How low has Hollywood sunk? Entry-level writer jobs dry up after Trump plan, fire, strikes

Since the start of the year, Brandy Hernandez has applied to nearly 200 entertainment jobs.

The 22-year-old film school graduate said that for most of those applications, she never heard back – not even a rejection. When she did land follow-up interviews, she was almost always ghosted afterwards.

“I knew that I wouldn’t be a famous screenwriter or anything straight out of college,” said Hernandez, who graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 2024. But she thought she would at least be qualified for an entry-level film industry job.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she kept thinking.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a widespread production slowdown, the entertainment industry’s recovery has been delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes, some of the costliest wildfires in California’s history and an industry-wide contraction.

This week US President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on foreign-made films, a move intended to bring filmmaking back to the United States, including California.