Warner Bros TV & ‘Smallville’ Co-Creators … 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
UPFRONTS 2013: TV Spinoffs’ Almost Perfect Year 
OSCARS: Animated Feature Rule Change 
Cannes: Relativity Sets ‘Hunger Games’ Liam … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: Billboard Awards Surge From 2012, … 
Cannes: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Sympathy For Mr. … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Yahoo CEO Foresees Big Opportunities To Sell Ads On Tumblr 
Cannes: Keanu Reeves Presents Directorial Debut & … 
Disney, Lucasfilm Animation Prep ‘Star Wars … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
Yahoo Announces $1.1B Tumblr Deal With Vow “Not To … 
Hammond On Cannes: Sun Comes Out As Parties, Deals And … 
Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio In Talks To Join ‘X … 
Cannes: Latest Theft Affects China Film Group VP 
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr … 
‘Epic’ Toon Begins $14.5M Overseas Rollout 
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
Two former interns who worked on Black Swan are suing Fox Searchlight and are looking to end what they say is the studio’s improper use of unpaid interns, according to The New York Times. The plaintiffs, Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, claim the studio violated federal and state wage laws and are seeking back pay for work that they say should have been done by paid Searchlight employees. The U.S. Department of Labor requires companies that use unpaid interns to provide training similar to that of an educational institution, among other criteria. Footman said that as a production intern, he made coffee, cleaned, and took lunch orders for the staff. He said he learned only “how to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities,” according to The Times. The plaintiffs are far from the only college graduates who took an unpaid internship to try to get a foot in the door in the film industry. Their lawsuit is seeking class action status on behalf of more than 100 unpaid interns on Searchlight film productions.
‘Black Swan’ Unpaid Interns File Lawsuit
-
Marketplace
News/Opinion Poll
Loading ...Box Office Poll
Loading ...
Hollywood throws up its hands at the lack of diversity in its ranks while keeping practices like unpaid internships and entry level PA/assistant jobs that pay peanuts, which end up sorting for people who have family money to support them while they get a leg up. That’s what needs to end if the entertainment industry is serious about opening its ranks to anyone besides legacy hires and upper middle class/rich white and Asian kids.
these kids are fools and are ruining it for every other kid that follows – I was an unpaid intern and feel damn lucky to have been, and am now constantly in the position of not being allowed to hire interns by studios because of cases like this…not everyone abuses their interns…I bet they didn’t mind when they got to brag to all their friends that they worked on Black Swan…way to kill their careers…gee, I’m so shocked they haven’t really done anything since…
Did it ever occur to you that the system is the problem, not the people trying to change it? Here’s an idea: the studios you work for could FOLLOW THE DAMN LAW and pay interns MINIMUM-FUCKIN’-WAGE. How hard is that?
Because if you’re paying MINIMUM-FUCKIN’-WAGE then you’re going to get an experienced PA who has done the job for years. How else are kids with no experience going to get experience? That is unless you’re uncle is producing the film.
I started as an unpaid intern and eventually moved up to the executive ranks, but in hindsight, I was definitely being exploited. There’s no way that a year of free part-time labor — the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars — is a fair price for vague promises of “getting a foot in the door”
Amen! Working for free is for suckers. Please no douchtastic Hollywood remarks to this comment.
What exactly did these kids think interns did? If you want a long-overdue class action lawsuit, how about putting one together on behalf of all the actual assistants who do full-time work but get paid as independent contractors? Y’know what’s a crime? No benefits, no overtime, and not being eligible to file for unemployment when your “production company” lays you off. Y’know what’s not a crime? Sending your intern on a lunch run.
Exploiting interns and ICs are BOTH against the law. If you can’t afford a lawyer, anonymously tip off the IRS. They’ll be happy to take it from there.
unpaid internships are an invaluable tool for companies to sift out the applicants with the wealthiest parents from the rest of the rabble.
Bingo! Jo, you got it exactly right. The problem with unpaid internships–especially with housing prices so high in LA and NYC–is that only kids whose parents are footing their bills can afford to join the industry.
Further, many internships ARE an exploitative joke. When I lived in NY, and was lucky enough that my wealthy parents were paying the bills while I was in school, I got an internship at a production company. Turns out I did the exact same office scutwork that I’d later do when I was paying the bills on my own in LA as a temp secretary. The difference? An intern earned bragging rights and a couple of connections. A temp earned ten to fifteen bucks an hour and, through the right agencies, even more connections.
