{"id":1247979,"date":"2025-03-23T16:28:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T16:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1247979"},"modified":"2025-03-23T16:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T16:28:32","slug":"celeste-gay-struggling-actress-posted-a-video-about-being-broke-at-57-the-internet-embraced-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/celeste-gay-struggling-actress-posted-a-video-about-being-broke-at-57-the-internet-embraced-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Celeste Gay: Struggling actress posted a video about being broke at 57. The internet embraced her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n You probably don\u2019t know who Celeste Gay is. That isn\u2019t at all what she planned.\n <\/p>\n

\n An aspiring actress, Gay isn\u2019t chasing fame, but she also isn\u2019t running from it. So far she has gotten the biggest exposure not onscreen but by being herself \u2014 and sharing a resonant tale, filled with pain and regret, of how she quit her job a few years ago and moved to Atlanta to break into movies and TV.\n <\/p>\n

\n Gay envisioned herself working on screens both big and small, bolstered by the buzz of the city that\u2019s been dubbed \u201cBlack Hollywood.\u201d Instead, she found herself in her car on a dreary day during her lunch break last month, emotionally sharing her tale on YouTube to her 42 subscribers. She titled it \u201c57 and Broke.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt has been really tough for me because of some decisions that I have made that I regret making,\u201d she said in the video, clearing her throat. \u201cI always talk about Atlanta and I feel like when I left my corporate job making a good salary and decided to chase a dream, thinking everything would fall into place, things would be in order, my life blew up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of her rope, Gay recorded the emotional video to be transparent about her situation and the mistakes she\u2019s made. She quickly found out she\u2019s not alone. Her clip earned her more than half a million views and an outpouring of support, <\/strong>and she now has more than 21,000 subscribers on YouTube.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt just kind of knocked me over like a tidal wave,\u201d she told celebrity.land of the response. \u201cI didn\u2019t think all this was going to happen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Her newfound viral fame is not the first time Gay has been knocked off her feet.\n <\/p>\n

\n Growing up in Tennessee, Gay did everything right.\n <\/p>\n

\n She majored in journalism and theater at Tennessee State University, got a master\u2019s degree in business administration and marketing, and landed a job in Washington, DC, as an editor.\n <\/p>\n

\n But she never got over the acting bug she caught in the sixth grade after appearing in a play.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI always loved acting, but I was trying to be a \u2018quote unquote responsible adult,\u2019 get the 9 to 5 job, have the benefits, save for the 401k,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t satisfied.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n By her early fifties Gay was twice divorced, child-free and working as a program manager at FedEx in Memphis. It was a \u201cgood job,\u201d she says \u2014 she managed a sales team, earned about $80k a year and had benefits many people would envy.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it wasn\u2019t enough for the woman with stars in her eyes. Gay began to consider leaving this stability behind to pursue a career in acting. She says more than a few people tried to talk her out of it.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cMy manager said at the time, \u2018Let\u2019s think about it \u2014 reconsider,\u2019 and I was like \u2018No, this is calling me. This is what I believe I\u2019m supposed to do. This is my time,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe was a great manager and he understood. I did have a few other people say \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Yes, I\u2019m sure.\u2019 And I left. I packed up and I left.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Gay felt confident that success awaited her in Atlanta, where many movies and TV series are filmed.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBefore I went I had a conversation with a younger actress and kind of talked to her about my plans,\u201d Gay told celebrity.land. \u201cI asked that exact question \u2014 do you think at my age, with my gray hair, I could get parts? And she did say that there (in Atlanta), because of my age bracket, I would have opportunities.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The universe seemed like it was making a way for her.\n <\/p>\n

\n A friend in Memphis connected her with a non-acting job opportunity in Atlanta that she said was \u201cright up her alley\u201d and everything seemed aligned for her to get it. Then, Gay says, she \u201cself-sabotaged.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI said, you know what, I can\u2019t do this job,\u201d she said in her video. \u201cI\u2019m going to be acting. I don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll need (time) off \u2026 I made an excuse because I\u2019m thinking it\u2019s going to be ok.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But in Atlanta, the lucrative acting jobs didn\u2019t come.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instead, Gay tried to make a living by delivering for DoorDash and working the overnight shift at Walmart.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI did everything I could,\u201d she said in her video, her voice cracking with emotion. \u201cI also ended up withdrawing my pension and my retirement because I just didn\u2019t have enough money. And this is not how I expected things to go. I really didn\u2019t, because I\u2019d always landed on my feet and this is the first time I had not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n After a year Gay finally landed a steady job, but she quit because her manager didn\u2019t like the fact that she was pursuing acting. She left to work in an Amazon warehouse, something she enjoyed and that she felt helped her get back on her feet.\n <\/p>\n

\n But her housing in Atlanta also became an issue. After living with a roommate for more than a year Gay decided to move into an apartment on her own. She soon discovered it was infested with cockroaches.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cI thought, \u2018OK, maybe this is a fluke, I\u2019m seeing a few, they exterminated, the place has been empty awhile,\u2019 but no,\u201d she said in her video. \u201cIn my bedroom I would try to cover the door so they wouldn\u2019t get in, it didn\u2019t matter. They got in. I woke up one morning and there were some crawling up the wall, and I thought, \u2018I can\u2019t do this.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n All the while Gay was auditioning for roles, which any actor will tell you is fraught with rejection. The odds in Hollywood are specially stacked against older women. According to a 2019 Screen Actors Guild study<\/a>, 37% of all male actors cast in films and TV shows the year prior were 40 or older, compared to only 24% of female actors. When it came to lead roles, the disparity was even greater. <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Gay said she did land a few commercials, including ones for USAA, Hallmark and Capital One, as well as roles in a some short and independent films and the television movie, \u201cA Nashville Legacy.\u201d But after not working for a year and being hit with a major tax bill from cashing out her retirement savings, she was deep in debt.\n <\/p>\n

\n It all became too much for her and she decided to move back to Memphis, but not before making one more questionable decision \u2014 passing up on a remote, full-time job that would have employed her on contract for two years.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI decided not to work remote,\u201d she said. \u201cI regretted that, because I\u2019m thinking I\u2019ll go back to my old company. That did not happen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But if you are feeling sorry for Gay, wondering how she got it so wrong or even a mixture of both \u2014 understand that she is right there with you.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was just that complex mix of feelings that led her to sit in her car on a rainy afternoon in February, filming her now-viral video. Gay told celebrity.land she felt \u201cmixed emotions\u201d about the emotionally raw clip.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEven though I recorded it and I made myself do it right then because I was feeling it in the moment, I came home and listened to it and I thought, \u2018OK Celeste, put it up,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it was a mix of being conscious of how embarrassed I was, and even after I posted, I thought, \u2018Should I take this down?\u2019 But I felt better after doing it. Honestly, I actually felt a lot lighter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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