2023-08-14 21:42:33
NEW YORK (AP) — Movies, TV, fashion: Kim Kimble has done it all in her more than 30 years as a stylist in Hollywood, but even in the good times, she never gave up her other job.
Until the pandemic.
“I had a salon where I could work if necessary, and I closed it down,” he said. “So now I don’t even have that.”
Kimble and a world of Hollywood hairdressers, makeup artists and manicurists have been left idle by actor and screenwriter strikes, in a troubled era as they were still rebuilding their livelihoods after painful months of coronavirus shutdowns.
Not alone, of course, are the writers and actors protesting their contract disputes with studios and streaming services. The production crew and support staff in all walks of entertainment – production, promotion, assistants – are also out of work from coast to coast.
“For three, four, five months before the writers went on strike, studios weren’t willing to greenlight projects, so many of us have been unemployed much longer,” said Linda Dowds, a Los Angeles makeup artist in her 60s who has worked in film and television since 1987.
The writers went on strike on May 2, the actors followed on July 14. It is unclear how long the strikes will last. In various interviews, wardrobe, hair, makeup and nail specialists said they feared losing their homes and health insurance as they search for options. Even if the studios and streaming services reach agreements with the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) sooner than late, productions will take weeks to recover.
Dowds, who shared an Oscar for his work on “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” said he is in a “high state of anxiety” about the strikes. But she considers herself one of the lucky ones. She spent years working on back-to-back projects, which allowed her to keep her health insurance for now through the Hair and Makeup Artists Union.
“But that’s only sustainable for so long,” he said.
Kimble, 52, who has worked with Beyoncé and Taraji P. Henson, as well as on productions such as “Dreamgirls” (“Dreamers”) and “A Wrinkle in Time” (“A fold in time”), belongs to the same union than Dowds. She has no idea what else she would do.
“The hair is what I love,” said Kimble, in Los Angeles. “There’s really nothing else, you know? And I love this business, so it’s very hard to understand, ‘Where would I go?’”
Makeup artist Matin Maulawizada is based in New York but often travels the world, working with actors and other celebrities on TV sets, red carpets and talk show appearances.
“My work has been erased for the most part. Honestly, I don’t have a Plan B,” she said.
The strikes came after years of reduced wages for their work, he said.
“I am not exaggerating when I say that we earned a tenth for exactly the same work that we did in 2005,” Maulawizada said. “If you were working with a very famous client, you could easily earn between $3,500 and $5,000 for a red carpet. Now you are lucky if you get 500.”
Celebrity manicurist Julie Kandalec in New York has worked with so-called A-list celebrities (Emily Blunt, Storm Reid and Selena Gomez among them) for almost 13 years. She also teaches business skills for beauty professionals online, a lucrative side job that helps her support herself. She also collaborates with brands and has maintained a network of contacts outside the Hollywood bubble.
Still, he worries about paying the rent.
“Just with the Emmys being rescheduled, it’s tough,” Kandalec said.
Like others, she has maintained a salon over the years while busy with red carpets and other jobs. For some, finding enough salon clients to make up for their lost income has been a problem.
“I have a beauty salon, but most of my clients are actors. Many of them are not getting regular haircuts right now because they are not working. I’m doing everything I can to do house calls and haircuts,” said celebrity stylist and men’s barber Andrea Pezzillo, 38, in Los Angeles. She also teaches classes online.
A prolonged strike by actors would be decisive for Maulawizada, 59. If it lasts until December, he and her husband, who is a teacher, will have to sell their house.
She just worked a day helping prepare Sarah Jessica Parker for a round of Zoom interviews, in collaboration with a French skincare brand, in support of a women’s mental health organization.
“A lot of us worked in beauty and used to work with celebrities, but it became a lot more in demand to just do celebrities. That is what we have been concentrating on, which actually worked against us because of moments like this,” Maulawizada said. “If I don’t get a job next month, I’ll be worried about paying my bills.”
He once made money from brand consulting, but these days “brands are spending more money on influencers than real professionals.”
Maulawizada is particularly concerned about colleagues whose only focus is cinema.
“They don’t have an online persona, an internet presence, because they work 16 hours a day behind the scenes, looking at their monitors to make sure the actors and actresses look good. And they are the experts of the experts.”
Maulawizad has tried to change that during the strikes, turning to brands to donate money to professional makeup artists in exchange for video posts on social media showing how to use the products. He already has a couple of brands ready.
“This is money that they would normally pay to a kid dancing and doing makeup on TikTok instead of a professional who has made Oscar-winning movies but doesn’t have a huge following on Instagram,” Maulawizada said.
Stylists find themselves in the same dire straits as those who do dozens of other jobs in the entertainment industry.
Whitney Anne Adams is a costume designer who works primarily on feature films.
“Work for me has come to a complete halt, with nothing on the horizon,” he said. “Apart from a small two-month project, I have not worked since November 2022 because the slowdown was already starting last year.”
The only job he’s found was a couple of days background designing a non-union music video.
“There’s really nothing else to turn to right now,” he said.
Adams, based in Richmond, Virginia, has been dedicated to union work, sharing information on grant programs and other resources. It belongs to two union locals, both affiliated with the International Alliance of Theater and Stage Employees and Film Technicians, Artists and Allied Trades. It is the same organization that covers union hairdressers and makeup artists.
“We negotiate our contracts next year. We hope that the solidarity they feel from us now will reach us then,” Adams said of the union workers currently on strike. “We all have very similar needs and we all work hand in hand. If they don’t get a fair contract, it will be very bad for all of us in this industry.”
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