If–big IF–this industry truly cares about “diversity” as it claims, then unpaid internships have got to stop. They’re nothing more than economic nepotism.
Wow, can’t believe all the jokers here spouting the “They’ll never work in this town again!” line. You people do realize this is the same line of reasoning given to everyone from actresses sexually assaulted on the casting couch to writers who getting screwed out of their contractually-obligated residuals. “Hey, don’t make a fuss or (drumroll please)…you’ll never work in this town again!”
And just because you put up with abuse and degrading treatment back when you were an intern doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean these kids shouldn’t be standing up for themselves.
And yeah, especially in this economy in the past few years intern abuse has become a problem in many industries. They are essentially doing unpaid work that should be filled by a paid employee, not an intern. Kudos to these kids for having the guts to cry foul.
But they didn’t put up with any abuse. There’s no mention of abuse, save for not getting paid. And they applied for jobs as… unpaid interns. That has nothing to do with a sexually assaulted actress.
It is sad and disgusting that so many of you support unpaid internships. I bet most of you are the rich and greedy corporate bastards making a living off the sweat and hard work of the poor college students.
Additionally, you all seem to forget that there are laws in place to protect interns from exploitation by large for-profit corporations. Laws like the FLSA are there for a reason.
Wake up and see the injustice that is being done. Someone has to stand up against corporate greed, and I commend these workers and the attorneys for taking a stand. I, for one, would be willing to hire them any day, instead of an ass-kissing yes-man.
Oh, by the way, last time I checked, interns revolted and won in Europe. Have you heard about Occupy Wall Street? It’s only a matter of time before we have a seismic change in society, and unpaid internships at for-profit companies disappear.
Right, because the unions, the radicals, the communists, the socialists, and the anarchists will make sure society is burned to the ground so no one will have anything and we’ll all be equal…ly poverty stricken. Except for the fascists fiddling while America burns.
Wow, can’t believe all the jokers here spouting the “They’ll never work in this town again!” line. You people do realize this is the same line of reasoning given to everyone from actresses sexually assaulted on the casting couch to writers who getting screwed out of their contractually-obligated residuals. “Hey, don’t make a fuss or (drumroll please)…you’ll never work in this town again!”
And just because you put up with abuse and degrading treatment back when you were an intern doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean these kids shouldn’t be standing up for themselves.
And yeah, especially in this economy in the past few years intern abuse has become a problem in many industries. They are essentially doing unpaid work that should be filled by a paid employee, not an intern. Kudos to these kids for having the guts to cry foul.
Absolutely agree with you.
These clueless people posting on this site defending abuse and illegal use of interns would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. Yes, it is a privilege to have an internship or work in the business. I don’t think anyone is disputing that. What is not acceptable is when you are trying to extort free labor under the false guise of “educational or training opportunity” and not paying someone for actual work in accordance with the law.
It’s pathetic how some people in this business think that just because a wrong practice is the standard that it is acceptable. Wrong is wrong folks.
You do realize that all the examples you offerred, while admittedly unfortunate, all hold true?
Then kudos to these kids (the plaintiffs) for offering themselves up as sacrificial lambs so that hopefully interns after them will receive some pay for their work.
THANK YOU. This is why minimum wage laws, workplace harassment laws, and child labor laws are in place. So that your job is not being undercut by a teenager willing to work for 5 bucks an hour while being molested by her boss.
But it’s true though. I think these people are sacrificing their careers in making this lawsuit. Hats off to them.
Since the economy crashed, companies have been taking advantage of college kids by offering them “unpaid internships” as glorified assistants, secretaries, etc. and it happens in every industry.
On one hand it’s nice as a former intern to see these kids trying to stand up for a system that allows employers to get free work, but on the other hand, unpaid internships are now a part of EVERY industry. These kids will be disappointed once they try to get a job somewhere else and realize that once again they’ll be expected to get coffee and take lunch orders, except that it won’t be for Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky…
Just wanted to clarify that I support the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, but unfortunately unpaid internships are a problem that reaches far beyond the entertainment industry. Maybe this will be the case that forces people to take a look at a system that is hurting the economy, as companies are accumulating record assets instead of paying their employees. Meaningful stimulus would be to pay these people, even if it’s minimum wage, and then you’d see more money being put back into the economy.
