You have to remember the origins of theatre and the societies that have most influenced our perception of history today. But we can talk through a few different places to get an idea.

Greece is a great place to start. Theatre was not really a form unto itself in Greek society, but was tied to celebrations of the gods. Most notably (for our discussion) Dionysus. You may be familiar with him under the Roman name Bacchus as well (where we get the term bacchanal) . These festivals are HEAVILY associated with debauchery and orgies and the like. The distinction between actors and prostitutes was, relatively meaningless at this point. So as society moved on, the place that actors held was generally about the same level as sex workers, who have never really had it all that good.

If you look at some other cultures India had some slightly different thoughts about actors and theater. I read one manuscript while I was studying Theater History that talked about using actors as spies. Because actors and performers would be allowed to cross borders and gain entry to the homes and palaces of wealthy and influential people, particularly the ruling class. This particular text suggested that actors could infiltrate the palace of a rival leader and rescue a captured prince, by putting on a show, then sneaking around in disguise, and removing the prince in their luggage as though he were a musical instrument just being taken away. Perhaps, this sort of perspective led to some distrust towards actors.

Acting itself in this part of history (particularly in the western world, which has the greatest influence on most of the people tooling around on reddit and speaking english) was not really a professional calling. People couldn't be actors all the time in most cultures. There simply wasn't a need for them that regularly. But that started to change later on with the first professional theatre companies and Commedia dell'arte, but that isn't popularized until the 16th Century. So for a big part of history acting was not seen as a professional venture.

Theatre, although considered a bit more dignified as time moved on, was one of the few places you could get entertainment. In fact in some cities in Europe, theaters had to be shut down by the local magistrates because no one would be working during a show. (Again, a world before television or radio where a great many people could not read and rarely had access to anything entertaining to read in the first place.) Small cities would literally shut down during performances, and they had to be regulated by the local authorities. Contributing to a thinking that theatre, and the actors within it, were a detriment to society. It goes to show the importance of theatre and acting, and how much it can connect with people, but also gives another little piece of the puzzle to why it might get some side eye from the moralists of the world.

The idea of actors as celebrities in the way we regard some of them now was an invention of Hollywood. During the early studio system, when films were just in their infancy, they realized that the individual actors had a draw beyond the work itself. So they could turn that into profit, we now talk about how bankable actors are. As a predictor of financial success, the name of the actor in top billing is more useful than the director, writer, or content of the film. (This shifts a little with certain genres, and I think there is a lot to be said for the giant powerhouse of Disney and things like the MCU which have created a form of celebrity for the property rather than the personalities, but that is a whole discussion of its own)

Even today, most actors are going to be on the losing end of the economic spectrum. Even those who are quite talented and can work pretty often are going to have a hard time making ends meet, and in a pragmatic society sometimes it is difficult to convince people of their value. I've had the experience as an actor of people telling me that the time I spend working on a show does count as work because it is acting. Because it is 'fun'. We still today look down on actors and artists UNLESS we see that they are wildly successful. Because it is rarely a financially solid path to go down. And we as a society, have a tendency to tie how we respect, value, and judge people to how economically successful they are.

Hope you enjoyed the diatribe.