Olivia is an actress in New York City. She's in the last week of her Broadway show, and facing the uncertainty many actors face between gigs— unemployment. If you want to be on What We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at [email protected] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
A heads up before you listen. This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. We are not financial advisors. You should always do your own research and consult your own financial advisor before spending or investing your money. Please note that all income, financial information, and expenses in what we spend are self-reported.
Will you walk me through what your resume looks like on paper?
Let's see. I've done three Broadway shows. I've done a lot of commercial work when I was a child. I've been on TV as a guest star on Instinct, Maisel, FBI, Great News, Odd Mom Out, Younger, Good Wife, Big C, Law & Order. I've done like four. four feature films as small roles. One I had a big role in. Well, I've done a shit ton of regional theater because they're so short.
One national tour, which was actually a big reason why I actually have some savings. I'm pretty successful, I guess, on paper. Yeah. But yeah, I'm still completely have no idea what I'm doing from one day to the next.
This is Olivia. I'm 38 and I live on the Upper West Side. Are you from New York City? Born and raised in Manhattan, yes. Olivia is an actor.
Which means that most of the time I'm doing other things like babysitting or I have a pretty successful video editing business, but I've literally done everything from waiting tables to working at a shoe store. When I was doing the audio diaries, I was in a Broadway show, which was for the past four months.
For Olivia, being an actor living in New York means her financial life has been unpredictable. Like she said, she's doing what every actor dreams of. She's been on Broadway, in TV and films. She has made it. But being a working actor means you have to just keep working, keep looking for the next thing. And you have to figure out what to do when there is no next thing.
That means Olivia's financial picture is a mix of things we usually associate with success and things we associate with hardship. I mean, she owns an apartment in New York City on the Upper West Side. And she has a platinum Amex card. But she's also been on food stamps. And in the past, she's had to rely on unemployment. In fact, when we talked, she was about to be on unemployment again.
This week, we're going to follow Olivia through her last week in her Broadway show, and we'll hear how she feels as she gets closer every day to another phase of uncertainty. I'm Courtney Harrell, and this is What We Spend.
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Chapter 2: Who is Olivia and what is her career background?
She already paid for her insurance for the year in one big payment that was a little under $2,000, so that's not a monthly consideration. But there is one more thing. She regularly buys tickets to Broadway shows.
That's actually a necessity. I would say that's up there with food. Like, I don't ever not spend money on theater.
It's up there with food.
Yeah. Tell me why. Because I have to see theater or I can't justify doing theater or feeling inspired or, like, living in New York. If I don't invest in art, I don't see why I'm even here.
Was there a moment in your life that you knew that that's what you wanted to do?
No. I was a child actor. My parents put me in modeling and stuff and commercials. How old were you when you started? Very little. Like a baby. I was on Sesame Street for a bit. This is another reason why I was able to buy my apartment when I was young-ish. People were always like, I don't understand how you bought an apartment when you were that young. And I'm like, well, two factors.
I was in an extremely successful, long-running Broadway show. But I also had, I received a check when I was 18 years old. So that was like essential in like my down payment.
Olivia got that check thanks to something known as the Coogan Law. It says that 15% of a child actor's earnings have to be placed in a trust until they turn 18. How big was that check?
It wasn't massive. It wasn't massive. I actually don't remember how much it was, but it was enough combined with my savings that I had to do that.
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Chapter 3: How does Olivia manage her finances as an actor?
Working at the post office and that was interesting because it's like well it's weird it's like you get into this thing because you're trying to do something different but then you search for stability but the moment you get stability it's like well that's not as exciting I mean I feel like I feel like it's a chasing some high or something it's just so weird.
All over the place. But also like it's helping me understand because in part it feels like you're not so so stressed about the instability and the downtime because in part that's like kind of where the good stuff is. Like that's how you know that you're getting to go like pursue other roles. Yeah. You're not going to be.
Yeah, it's kind of the instability also means the diversity of what you're doing. So this past year, all the stuff I got to do was actually incredible. And if I had just been doing one thing, I would have just been doing one thing, but maybe I would have had more stability. So I think one of the things that was hard about the show closing on Sunday was that we all kind of collectively were like...
I could have been a little longer like I could have done that for a year for sure and I haven't really felt the effects of not having a job and I think next week I'll go oh it's over like next week will be the first week that I'm like back on unemployment yeah and not having I'll probably be less exhausted and then I'll be like oh I have nowhere to go
What we spend is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written and hosted by me, Courtney Harrell. Our producers are Margo Gray and Kristen Torres. Our editor is Jonathan Menjivar. Our executive producers are Maris Brunkheiser and Leah Reese Dennis. Theme song and original music by Matt McGinley. Additional music from APM Music. Mixing by Pedro Alvira.
Special thanks to Melissa Akiko Slaughter, Joel Lovell, Jenna Weiss-Berman, J.D. Crowley, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Sheff, Sean Cherry, Laura Berman, and Hilary Van Ornam. If you want to be on What We Spend, we'd love to hear from you. Write us at whatwespendpodcast at gmail.com.
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