Why does it matter who you are getting coffee for? Portman and Aronofsky make boatloads of money so the fact that you’re getting coffee for them should mean you get paid. Who’s entitled now, stars and producers thinking, oh you should be so lucky to get me coffee.
they should be so lucky.
While it’s true that – at least from how the article was written – it sounds like these kids didn’t really work all that hard (if you’re stuck doing menial tasks that won’t lead anywhere, then man the fuck up and do something about it), Hollywood’s bullshit habit of asking young people to work for no pay needs to stop. If they’re in school, fine, but once you graduate it’s a huge risk to move to LA and take unpaid jobs in the hopes that they’ll eventually bear fruit. If you’re sitting on top of a studio and aren’t willing to give up a splinter of your budget to pay an intern minimum wage, then you’re likely a greedy piece of shit.
I can’t speak for West Coast studios, but East Coast distribution companies are definitely taking advantage of high unemployment rates and staffing their companies with highly qualified interns – and paying nothing for them.
CEOs and top managements are getting paid increasingly higher salaries (I know that for a fact! CEOs and VPs are making more and more), and just in the last years, the number of unpaid interns working for our company has more than tripled.
It simply isn’t fair. Are we really going to ignore all kinds of labor rights in this country? This isn’t the best way forward. If these people were taken advantage of, they have every right to sue. It’s not up to me to judge them.
Yeah, I’m sure “the company” will lose. If this lawsuit sides with these interns then every production or development internship will become extinct and all students or pre-entry levels are screwed. Wah wah wah we had to get coffee. What school did you come from that DIDN’T warn you of this? Maybe “the company” should sue Dumb-Dumb University. Oh, and I’m SURE when these geniuses head to CAA or WME for their “big boy” jobs, that they’ll get a pat on the back and a “good job suing Searchlight, now where are your references?” P.S. Hey Searchlight, I will gladly work for you for FREE. Call me.
Any production company that is one $7/hour PA position away from folding should go ahead and close shop now.
Not sure why everyone is acting like these kids are entitled for seeking a wage for their work. This is far different than the kid who sued WME for $8 million for not selling his scripts just because he’s black.
They’re acting entitled because THEY APPLIED AND ACCEPTED AN UNPAID INTERNSHIP! Only after the fact did they say “hey, you should have paid us.” Seems to me that they were lousy interns who never progressed into doing any meaningful work and suddenly want some compensation for the opportunity they couldn’t capitalize upon.
Why in the world did they take the internships in the first place? For the record, I think unpaid internships at for-profit companies are terrible and I would never have taken one.
The real issue is that only the Children of the Rich can afford to spend the days/weeks/months it takes to make a film working without any sort of payment (minimum wage?)
You hit the nail on the head. Executives’ kids can afford to work for free. The Average Joe’s kid can’t. Guess they don’t deserve a chance unless they’re willing to charge up their credit cards for the opportunity to fetch Starbucks.
i come from a huge family, and my parents were poor as shit. after college I moved home and saved up money for an entire year before finally moving at to LA becuase i knew I’d have to take unpaid internship work for a while, which i did. And it worked out reasonably well. So back pat for me!
This is disgusting. Please post the names of all 100 of these kids.
My name beats your name.
Unpaid internships suck.
Internships work this way: you either get paid or you get college credit. If you get college credit, conversation over.
I get phone calls from attorneys, Wall Street types, all kinds of folks with real careers wanting to do grunt work on a movie set just to get real experience. Because for the right go-getter, an internship can lead to a career. No promises, just opportunities.
Most companies will look the other way if you can’t get college credit. Many interns are college graduates. According to your logic, all of these unpaid interns who either a) couldn’t get college credit or b) were already graduates should be able to sue.
Yeah and the billions the colleges make for the few that go pro. Yeah that’s even lol
What a bunch of entitled little brats. I had three internships while in college, made amazing contacts and references in the process, quickly got a job in the entertainment industry and went on to do business with the very people that I worked with as an intern. It may be unpaid but you get college credit and that’s your payment, and if you agreed to an unpaid internship then that’s the financial risk you decided to take in order to get a foot in the door.
