1: Help actors find acting work

2: Help negotiate actor compensation

Talent agents usually have to be licensed by the state in which he/she works. To find out if talent agents must be licensed in your state, or to find out if a particular agent is licensed, contact your state's Department of Labor office and ask.

An agent can work as one of several agents as an employee within an agency. An agent can also be in partnership with one or more other agents or be self-employed.

Agents do NOT hire actors. Agents promote the actors they work with, submit their photos and résumés to casting directors, directors and producers and arrange auditions with casting directors, directors and producers for possible acting work.

If an actor secures the acting work, the agent receives an agreed upon percentage of the actor's pay (called a commission) as payment for the agent's services.

In some cases an agent might receive a flat fee from a producer upon acceptance of an agent's actor for acting work. This is usually done for "background" work, popularly known as "extra" work. This form of payment might be negotiated between an agent and a producer in other circumstances, but the actor is not likely to know about these payment arrangements. Actors should not pay an agent a commission for background work.

Earlier, we briefly mentioned "franchised" agents in association with the various actor unions. What is a franchised agent? A franchised agent is one who has signed a special franchise agreement with one or more of the actor unions. This agreement allows the agent to represent actors who are union members.

Agents with a union franchise agreement must follow specific rules when representing a performer who is a member of the franchising union.

Union actors agree to only be represented by a franchised agent. Union actors also must agree to only do work that is produced under a union contract.

A franchised agent can also handle non-union actors. Most often, agents earn more when their talent perform in union work. So why would they bother with lower paying non-union work too? In many cities, there isn't enough union work available on a regular basis, but there is ample non-union work (like modeling) to keep one or more agency in business. There might also only be a few agencies in such small markets. So agents handle non-union work as-well-as the available union work.

Generally speaking, you do not have to join a union unless you are hired for a union job. Union pay is much better than non-union pay and you will get benefits and some work environment controls that prevent directors and producers from making slaves of you. A franchised agent can refer you to these better jobs.

Franchised agents are required under their franchise agreement to conduct their business with you in certain ways. This gives you, the performer, a certain level of protection and an outlet to register grievances.

Why do the studios and producers use the more expensive union actors and go through franchised agents? Two words: Professionalism, Accountability.

There are work rules that union actors must abide by. A union actor who does not abide by these rules can cost the producer lots of money in delays and missed schedules. Unions are in a position to discipline members who do not abide by these rules. This provides producers some level of assurance that the union actor will show up for the contracted work, on time and prepared to do the job. Agents who represent actors who do not abide by the rules can be sued for the additional production expenses.

Non-union or non-represented actors increase a producer's financial risk. Producers have no recourse for recouping financial losses if a non-union, non-represented actor shows up late or fails to show up at all for a shoot or causes other unnecessary delays.

For major roles in big, expensive, Hollywood-style feature films, commercials, Broadway shows and other high-cost productions, union actors contracted through franchised agents make producers feel a bit more relaxed and financially secure.

If you hope one day to get lead roles in the big time, joining a union and signing with a franchised agent is important.

Of course being represented by a franchised agent is no guarantee that you will be treated fairly, respectfully or that you will not encounter questionable or illegal behavior. Licensing does not guarantee nice behavior. However being represented by a franchised agent is much better than no assurances at all and if you encounter bad or illegal behavior from a franchised agent, you have a formal outlet for complaints.

If you live in a relatively small entertaiment market, the one or two franchised agents in your area probably also handle the non-union work available. In this situation, you might be asked to sign with the agent under a General Service Agreement. A GSA is different than a union contract. Your status with the agent would be the same as if the agent were a non-franchised agent.

If you are not a member of an actor union, you will deal with franchised agents who also handle non-union work or you will deal with non-franchised agents who do not have a franchise agreement and are unable to handle union work.

There is a lot of professional non-union work available. Although the compensation is usually less than professional union work, non-union work gives non-union actors opportunities to work and develop their skills. This gives non-union actors valuable experience, professional résumé credits, and a source of income.

