Jesse Tyler Ferguson remembers “being nervous” about “off-broadway” gigs because “unemployment was more” back when he was beginning as an artist in “theatre”
Ferguson recently opened up about the challenging early days of his career, when he had to choose between pursuing his passion for acting and making basic income.
Speaking with Kathy Bates on the January 14 episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast, Ferguson shared his journey of navigating financial instability while working in theater.
“I started out in theater. I got my equity card pretty easily [when] I did Shakespeare in the Park,” Ferguson, 49, recounted.
However, after the show transitioned to Broadway and ended after a few months, his career faced a slowdown, leading him to take on various odd jobs to make ends meet.
“I worked at a gift shop. I worked at coffee shops,” Ferguson remembered, describing the struggle to sustain himself during that period.
Ferguson continued to participate in theater, but the earnings were often not sufficient.
“I would do off-Broadway things. But there [were] times when the paychecks that you would make doing these off-Broadway shows were not as good as the unemployment,” he explained.
The situation forced him to make tough decisions: “I would really have to think, like, ‘Do I want to eat, or do I want to grow my artistic self and take these great parts?’ And there [were] times when I was really nervous about it.”
He highlighted the stark reality of the financial landscape in the arts, noting, “Taking work would actually mean a pay cut because my unemployment was more.”
Ferguson’s Broadway debut came with On the Town in 1998. He later gained recognition in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in 2006.
His work in Shakespeare in the Park included performances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2007), A Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice (2010), and The Tempest (2015).
