Ceslie Armstrong

Dennis Quaid, @McConaughey, and @WoodyHarrelson dropped by the State Capitol last week! Why did these three Texas-born actors come to the Capitol? Because they support my initiative to make Texas the Film Capital of the World. We are not trying to make Texas the next Hollywood – we don’t like Hollywood. We want to export Texas values. After a long dinner meeting with Taylor Sheridan in 2023, we dramatically increased our film incentives. Based on the new incentives, Taylor moved virtually all his productions to Texas. Small towns in Texas suddenly had movie crews and millions of dollars spent in their economy. Fort Worth has become an active movie set almost every week. And, according to the Texas Film Commission records, for every dollar invested in the incentives, Texas received $4 of new money into our economy. That is in addition to the significant sales tax, hotel tax, and gas tax they spend producing their shows in Texas. This session, we are going to increase our incentives once again to achieve our goal of Texas becoming the #1 filming location in America and in the world. Texas has every type of town for every era and every landscape, so no movie has to go anywhere else to shoot. And, we are creating new courses in our colleges to teach Texas students who want to enter the film industry. So that everyone understands, the incentives do not go to actors, producers, writers, or directors. It goes to all the people who work behind the scenes, including those who build the sets, those who haul the equipment needed to film, the makeup artists, the electricians, etc. On any given large shoot, hundreds of people are employed with minimum salaries that start near $50,000 for the newest person learning their trade. On Wednesday evening, I hosted an event for Senate and House members to hear from these Texas-born actors to learn about the movie and television industry and how we can become the #1 producer of films, television shows, and commercials in the world. #txlege