If you accept agent representation for non-union work, you will be asked to sign a General Service Agreements (GSA). A GSA is not the same as a union contract. Under a GSA you might:

• pay a higher commission to the agent
• be required to sign exclusively with the agent
• pay commissions on all work you do, even work you do outside of the agent's specialty
• pay a number of expenses that union actors do not pay such as travel, wardrobe, meal and accomodation expenses
• work long hours without adequate breaks or overtime compensation
• have no way to cancel the contract if the agent does not do an adequate job
• be charged extra fees.

If you are asked to sign a GSA you should take the contract home and read through it carefully. You should also seriously consider spending a few hundred dollars and have a lawyer with experience in entertainment law look over the contract and explain the terms to you. If the agent objects or pressures you to sign right away by suggesting it is a standard agreement or that they will withdraw their offer, you should not work with that agent.

If you work under a non-union agreement, you will have little recourse if things do not work out as they should. You can sue the agent, but that will take a lot of personal time, trouble and expense. It is far better to understand the specifics of a GSA before you sign then to suffer the consequences of naive, ignorance.

Before you start submitting your photo and résumé willy-nilly to every agent in your agent contact file, there are a few things you will need to know. You should know that you will not get an agent simply because you are talented and have a good résumé. This is important to learn. Learn it. It seperates the "new guys" from the professionals.

You will not get an agent simply because you are talented and have a good résumé.

There. Now you've read it twice. Got it? So when you start looking for an agent, don't let me hear any whining about "I'm talented. I got a good résumé. They gotta sign me. Golly why won't they sign me? They won't even see me. They gotta sign me, right Pops? They gotta sign me, right?" and stuff like that. Cause I told ya, see! I told ya it wouldn't be easy, right? Didn't I tell ya? Darn right I told ya. So don't stand there cryin' and snivellin', and messin' up the rug. Cause ya should 'a known. Cause ya been told. Twice even!

Sorry. Maybe a bit over the top, but you get the point. Talent and a good résumé aren't enough (They certainly help, though!) Acting is a business. People go into businesses because they hope to earn a living doing something they like and are good at doing. Agents are people who are in the business of getting actors cast in roles. Why do agents do this? Plain and simple, agents want to earn a living. They have other reasons for doing what they do, but earning a living is the major one. They accomplish their goal when the talent they agree to represent, people like you, successfully secure paid acting work. The agent then earns a percentage (10% - 20% depending upon the market and the type of agent) of the actor's earnings.

Notice that you, the talent, have a rather major role to play in an agent's financial success. If an agent does not represent actors who successfully secure a significant amount of paid acting work, the agent can't earn a living; can't pay the mortgage, the car payment, the cellular phone bill, the butcher bill, the heat, electric or water bills; can't pay the office help, the copy machine repair person, the breakdown service fee, the furniture payment, the postage machine fee; can't buy christmas presents, the club membership, the fancy dinners out and the tickets for the theatre. They can't pay for all the other personal and business expenses that keep an agent happy, healthy, respected, and loved by one and all.

So if agents want to be successful, they need to represent actors who can successfully secure a significant amount of paid acting work. Agents are always on the lookout for new talent (that's you) to help them maintain their success. To help them maintain their supply of bankable actors.

When you start contacting agents, you will question the truthfulness of the above statement "agents are always on the lookout for new talent." The indifference you encounter will make it seem as if agents have no interest at all in new talent. Even in small towns with only one or two agents, it will seem as if they really have no interest in new talent. Trust me. They really are interested in new talent. They are always interested in new talent. The problem is that there are oodles and oodles of talented, competent actors more than willing to do whatever they can to successfully secure paid acting work. Every week agents get hundreds of solicitations from eager, unrepresented actors. It is no wonder their enthusiasm for each and every one seems a bit restrained. There is only so much of a good thing they can handle at any given time.

Another reason agents may seem indifferent to you is that they have established relationships with the talent they already represent. These relationships have been built over time and are mutually beneficial. They know what their existing talent can do and depend on them to competently and consistently get the work done. When actors get the work done, agents get paid and can earn a living. The first time they glance at your photo and résumé, you are unknown to them. You have no track record with them; no proven earning power. Since you have contributed nothing to their ability to earn a living, it is no great surprise that the amount of time and energy they devote to your submission will be minimal.

