Whether they are working on stage or screen, successful actors spend a lot of time away from home, so do actors stay in hotels?
The answer is usually, yes actors do stay in hotels when they are performing. But there are quite a few variables to this answer.
Do Movie Actors Stay in Hotels?
Movie scenes can be filmed everywhere from large and famous film studios through to everyday streets and landscapes on location.
If it’s a very low budget filmmaking project with little money to spend on hotels, actors may stay in a shared rented apartment or with friends. This is especially true where the actor is working for free.
However, if it’s a big budget film with a star cast, the actor will be given an entire hotel suite for themselves and their visiting family. They’ll also be flown around the world to attend film festivals for the movies they appear in.
For most professional actors, a few days in a hotel room is sufficient to cover the filming schedule for the scenes their character appears in.
All the crew will stay too, usually in the same hotel.
Because the production team books accommodation for both cast and crew, they’ll negotiate a discount.
Plus, it makes it easier for the transport department to co-ordinate cars, vans and drivers to pick up and drop off cast and crew according to the call sheets and production schedules.
Do Voice Actors Stay in Hotels?
Voice acting for drama, commercials or rerecording film and TV scenes is often a faster process than filming. Plus, there are usually few numbers of cast and crew.
Recording studios are often located in the national centres of the entertainment, where most actors live and work.
Consequently, the recording studios are normally close to the actor’s own home, in which case a car will be sent to collect them for the day or they’ll be given instructions of where to arrive.
Do Actors Stay in Hotels for Commercials?
Commercials are recorded over a number of days, sometimes weeks.
Although commercial productions tend to have good budgets, they are often filmed in Eastern European countries, where many of the production costs and accommodation costs are much lower.
There’s enough of a saving to pay for the flights for actors and essential production staff, and to justify the difficulties of getting children licenced for overseas work.
So naturally actors stay in hotels when they are flown abroad for commercial work.
In the UK too, they stay in hotels, with a car sent to pick them up for the early morning start.
Do Theatre Actors Stay in Hotels?
If theatre actors are performing at a stage in their home town, then they can stay at home. Also, because their performances start in the afternoon or evening, they don’t need an early morning driver and therefore can arrive by themselves.
But many theatre actors do tours around the country or abroad.
A famous, well paid actor may stay in a decent hotel or apartment while they are on tour. Or local arrangements may be made for them to be a paid guest in a spacious and comfortable family home.
Most theatre actors aren’t paid much and their accommodation is far from glamorous. They will often share cheap hotel rooms with other actors on the tour.
Child actors on tour or working away from their home town must be accompanied by a chaperone, who stays in the same hotel.
Is Staying in a Hotel Glamorous?
Staying in a hotel as a working actor sounds glamorous, but the reality is different.
Hotels can be noisy places, with the noise of other guests in the rooms above and to the side, as well as people walking down the corridors slamming doors. Some people have difficulty sleeping deeply in an unfamiliar bed.
Plus, actors and crew have early starts to the working day. When you know your driver is arriving before most people are awake, and you must be fully dressed and downstairs to meet the car for a long working day, it can disturb your sleep during the night before.
It’s not a holiday, so it isn’t as glamorous for actors to stay in a hotel as it may seem.