Adelaide said, “Generally speaking, [Screen Actors Guild] minimum for a series regular on a network show is $20,000 per episode. Say I did 78 episodes on Reign; that pares out to $1.56 million for four years of work. So, assuming that I’ve made $5 million in my entire career since I started working at 16, here is how that breaks down.”
She said that her manager gets 10%, her lawyer gets 5%, and her business manager also gets 5%. She also noted that, as a non-American citizen working in the US, she paid 30% in taxes.
“So I lose 60% right off the bat, which leaves me with about $2.2 million over the last 14 years,” she explained. “Which, if you average it out, comes down to $178,000-ish a year, which would be fine, a good wage. Except I have to pay rent in major cities, sometimes two cities at once.”
Then Adelaide described some additional costs that her job requires. She said her publicist and social media team costs about $2,000 to $3,000 monthly. Per appearance, she spends $700 to $1,500 on a stylist and $1,000 on her hair and makeup team.
“Just to be clear up, every actor I know saves as much as humanly possible because most of us go for months or sometimes years at a time between jobs. And we do get residuals, but… So, I’m fine, but my savings won’t last forever, do you know what I mean?” she concluded.