Lisa Edelstein reveals she recently was paid 97 cents in residuals for the two episodes of “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” which she wrote and starred in.
The actress shared the information as she walked the blue carpet at the 2023 Hollyshorts Film Festival’s opening night on Thursday night where she stars in two films being screened, “Swipe NYC” and “Shadow Brother Sunday.”
“I wrote two episodes of ‘Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce’ and I just got a residual check for two episodes for 97 cents. That’s not really a livable wage and that’s a show that is doing well because it was airing on a streamer somewhere,” she told Variety. “It’s our heart and souls. It’s our creativity that’s making these people a lot of money and we should really get paid.”
Created by Marti Noxon, “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” followed best-selling author, Abby McCarthy (Edelstein) who hides her recent separation as she starts to navigate her life as a single woman in her 40s in Los Angeles. The series ran for five seasons between 2014-2018 and served as Bravo’s first original scripted series.
As the AMPTP continues to meet with the WGA for another round of negotiations, Edelstein (who’s a member of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA) says she hopes that the AMPTP can “just show up for real this time, taking everybody very seriously because we are very serious.”
“Not everybody in our industry is a millionaire. I think it’s hard because people outside of this industry don’t necessarily view what we do is a job. But it is a job and it’s a hard working job we work 16 hours a day we we really the only difference is we’re fortunate enough to love what we do most of the time. And so does that mean we don’t get paid for it? I don’t think so,” she said.
Other attendees expected to make an appearance on the short film festival’s opening night included Lisa Ann Walter and Eldenstein’s “Shadow Brother Sunday” costar, Alden Ehrenreich. However, both actors allegedly skipped the event due to the ongoing strikes.
As Edelstein continued to advocate on behalf of the writers and actors on the picket lines, fellow actor and WGA member Danny Pino echoed Edelstein’s words, adding that the only reason he and his wife came out on Thursday was due to the support of the Hollyshorts film festival.
The Pinos’ short film, “Union dé Reyes” joins the festival and will be featured with several other Latinx titles over the 10-day stretch.
“I acted in this film, I wrote this film, I produced this film along with my wife — she’s acting in it. She produced it with me. This was self financed. We wouldn’t be here, if Hollyshorts wasn’t fully behind SAG-AFTRA, if Hollyshorts Film Festival wasn’t fully behind the WGA. This is an opportunity for us to show the power of independent filmmaking outside of the network and the studio system,” said Pino. “This is a way for us to not only stand up and be counted as people who feel like there should be fairness, this is an existential moment — not only for our business, but also for our unions to exist, for there to be a future for our sons if they want to endeavor to be in this creative field, to actually be able to maintain a living wage, and to have the prospect of supporting a family and having a mortgage, paying their rent and buying food.”