Internships are always what you make of it. You are not going to be spoon-fed information or given the keys to the company when you have zero experience compared to everyone else. You learn by paying attention, you learn by being a team player, you learn by listening in on conversations and phone calls, when they let you, to get an idea on how to negotiate and how the business is done, you learn by reading contracts, you learn by sitting in on meetings with your mouth shut while other people discuss business, you learn by observing how everyone pulls together and comes up with solutions to the inevitable problems that production runs into, you learn by making yourself invaluable to people so that they remember your name and want to want you back as a real hire or are more than happy to try to help you get a job at a different company, and you learn by taking initiative instead of waiting around for someone to give you something to do b/c there is always something to do if you just bother paying attention.
This sounds like every entitled intern that I had to fire b/c they constantly complained about having to do filing, run packages to important producers on the lot, and never getting to pitch their ideas in meetings with people who already proved themselves and actually showed up on time, weren’t visibly hungover from the night before, and didn’t call in sick or try to leave early every time they were left alone in the office with an assistant. Their heads were too far up their own entitled asses to realize that I was teaching them by making certain resources available to them, by listening and conversing with them on the business and giving them advice if they asked, by teaching them proper protocol and letting them stay in the room when I was in meetings or negotiating on the phone, by introducing them to higher ups and VIPs in the industry but when you fail to meet expectations or you act like every little task you’re assigned is a chore beneath you then you’re not going to leave a lasting impression, you’re not going to get a rave review with your college advisor, you’re not going to get me as a reference and that’s if you survived long enough for me not to fire you b/c you were dead wood in the office and I need someone who can actually be useful to my staff. Furthermore, I’d rather compensate my already insufficiently paid full time staff who act like professionals and know what they’re doing and don’t complain when ‘menial’ tasks fall into their hands than some college or unemployed brat who can’t recognize an opportunity when he or she is given one.
Buck up, most of us who weren’t fortunate enough to benefit from Hollywood nepotism went through it, and we made it out the other side and have gone to help others who were in the same position we were once in but if you’re not willing to even be a good intern then no one is going to want you as an employee. Being treated like crap is taking physical, sexual and/or verbal abuse from some twisted Hollywood asshole not running to get coffee or having to wash the dishes in the kitchenette just b/c you have a college degree. I have a college degree too as well as a high profile career and I don’t leave every little ‘menial’ task to my staff when I can easily do it myself b/c I’m not so egotistical as to think of it as demeaning work that is beneath me.
Without a doubt, anyone who takes on an internship should know they are in for a lot of bitch work and should not moan and groan when assigned such bitch work. You’re right to fire them.
However, what you’re describing — this amazing period where interns learn the basics and make their first few connections in the industry — you know, that same stuff happens in other industries in paid, entry-level positions.
There is no reason why interns shouldn’t make at least minimum wage. I invite anyone on Deadline to offer one morally, ethically, and legally valid reason why interns cannot be paid. You do a job, you should get paid for it. Period.
The intern and externships that I am aware of that are paid, whether inside or outside of the industry, hire people that have already obtained a Bachelor’s and are in the process of earning a higher degree with the intern or externship being part of their required course work. However, they are in what are commonly referred to as professional jobs or degrees (law, medicine, engineering, other hard sciences, etc.), and they put in a great deal more hours than a typical undergrad intern can b/c those hours have already been set aside as part of the program. I’m not saying that there aren’t clearly people out there who are taking advantage of the college credit system (or that there aren’t undergrad interns being paid as well) but I don’t see the harm in hiring undergrads for college credit so long as it’s clear to the school that they are getting a learning experience b/c they’re properly exposed to the business (the schools have their own share of the blame for the internships that they approve that don’t qualify as educational.) Regardless though, what these interns get out of the experience is largely up to them, their attitudes, their work ethic and their passion and drive to be in this industry, warts and all. If people would stop agreeing to take unpaid and uncredited internships, especially if they’re dedicating long periods of time (some people mentioned two years and still no job?), and human resources did a better job at following the guidelines, instead of turning a blind eye like they do in other instances of abuse even for hired employees, then this wouldn’t be such a huge issue. Everyone involved is responsible for failures at their end. There is no innocent victim in this situation.