A Chance for New Talent:

• moves to a different market area
• stops acting to pursue other things
• develops personal problems that make them difficult to deal with and less employable
• becomes dissatisfied with their current agent and switches to another
• no longer fits the types the agent handles
• switches to other agents who can better enhance their careers
• becomes infirmed or dies

Besides changing agent/actor relationships, agents might seek new talent when:

• there are more roles to be cast than the agents have available in their existing talent pool
• their current actors are unavailable
• a part does not pay enough to interest one of their current actors
• a part is not right for any of their current actors
• a new actor is recommended by someone whose judgment the agents trusts
• agents are impressed with an actor's skill, personality and accomplishments and wants to help an actor build a career

Of course you are not likely to know when one of the above circumstances might lead an agent to actively seek new talent to represent. You might, through your personal contacts, get some timely information about an agent who is actively seeking new talent, but more than likely, you will not have such information. What do you do? You do what almost every actor in the world does to get an agent - you assemble the things you need to launch your agent search.

What You Need Is:

1. money to fund your agent search
2. to find out who the agencies and agents are in the geographic area you want to work
3. to find out if they are experienced and successful, new and inexperienced, or frauds and con artists
4. to build a high Personal Zeal Ranking (PZR)
5. a photo
6. a résumé
7. an information storage and retrieval system
8. appropriate clothing
9. audition material
10. determination, persistence, and the ability to endure rejection with a smile

You need money to fund your agent search:

You need a dependable source of income. The materials you must purchase will cost hundreds of dollars. These expenses are on-going. Unless you have someone paying your living expenses you need to pay for your food, housing, utilities and other living expenses while you search for an agent and acting work. These expenses can easily be a thousand dollars a month or more.

If you need a job to support yourself, it has to be a job that is flexible enough to allow you to take off and go to an audition at a moments notice.

Agents will not find work for you if you have possible conflicts with a work schedule. They are not concerned with your work schedule. They will find someone else who can do the job. When you interview with an agent, you must tell them you have no work conflicts at all. None. And of course, you must make sure you get to the auditions and jobs at the appointed time, no matter what. If you are not dependable, your agent will drop you.

No it doesn't seem nice. Agents and producers should be more understanding, right? Wrong!!! Acting is a business, remember? Agents spend their time, money and effort finding work for actors. Why would they spend their time finding work for someone who might not show up, or whose boss asked them to do overtime? They won't. They'll spend their resources finding work for someone else. Producers need actors to be there. If you can't be there when they need you to be there, they'll find someone who will be there. That's the business. No one cares about your work conflicts at the grocery store.

You need to find out who the agencies and agents are in the geographic area you want to work:

This is why you are developing a contact file. To locate all the agents in your geographic area. What if you don't have any agents near you? What if you don't live near a large acting market like LA, New York or near smaller markets like San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago or Washington D.C.? Can you develop a long distance relationship with an agent - like over the internet? Or through the mail?

Agents are where the high paying work is. If there are no agents within several hundred miles of you, then there isn't enough high paying acting work in your area to support an agent or two. An agent would not be interested in reperesenting an actor who has to travel several hundred miles to attend a 5 minute audition and later travel several hundred miles more to get to a one shot, 5 hour acting job. It would not be worth the time and money to the agent or the actor. An agent would refer the audition to a performer who is closer to the action.

It is possible to expand your range of exposure a bit to take advantage of regional acting opportunities. Many actors prepare demo tapes which they send to agents, casting directors and directors to view. For instance, say an actor lives in Argo, Texas and has an agent in Dallas (130 miles or so away). And say a Hollywood movie will be partially filmed in Dallas and the Hollywood producer wants to use local talent (it's cheaper) for some small, speaking roles. The Dallas agent might send the Argo actor's demo tape, photo and résumé to the casting director, who might fly into Dallas to audition actors or might simply cast from the demo tape.

However, generally speaking, actors who live more than several hundred miles away from an agent will have to move closer to a market where there are agents, not depend on agents in order to get acting work, or get into the agent business themselves.

You need to find out if the agents are experienced and successful, new and inexperienced, or frauds and con artists:

See the section about scams in the Appendices.

You need to build a high Personal Zeal Ranking (PZR):

Your Personal Zeal Ranking is the amount of interest and devotion casting people and other people in the industry exhibit toward you and to your goal to succeed as an actor; their desire to represent you; their desire to get the director to audition you; their desire to give you the part; their desire to get you into auditions and to work with you on production after production.

