{"id":383745,"date":"2026-04-17T05:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383745\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:51:10","slug":"marvel-star-kirk-acevedo-reveals-harsh-reality-of-hollywoods-squeezed-middle-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383745\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel star Kirk Acevedo reveals harsh reality of Hollywood\u2019s \u2018squeezed\u2019 middle class"},"content":{"rendered":"

An actor who has featured in some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest franchises has revealed the harsh reality of being part of the industry\u2019s \u201cmiddle class\u201d who are constantly being \u201csqueezed out\u201d by Tinseltown\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

Kirk Acevedo, who has starred on Marvel\u2019s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Insidious: The Last Key, said that since the pandemic, roles have been far and few and he\u2019s had to sell his house just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

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\u201c2021 comes, and I\u2019m up for some TV shows; it just goes one way, this way, and that would have saved me. That would\u2019ve saved me. That doesn\u2019t work, and I keep coming in second place, and the reality is second place, you\u2019re the first one to lose,\u201d he said during a recent appearance on Ryan M. Perez\u2019s podcast An Actor Despairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I went from working non-stop, to now I got to sell my house. I got to sell my house, and everyone\u2019s going through this. I have so many friends, people you know, actors you know, that had to sell their houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 54-year-old actor believes that a shift away from movies in favour of TV and smaller projects from big-name stars has created an increasingly competitive industry, with little-known actors further pushed to the side. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn TV now, all the movie stars \u2013 since there\u2019s no more films, not the way it used to be \u2013 they\u2019re all in TV,\u2019 Acevedo said. \u201cEvery Oscar winner is doing some eight to 10 to 13-episode show multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m competing with Oscar winners. It\u2019s like, \u2018OK, should we pay Kirk his quote, or this guy that was nominated for an Oscar seven, eight, 10 years ago?\u2019 See the problem?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe middle class, like in any economy, in any country, the middle class always gets squeezed out and we\u2019re getting squeezed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Acevedo said that if they are booked for a role, some actors are only getting paid \u201chalf\u201d or a \u201cthird\u201d of their previous quotes. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot survive,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s say you do 10 guest spots \u2026 That\u2019s $100,000, right? You have an agent and manager. So, we take 20 per cent out. That\u2019s $80,000. We got taxes, too \u2026 $45,000. Let\u2019s say your rent is \u2026 let\u2019s go on the low side, we won\u2019t even go on the high side, say $3,000. That\u2019s pretty low. That\u2019s $36,000. Can you survive off of 10 episodes? You could if you\u2019re just starting out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian actress Tammin Sursok knows all too well what Acevedo means by coming \u201csecond place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Tammin<\/p>\n

In an emotional Instagram video shared last week<\/a>, the former Home And Away star revealed that she was once again overlooked for a TV role, which she tearfully said has become the story of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got word I didn\u2019t get an acting job that I was down to the wire for, the lead in a TV show. This happens a lot,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cThe amount of times it\u2019s been like me and another girl \u2013 my whole career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just harder than you think,\u201d she continued as tears rolled down her face. \u201cAnd people think like, \u2018Oh just get on a show or get on, like, do a film.\u2019 It\u2019s not that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for me it\u2019s always down to the last two.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An actor who has featured in some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest franchises has revealed the harsh reality of being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[85,2652,199215,62750,430,172255,199214,156,199212,9499,199213,199209,199208,198735,199207,70468,199210,97579,2648,111,139,69,2659,155785,199206,199216,199211,1734,193242],"class_list":{"0":"post-383745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-australian-actress","11":"tag-big-name-stars","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-christine-salazar","14":"tag-despairs","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-entertainment-content","17":"tag-getty-images-inc","18":"tag-guest-spots","19":"tag-harsh-reality","20":"tag-kiersten-warren","21":"tag-kirk-acevedo","22":"tag-little-known-stars","23":"tag-mariska-hargitay","24":"tag-marvel-star","25":"tag-movie-stars","26":"tag-new-south-wales","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-oceania","31":"tag-peter-gallagher","32":"tag-ryan-m-perez","33":"tag-show-multiple-times","34":"tag-star-rants","35":"tag-sydney","36":"tag-tammin-sursok"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}