Instead of filming a movie during JAG's summer break, David James Elliott wanted quality time with his family
Not all actors in Hollywood are rich and famous. A large portion are regular working actors who earn an average annual salary of $60,000 or less, playing minor parts in movies and TV shows, such as one-off or background characters. The ones winning Emmys and Oscars with million-dollar contracts represent a small portion of the industry. They are the ones who can turn down roles.
We're not saying this was the case for JAG's David James Elliott, but being on a popular show allowed him to turn down work and spend time with his family during the summer break.
According to the actor's 1998 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Elliott planned to fit in a feature film during the break but decided that spending time with his wife and daughter was more important than a movie.
"My daughter kept saying all weekend, 'I love you, Mommy.' My wife said, 'Why don't you tell Daddy that you love him?' She said, 'I don't know him very well.' I said, 'You know, I think I better not work for a while.'" This might seem like an obvious thing to do, but we're sure to his daughter, who was only five at the time, it meant the world to see her dad more since his hours working on JAG were kind of brutal.
"We work 14 to 16 hours a day on average. The later the week goes, the worse it gets. You can work 18-hour days. It wipes out the weekends because you are tired. If you work until 7 a.m. [on Saturday], you sleep all day. It's brutal and relentless," he added.