Does Winning An Oscar Improve Actors' Careers?

With an Oscar under their belt, Academy Award winners send out a better impression about their acting ability. But do their victories improve their careers?

The 89th Academy Awards occurred yesterday with a very memorable and much-talked about finish. The same should be said about the article by Forbes contributor J. Maureen Henderson.

She wrote about how Emma Stone and Mahershala Ali may be worse off for winning an Academy Award! Let me expound.

Henderson likened winning an Oscar to bagging the first prize in a lottery. She wrote that a study finds the lives of lottery winners to stay unchanged after a win; they find themselves working the same jobs.

In a similar way, the careers of Academy Award winners also do not change substantially. She cited Marcia Gay Harden, who won Best Supporting Actress back in 2001 for her role in "Pollock," as an example.

According to Harden, her Oscar victory had a disastrous effect on her professional career. She found that she was being offered smaller roles and lesser money.

Indeed, another study found that female Oscar winners do not receive an earnings increase with their win while male winners do, writes Henderson. According to that study, a male Oscar winner earns an 81 percent increase in his salary after winning an Academy Award, whereas female winners may find their careers freefalling.

Whether winning the Oscar itself has caused it, has not been determined. It could simply be related.

If there are any aspiring actors reading this, think carefully about whether you'd still like to chase after that statuette. Winning an Academy Award may help you if you want the world to know that you're a good actor, but if you're thinking that it will get you a pay raise, think again.

For more news, follow Jobs & Hire.

Real Time Analytics