You’d think that landing a gig on a hit television show would ensure a steady stream of work. But for one actor from the popular “Breaking Bad” prequel and spin-off, “Better Call Saul,” his acting career did not follow that trajectory.
In a Reddit post, John Christian Love admitted that, despite his work on the successful and acclaimed show, he isn’t really living a life of Hollywood glitz and glamour. Instead, Love is now working as an Amazon delivery driver, proving that no one is really immune to this difficult job market.
In a since-viral post to the subreddit “r/AmazonDSPSDrivers,” Love posted a photo of himself in an Amazon truck wearing the uniform. In the caption of his post, he wrote, “Hey, it’s me, John Christian Love. Just want yall to know that as the actor who brought you the character “Ernesto/Ernie” in Better Call Saul, that I too am out here delivering with you.”
The fact that “Better Call Saul” was a record-holding Emmy-nominated drama series starring Bob Odenkirk as a budding attorney who transformed into the morally challenged lawyer Saul Goodman, it’s surprising that Love’s career wasn’t jump-started following his work on the show. Love appeared on the series as a former employee of the fictional Albuquerque law firm Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill, and one of McGill’s friends and former co-workers.
Love is now delivering Amazon packages. He wrote, “It sucks. But 1 delivery at a time. Be blessed out there!” In comments under his post, Love explained that he is in his current job because acting in Hollywood wasn’t as lucrative as he had hoped.
“The industry has [dried] up, I’m tired of waiting for permission, so going to start doing my own projects, but got to do something other than this because it really is killing me — I was a mail carrier, FedEx driver, UPS seasonal driver, and all of them were better — all of them sucked, don’t get me wrong, but were better than Amazon — route changes everyday, vans are crap, no culture, no real benefits, high turnover, etc,” Love confessed.
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Love’s predicament isn’t abnormal. When most people think of Hollywood actors, they just assume they’re probably making a good amount of money, but that’s just not the case.
During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, many of the actors and writers were demanding increased pay, which union members admitted had significantly diminished amid the rise of streaming services. SAG-AFTRA’s president, Fran Drescher, even pushed back on the idea that all actors are wealthy, saying that a vast majority “are just working people just trying to make a living just trying to pay their rent, just trying to put food on the table and get their kids off to school.”
“Everything that you watch, that you enjoy, that you’re entertained by are scenes filled with people that are not making the big money,” she added. In Love’s Reddit post, he even shared that while he hasn’t given up, jobs are just “slow right now.”
“Better Call Saul” wasn’t the breakout role that it should’ve been, but Love had also “did a significant film working opposite Lily Gladstone / Bryan Cranston but film ran out of money and I was never paid.”
The reality is that many actors spend years just doing side gigs and finding temporary work while trying to stay afloat between their gigs. Even with credits on acclaimed projects, finding steady employment is never fully guaranteed. The current job market isn’t exactly forgiving regardless of the industry you work in.
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Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
