Day playing is difficult. PAing in general is difficult, but the added instability and infrequency of work provides additional challenges. But on a good day, when a set is working well and you feel yourself being the grease helping all the moving parts, and the glue helping hold the whole machine together, there’s nothing like it. You have all these incredible, talented, skilled artists and craftspeople and technicians across all these different departments working under the stress of needing to make the day, and doing that one little task, or facilitating that one little adjustment, or relaying that one little piece of information that helps things click into place is genuinely rewarding. It’s cliche but being on set can genuinely feel magical sometimes.
That’s why people fight so hard for their jobs in this industry; before you know it, you’ve come to love it. And like the old saying goes: work won’t ever love you back. That’s why it’s so humbling and beautiful to see things like the cross-union solidarity for the strikes, the ECF raising funds, and the Go For PAs Alliance springing into action. And that’s why it’s so honoring to be a beneficiary of their largesse; it means that no matter what a studio boss says you’re worth, your colleague, your co-workers, or just your allies—who don’t even know you—have said “You deserve to be here. Your work is worth something. You’re a part of making this magic, and you deserve an honest living for your efforts.”