How Many Hours Do Child Actors Work?

It is possible for children to become actors and work legally the same way as adults do. Their work starts with child acting auditions and proceeds further. Let’s discuss how many hours can they devote to the filming.

Child actors and their labor

Age limits vary greatly in different regions. For instance, a lot of filming takes place in California, and the following rules apply here:

  • The child must be 15 days old so that he can work. In addition, it is illegal to work with premature babies under the age of one month.
  • Children younger than 6 months of age can have 20 working minutes a day and no more than 2 hours on the set.
  • Up to 2 years the whole time is increased to 4 hours a day, but work is still no more than 2 hours.

That’s why directors often look for twins on kidscasting.com. As two different children look the same, 2 hours of work turn into 4. Also, if one child is not in the mood, the other can take over this work. In addition, children are allowed work from 9:30 to 11:30 or from 14:30 to 16:30.

One of the parents must be present when the filming proceeds, so the child will not be left alone.

The following rules are also generally applied:

  • For the age 2-6 – 6 hours per day on set with 3 working hours.
  • From 6 to 9 there can be 4 working hours and 8 hours on set.
  • Actors aged 9 to 16 are allowed on set for 9 hours with 5 hours for work when they are studying. If there are holidays working hours are increased to 7 per day.
  • 17-year-olds have 6 hours for work and 10 on set. If it is no studying, then they can work 8 hours.

However, this does not mean that the child will play all this time. Transforming into character, preparing hair and makeup, and walking from the studio to the location are also considered work time. Thus, the more complex the appearance of the character, the less time is left for acting.

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