NEED TO KNOW
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Erin Murphy played Tabitha Stephens from age 2 to age 8 on Bewitched
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Murphy explains how a Coogan account works and what she was able to do with her earnings from the series during a recent appearance on the Magnificent Others podcast
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Murphy, 61, also opens up about other careers she’s explored outside of acting
Erin Murphy is sharing what she did with her Bewitched earnings.
The actress, 61, talked finances during her appearance on The Magnificent Otherspodcast with Billy Corgan. After playing Tabitha Stephens on the beloved ABC series for over 100 episodes, she walked away with a decent amount of money.
“People think you get everything or nothing. The way the laws were written back then, kid actors get something, it’s called a Coogan account, where a percentage of your money from a television show or movie is put into savings,” she explained.
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“It’s only 10%. So 10% of everything I made was put into savings. My dad was an investor, so, I mean, it got the highest return. But it was 10%. The rest goes to wherever, agents or managers.”
When it came to her experience, Murphy said that 10% “was still a nice amount of money.”
“When I turned 21, I bought a house, bought a horse, lived on a little ranch, married, started having a family. Then, Arizona, I think, still is, but was called a right-to-work state where you don’t have to be in a union to do different careers. So that’s where I started teaching acting. I thought, ‘Oh, this will be fun.’ So I started teaching acting. I was able to be a makeup artist on big sets and work with Italian Vogue and things like that.”
Murphy also pursued stunt work after an opportunity presented itself.
“Stunt work was kinda thrown at me because they were filming an HBO movie with Virginia Madsen, and they needed someone. She couldn’t drive a stick shift. I love cars. I could drive a stick shift. So, I don’t really look like her, but I guess enough where, you know, blonde from a distance. So, that was the first thing where I was doing stunt work,” she shared.
“Then I got called in to do other things like some horse stunts and things like that because I like to live life without fear. So if, you know, they say, ‘Erin, jump off that.’ It’s like, ‘Well, okay.’ “
In a recent interview, Murphy touched on whether she’d ever consider a Bewitched reboot.
Addressing the fact that there’s allegedly a reboot in the “early stages” of development, per Deadline, Murphy told New Idea, “If they asked me to appear on the show, absolutely I would! I’d love to be included in some way, and I know fans of the original Bewitched would enjoy that fun reference to the past.”
Murphy, who acted in over 100 episodes of the original, added that she’s “excited” about the possibility of a new Bewitched and also shared that she’s a friend of the reboot’s writer.
Read the original article on People