🔴 What actors MUST do differently in 2025

Here’s what’s in the letter today:

⚡️What actors must do differently from their 1980s counterparts

🤖 how i used ai this week

🧪 Last week’s experiment - failure?

🎨 two things i made i’m excited to tell you about

Something must change.

When i started working in the industry around 2014, I could not shake a stick without an actor telling me about how much they earned from the royalties they got working a pre-2010’s job.

Never boastful, but always spoken with a sad lilt to it, as if to say Life was good a few years ago, i’m sorry you weren’t around to see it.

I’d smile and nod, I was just happy to be there at all.

In the 1980s a british actor would earn around 40% of her income from royalties (the money paid to her each time her work was replayed, or sold after her initial performance.)

An actor today? 13% of their income is made up of royalties.

That means an actor in 2025 needs to somehow find an additional £17,592 per year, than the actor in the 80s, to earn the average uk salary.

If we are lucky.

But most of us are not.

What happened?

Streaming companies changed everything with their "buyout" deals – paying actors once instead of every time their show plays, cutting their pay by over half. The unions and agents tried to fight it but did not have the strength and failed.

And yes, actors still get some money when their shows sell to other TV channels, but it's nothing like the steady inflow that used to come from shows replaying on regular TV.

Today, 85% actors make less than £10,000 a year, and 72% need second jobs to get by.

So what?

Well, that fucking sucks doesn’t it

A reliable residual income has never been part of the conversation for our generation - we’ve had to constantly hunt for the next gig, even if we are one of the lucky ones and have the next few months of work sorted.

But we are walking the tightrope on a treadmill of insecurity until we die or retire or, for most of us: both at the same time.

So how do we fix it?

Create work you OWN.

When you build your own things, when you make, film, write, produce, you create the POSSIBILITY of future monetization.

Yes, the art you make might not bring you money immediately, but it serves three crucial purposes:

1. You maintain control. You decide how to distribute, market, and monetize your work. Want to turn it into a subscription service? You can. Need to pivot to a different platform? Do it. You don’t need anyone’s permission.

2. You get immediate feedback. Publishing your work generates engagement and connections that lead to unexpected opportunities. One thing leads to another leads to another. When you have a direct line to your audience, you can notice what they fucking love about your work then double down on it (if you so choose).

3. You build long-term assets. The art you create today can generate income years later. Look at YouTube creators whose decade-old videos still produce revenue. Every single thing you create has the potential to bring you additional income when you own it.

Drama schools have been teaching us that performance is king for years, but they universally fail, miserably, at preparing actors for the new economic reality.

They don't teach us how to create our own work for online audiences, how to set up production companies to help, how to find people who will pay for your shit or how to back yourself rather than needing to be chosen by a big traditional streamer to feel affirmed.

they don’t teach the essential skills needed by today's performer, fed up of waiting to be picked, wanting more than to be a starving artist.

They don’t give us a fishing rod. They give us a boat with a hole in it and the thimble to bail out the water.

This is the heart of the 6 Figure Actor – creating income streams anchored by the special art YOU make to become a more secure, fulfilled and free artist.

But we must be brave. We must be bold.

The current system is keeping 85% of us poor, the traditional way of doing things is not serving us. We must take action. We must make things we own.

Here are a few ways you could do it:

1. Start small (workshop a character on youtube - listen to the audience, what do they love what do they hate? build on that)

2. Create a podcast about what you are interested in.

3. Build something you think is special (someone else will think it is too)

4. Retain the rights + promote your work aggressively (even if you think you are doing to much you probably won’t be)

5. Learn skills that will help you with this - marketing is essential.

6. Thinking longterm, brainstorm ways you can monetise what you have made (Most won’t work, but 1 will and that’s all it takes)

Starting next week, I'm launching a new feature called Cool People Creating Cooler Things. It spotlights actors making special things they own, opening up about their processes and personal struggles along with lessons learned and guides for similarly aspiring self starters.

What are you creating that you own?

Your future may depend on it.

what ai i’ve used and how it’s helped

2 days ago I used Perplexity’s deep research to find the answer to a burning question we’re all thinking but nobody has the courage to ask:

Why do americans put their eggs in the fridge and brits dont.
Who is better than who?

We needed a definitive answer.

And we got one

brits are better. but americans make more eggs.

don’t worry about it.

The experiment journal

I am really enjoying experiment #005 from last week’s letter. I feel fresh and so clean, as do all my inboxes and desktops.

What I learned: Archive the shit out of your files.

Quick how to:

1. Create a file called "Archive [today's date]"

2. Drag all your files into it

3. Repeat across all platforms

4. That's it

Two things i made this week -

I recorded my first ever podcast - with the exceptional Florence Roberts who we will be talking to in our first edition of Cool People Creating Cooler Things. 

She made her film from scratch, with 0 budget - find it here Getting To Know You. 

Floss’ story is inspiring and bonkers, come back next week to hear how she did it, and how you can too (it’s easier than you think).

And

I’m chuffed to bits to say - after one week of it being posted, we now have only one place remaining for Create & Narrate: Become a narrator from home. If replacing your shitty day job with audiobook narration from your bedroom is something that interests you check it out before the price goes up.

One final thing - I have to decide on a logo for 6 Figure Actor, which do you prefer?

#1

#2

Reply to this email with your answer and tell me what you liked about this weeks letter!

See you next week.

Alex x

P.s. If you know anyone who's interested in the stuff we are interested in forward this on to them - if you want the web version here's a shareable link