I don’t hire interns that aren’t getting college credit as all three of my internships were for credit so I wouldn’t have it any other way and, believe me, I’ve been asked/begged to overlook this personal policy. Nor do I ask any of my interns to put in more than 15 hours tops per week because I know what it’s like to carry a full course load as well as have a workstudy job, a part time job and sometimes both at once. I honestly want to help people the way that I was mentored when I first started but I also had a clear passion for the work and made the effort to get noticed and learn as much as I could without a lot of hand holding, much less complaining.
I’m not saying that a good intern can’t become the head of Disney if he/she works hard enough. But no matter how you try to justify it, there IS harm in hiring college students to do unpaid work, because many college students need money from paid jobs to support themselves. So you are:
a) disqualifying kids who don’t apply to the internships because they know they can’t afford to take the time off work, and therefore automatically giving preference to more wealthy kids who have Mommy and Daddy to pay the rent.
b) Hiring interns to do unpaid work instead of hiring assistants to do paid work. So not only is the intern you ‘hired’ making nothing, the assistant you theoretically would’ve hired to cover your scripts and fetch lunch is also making nothing because he/she can’t find a job.
c) Pocketing extra profits instead of paying your employees the wages they deserve.
I’m not attacking your character. I can totally see that you’re sincere in what you’re saying and you enjoy mentoring students. But the internship/assistant track in Hollywood is a broken system and it needs to be fixed.
You know what? I did three internships during college and got credit for them. I worked during the year and did my internships during the summer, plus I had a part time job during that time as well. I didn’t have a rich mommy or daddy taking care of my finances I simply put some thought into it and made it work b/c that’s how committed I was to breaking into the business. Summer internships are competitive much like a real job so it’s on you to ace the interview and make a good impression which goes far beyond your willingness to work for college credit. Hell, there was one company that didn’t even use interns but I sent in a cover letter with my resume and they called me in for an interview. While I wasn’t paid in money, I did get paid in connections, experience, exposure, and lots of free swag as well as invites. There is a lot judgement up and down this board about people who are willing to take college credit internships either having wealthy parents or existing industry connections that get them through the door but, believe it or not, there are those of us and I would argue most of us who got in the door doing it on our own merits and while supporting ourselves. Every time that same ‘rich parents’ argument comes up it just sounds more and more like bitterness and resentment, and with that kind of negative attitude it’s no wonder why some people get ahead while others don’t. Student loans and scholarships exist for a reason so you can’t equate every person going to college with automatically having money or having parents who support you b/c every single one of my friends in college either had a workstudy job, a part time job but, more often than not, both.
Also, I don’t have year round interns. I only have interns when there is a need for additional help for my staff so I’m not “exploiting” more than two or three interns a year and usually not for very long but they’re grateful for the experience, the recommendations and everything else that comes along with it including free swag and help getting interviews if they’re graduating soon.
Think about what you said. You hire interns only when your staff NEEDS additional help. According to the law, if employers are helped by interns, and their primary motivation for hiring interns is to receive such help, then they should pay them.
Legally, you should be hiring temps.
Your career can’t be too ‘high profile’ nor can you have too much of a ‘staff’ (if any) if you spent this much time writing a lengthy four paragraph comment. Are you sure you’re not really an unpaid intern?
hahaha. Love your comment!
It’s Jewish New year, honey! We’ve all got plenty of time to sit around and debate. Lighten up will ya!
Great perspective here.
So you’re one of the entitled corporate loser MF’s who think it’s ok to break the law just cause you’re in the business.
Kudos to these interns for having the balls to stand up to corporate tyrants like you.
If you call always asking to leave early, not showing up on time or at all, being stupid enough to call in saying that you’re going to be late b/c you were out drinking the night before, getting lost for half an hour on the lot where you work delivering an important package even with the printed map with the route highlighted from point A to point B in your hand, constantly bothering or flat out interrupting people to ask them questions that you could have easily found out on your own by searching the database, the internet or the filing cabinet, sighing heavily and acting like a little punk b/c you really wanted to be in on the staff meeting even though we need someone to cover the phones as having balls to stand up for yourself, then yeah, my worst interns had a lot of balls to take a job that they said they could do but were unwilling to do even though we were more than clear as to what the job entailed during the interview process. Professionalism as well as hard work is still a requirement even if it’s a small company, even if we’re all dressed casually, even if we don’t fall under the big corporate studio umbrella, and even if it’s ‘just’ the entertainment industry. My interns always get college credit and they’re given opportunities as well as respect that, unfortunately, a lot of paid workers don’t get in their jobs so I’m hardly a corporate tyrant. It’s certainly not a life sentence in Sea Org.
