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The debate continues about the harsh realities that South African entertainers have to face.
Celebrities such as Minnie Dlamini, Kgomotso Christopher and DJ Fresh have been weighing in on the conversation about the SA entertainment industry's shortcomings.
Now, Lockdown actress Patricia Boyer has also voiced her concerns, revealing that she couldn't survive on her acting salary alone.
Boyer, who's been in the industry for 30 years, tells YOU that she's long accepted that acting would only ever be a hobby rather than a full-time career.
When she's not in front of the TV cameras, she does performance coaching on Rhythm City. She also offers one-on-one acting coaching to prepare other actors for TV or film roles – all in a bid to survive.
"I've often had to survive on savings and sometimes sadly one doesn't have any savings to survive on," Patricia tells us.
"I've always done other work besides acting. That's a reality for most actors around the world.
"Can you survive just as an actor? No, you can't. You need to be doing other things all the time."
She's worked on Soap on a Rope, Jacob's Cross, Intersexions, and many other TV shows. One of her biggest frustrations is seeing repeats of many of these shows are on Netflix, but the actors aren't getting a single cent from it.
"The thing that'll help is repeat fees because I'm watching Intersexions. I see now it's on Netflix – who got paid for that?
"We don't have anything that's supporting us as artists during the national lockdown. Everyone's watching repeat shows of themselves and enjoying it but we don't have UIF, we don't have anything. We don't even have the basic workers' rights," she says.
This has been the experience of many within the entertainment industry.
Although she's hopeful it might change, Patricia says young actors have to face the truth about acting as a career choice – for most, it's not the flashy lifestyle they'd imagined.
