
does not have to breed apathy – is Saffron Burrows (right). Despite
being one of the busiest British actresses around at the moment, whose
work takes her from the Parisian stage to Mexico, to make the epic Troy
with Brad Pitt, Ms Burrows continues to be a member of two unions: Equity,
and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in the US.
“Although I work in a freelance world where you’re not encouraged
to think very collectively, to me being a member of a union is quite fundamental,”
she says. “Now that we have this casualisation of the work force,
unions are probably more important than ever. There seems to be no such
thing as a job for life.
“I think unions are tarnished with this view that there’s
a lot of rhetoric and jargon and points of order and all the rest. But
to me it’s perfectly understandable why you would join a union and
want to be protected by it – if only to look towards your future.
And the camaraderie can be fantastic, the fact that someone can come into
your workplace if you’re in trouble and negotiate on your behalf.
You can’t frown at that. It’s a sign of a civilised society.”
As it happens, Ms Burrows grew up in east London within an environment
of trade union activism. Her mother and stepfather were both teachers
and active members of the NUT.
“I used to love NUT conferences. I started when I was 10 and used
to go every year, sitting in the observers’ gallery. I really enjoyed
the debates. I remember, during Clause 28 and things like, there were
fantastic speeches made. And with the NUT there was always an event going
on, there was always something for the press to report on, it was never
dull.
“I think fundamentally what I found interesting was how an orator
with passion and integrity could actually change people’s minds.
I found that fascinating, I loved it and I did become completely addicted
to it.”
For a film actor, the practical benefits of being an Equity member may
be surprising – and are certainly not glamourous; for example those
relating to the long hours on a film set, usually from dawn till dusk,
that would make any worker balk.
“There are important benefits to do with health and safety,”
says Ms Burrows. “One of the best is turnaround time, which says
that you must have so many hours off work each day. Often on a film you
don’t get home till 10 at night, and they want you back on set at
six the next morning. It’s that gruelling. And it can just become
dangerous – for the crew as well as actors. People work such long
hours on films and then they kind of collapse, or have a terrible accident
driving home, all of that stuff. It’s not about decadence, but about
being safe. So turnaround time becomes crucial, especially if you’re
working for three or four months on a film. And Equity guarantees that.”
Although actors are represented by agents, many of whom are extremely
powerful, Ms Burrows says that the contract used will be one recommended
by Equity or SAG. And for most actors, the minimum wages championed by
those unions still very much apply.“On Troy, probably five actors
were getting very well paid, 14 of us were on a decent salary –
certainly not a bad one – but then there were 800 extras who were
on hardly anything. So there is a huge disparity there.”
Ms Burrows, whose other films include In the Name of the Father, opposite
Daniel Day Lewis, and the wartime drama Enigma with Kate Winslet, recently
appeared on the cover of the Equity magazine, supporting the union’s
recruitment campaign. “I like being a member,” she says. “It
feels correct. They’re my family.”
Despite having her feet firmly on the ground, now and again she is reminded
how the glitzy side of her profession has nothing to do with real life.
“I was at the Cannes film festival this year when the workers in
my hotel decided to go on strike,” she says. “Everyone had
handed in their tuxedos and gowns to be dry cleaned for that evening and
suddenly they couldn’t get them back.
“Michael Moore joined the picket outside the hotel. It was a very
effective strike. I found it very entertaining, because the hotel staff
really had everyone – the film people and their own employers –
exactly where they wanted them.”
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Saffron Burrows has starred in Troy,
In the Name Of The Father and Enigma. She is currently
starring in a production of Peter Whelan's The Earthly Paradise at the
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