Anni De Luc,
Just cause your “interns always get college credit” does not make it legal. You really should study the law, it’s very simple. If the intern does “work” like dropping off packages they are entitled to minimum wage. I hope you get sued. You seem very greedy and a pain in the ass.
Perhaps I’m positively machiavellian or maybe some people are just really stupid and don’t know how to work opportunities to their best advantages.
BTW, being in compliance is not that hard but I’m going to go ahead and assume that you still think any internship in my office must be illegal because you really really need that to feel better about yourself.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
Followed the link you provided and thought you might enjoy this, Anni:
If an employer uses interns as substitutes for regular workers or to augment its existing workforce during specific time periods, these interns should be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime compensation for hours worked over forty in a workweek. If the employer would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the interns not performed the work, then the interns will be viewed as employees and entitled compensation under the FLSA.
Now your own words from your previous comment:
Also, I don’t have year round interns. I only have interns when there is a need for additional help for my staff so I’m not “exploiting” more than two or three interns a year and usually not for very long(…)
If you can’t compare these two statements and realize what you are doing is illegal, well…
This, this, this and oh yes, this.
Every aspiring kid out of college should read this post. I’m sick and tired of 20 year olds complaining because they had to get coffee.
I (like many others) started my career with an unpaid internship. At the time, it seemed like bitch work, but now I’m entirely grateful.
Word is the interns also held up the release of “Margaret” for 6 years.
“My name is Alex, and I’ll be your waiter this evening.”
as others have said, unpaid internships aren’t exclusive to hollywood. if i were the plaintiffs, i wouldn’t be concerned about getting a job in hollywood, i’d be concerned about getting ANY job working either for or in collaboration with any major corporation in any industry. i can’t see how a future employer wouldn’t look this lawsuit and their participation as a glaring liability, especially in an economy where everyone needs a job.
The problem is not working your way up. It’s that they don’t educate interns. They’re allowed to have free labor if it serves an education purpose. It’s illegal to bring someone on for a learning position and just use them to do the menial jobs nobody wants to do.
It’s not that they want to be paid for their internship, it’s that their internship was just a custodian/errand boy and they want to be paid for that job.
Just because a system is really broken doesn’t mean it’s idiotic to want it fixed. Unfortunately, they probably will have a hell of a time getting hired again. Freelance forever.
I was hoping to see a comment like this!!!
Internship can be great….. Learning the biz, making contacts, etc. etc. But to take on slave labour to do photocopying and make coffee under the pretence of offering that person “a first step into the business” is a travesty.
My own company could save a fortune…. tell people I will take them on as interns to learn how to run my business, then simply use them as free slave labour!
Interns should at least have some sort of job description that they agree to…that way if they are daft enough to sign up to vomit-shovelling and buying recreational substances on behalf of actors then they will have no come back!
I worked for free as an internship 30 hours a week for Miramax, while working a night shift full time delivering mochas to video directors and Lenny Kravitz. It brutally sucked… and it was immensely valuable and character building. And because I was a damn good intern, and did the crappy, menial work without complaint, I was offered my first job at Miramax. I’m grateful for every miserable hour of that internship.
Not because it turned me into some Hollywood power-broker down the line. In fact, I left Hollywood a few years ago, and now am the general manager of a fairly significant retail website. I’ve done pretty well for myself, all things considered, and I wasn’t unduly harmed by my time as an intern. Rather, it’s one of the proudest working experiences of my life.
Whine all you want about labor laws, but Hollywood is a screwed up industry where endless people step off the bus every day to ‘break’ in. It’s an industry that has few notions of pre-requisites. Yes, lots of people want to be a doctor, but you have to make it through 7 years of med school first. While you’re more than welcome to go to film school (I did too), Hollywood has no such pre-req, and proving your “talent” or “genius” is an amorphous thing that takes time, energy and lots and lots of bullshit.
Working for free separates those that genuinely want it, deep down, as opposed to the people who casually think, “wow, it would be cool to work on a Natalie Portman movie”.
While I’m a card-carrying liberal, workers-rights kind of guy, Hollywood is a ridiculously unique case. These guys may certainly work in this town again, but they lack character.
And Hollywood has WAAYY more than their fair share of people without character. Does this town really need two more?
Sorry, but there’s nothing “character building” about being a schmuck. You wanna volunteer on somebody’s deferred pay indie, fine. But if you’re working for a corporation, which is fully subject to Federal and State labor laws, you should be paid–just like everyone else working for the company.
Individuals such as yourself “Go Union” are exactly why I have interns. A group of people who are fresh, creative, hungry, without ego, and eager to soak up as much as they can. A group of people who are willing to suffer some short term pain for some long term gain. Of course you would call someone who is willing to sacrifice some things for a shot at their dream a “schmuck”. Paying dues IS character building. Very clearly you have not done so.
I’m sure tomorrow you’ll be offering all of them a “shot at their dreams”. If their dreams involve getting you a sandwich.
Bullshit, I haven’t paid dues. And it’s because I remember going to the supermarket and not having enough pennies to pay the tax on the Ramen noodles I was hoping to eat for dinner that I’m arguing so hard against this practice.
When I was paying dues, rent was $300 a month for my part of an apartment share and gas was under $2 a gallon. How the hell is a kid supposed to make it these days with apartment shares going for $700+ a month and gas at $4 a gallon?
With the economy the way it is, it’s unconscionable to ask kids to work for free. If you had “character,” you’d realize that.
Yes, violating the law and exploiting people are great character builders. By the way, you’re also a schmuck.
“While I’m a card-carrying liberal, workers-rights kind of guy,”
…. except when it comes to an industry run by liberals. Then it’s bend over. When you’re not blogging on the internet about how taxes and entitlements should be raised, you’re posting here about how people should be happy to work in Hollywood for free. You friend to the common man, you.
I was an unpaid intern way back in the day. 99% of these internships are totally useless. Nobody takes you seriously if you agree to work for free. The guy above is completely right. Being a schmuck is “character building” in the same way that being a slave was muscle building. You’re just being used by people who can afford to pay you, but take advantage of your desperation. This in an industry where most of the jobs will be shipped overseas anyway. You’re working for free to get a job that in the future will not exist. The Hollywood studio system is a failing business model. You’re much better off getting a paid job bagging groceries, and using your time and money to make films or whatever.
Great comment. It’s a shame you’re not a liberal though. You sound too wise not to be.
So who’s paying your bills? Mom and Dad just like everyone that interns.
People who can’t afford to intern never get the chance to ‘role up their sleeves and learn.’
So the reason your interns feel so ‘entitled’ is because their spoiled rich kids, not unpaid slave laborers.
When I interned in Hollywood, both between my junior and senior year, and post-graduation, my parents didn’t give me a nickel. That’s why I worked a second job. I actually SAVED up money to be an intern, by working my butt off during college (how novel?! Saving!) Incidentally, I also drove myself across the country and sublet an apartment and UCLA… all to get paid nothing.
Mommy and Daddy had nothing to do with it.
Sure, there are minions of spoiled kids, but that doesn’t preclude the rest of us from doing what it takes.
Good luck getting that “second job” Dan. I hear they’re super plentiful in this economy. When did you pull off these super human feats, 20 years ago?
It’s a shame that the ‘fear’ of not working in the industry is what’s keeping things like these lawsuits from turning into anything; there’s something inherently wrong with that. If someone or some company in this industry is doing something wrong, the fear of using the law (for external repercussions) should not stop someone from trying to rectify the situation.
It’s a reality that the entertainment industry (among other industries) abuse interns to get free labor. The right internship can be incredibly valuable to an individual (ie, a great supplement to a college education), but many of these aren’t even that. And many of them are false promises of jobs that will manifest in 3–then 6–then 9 months–then never.
Additionally, working for free limits a lot of the people who can enter into the entertainment industry as most people don’t have the families that can support them financially. Yes, there are individuals out there who work internships during the day and other jobs at night and go on 3 hours sleep to make ends meet, and I salute them. But that’s not how it should be, imagine what incredible workers those hustlers would be if they were earning an honest wage.
There’s a reason this country has labor laws and things like unemployment. Eliminate the safety net and you end up with a situation where people will undercut other people’s ‘prices’ just to get their foot in the door (often because they have the financial backing to do so) and ultimately, you end up where we are, with a mass of unpaid internships.