We will get into the details about PZR later.

You need a photo:

You need lots of photos; tons of photos; an endless supply of photos. Agents use these photos to send to casting directors who are requesting information on performers who might fit certain rolls they are trying to fill. We will get into details about photos later.

You need a résumé:

The résumé is an important document. It is used for a lot of things: It shows your experience and training; it reminds the casting people who you are after you leave the audition; it is your first opportunity to sell your performance skills and talents to someone who is hoping you are the one they are looking for; it is the instrument that can motivate someone to call you in for an audition. We'll get into details about résumés later.

You need an information storage and retrieval system:

Imagine you are in New York. You have a few names of agents you have heard about or maybe even contacted before you made the big move. Maybe things worked out well, and you are now being represented by "J. B. Jerkamonis, Theatrical Agent Extraordinaire." So on Monday morning J.B. calls you...

"Hey baby, I got an audition for you, in three hours. Be there..." and he gives you the lowdown.

Great! Fabulous! Whoopdeedo! So you don something from your extensive auditioning wardrobe, and off you go to fame and fortune.

You do the audition.

You were great.

The casting director says that they'll get back to you in a week or two.

Of course, being a wise actress, you know that nothing is real until you get the contract signed, so....

On Tueasday morning J.B. calls you. "Hey baby, I got an audition for you, 3 o'clock. Be there..." and he gives you the lowdown...

Excellent! So you don something from your extensive auditioning wardrobe, and off you go to fame.

You do the audition.

You were great.

The casting director says that they'll get back to you in a week or two.

Of course, being a wise actress, you know that nothing is real until you get the contract signed, so....

On Wednesday morning J.B. calls you. "Hey baby, I got an audition for you, tomorrow. Be there..." and he gives you the lowdown...

Oh boy! So you don something from your extensive auditioning wardrobe, and off you go to another audition.

You do the audition.

You were great.

The casting director says that they'll get back to you in a week or two.

Of course, being a wise actress, you know that nothing is real until you get the contract signed, so....

A week later on Friday morning J.B. calls you. "Hey baby, I got an audition for you, 7 tonight. Be there..." and he gives you the lowdown...

OK! So you don something from your extensive auditioning wardrobe, and off you go to yet another audition.

You do the audition.

You were great.

The casting director says that they'll get back to you in a week or two.

Of course, being a wise actress, you know that nothing is real until you get the contract signed, so....

A week after that on Wednesday afternoon J.B. calls you. "Hey baby, I got an audition for you, noon. Be there..." and he gives you the lowdown...

That's nice. So you don something from your extensive auditioning wardrobe, and off you go to - you guessed it, yet another audition.

You do the audition.

You were great.

The casting director says that they'll get back to you in a week or two.

Of course, being a wise actress, you know that nothing is real until you get the contract signed, so....

And on and on and on and on...This is the acting life, baby.

Until suddenly, after two months being represented by J. B. Jerkamonis, you get a call from J.B. "Hey baby, they loved ya!"

"They loved me? They loved me!!! Who loved me?"

"That audition you went to three weeks ago. They loved you. They want you to read again. Gonna have the director there this time. Just do what you did before. You'll knock 'em dead."

"Do what I did before? What did I do before? What did I read? Who was there? What did I wear? What was my hair style then? Was that before I highlighted it or after? That was three weeks ago. I must have gone to 20 auditions since then. I can't remember!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Why didn't I have a record keeping system?"

Well, you do have one. Your contact file. You should keep track of audition details using your trusty index card system.

Use one card for each contact, audition, role you played, whatever. Write the details on the card. The who, what, where, how, of whatever you need to remember about that audition, or lunch meeting, or interview or contact or performance, or whatever.

Put those little, colored tabs on heading cards and arrange your cards (your career history) by catagory and date so you can find what you need when you need it (which will always be a lot longer than you thought you would ever have to remember it).

Do this. If you don't, the little horror story written above, will become... YOUR LIVING NIGHTMARE! HA! HA! HA! HA HA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!.

You need appropriate clothing:

Let's make believe that you are an agent. You have scheduled an appointment to meet an actress who's talent you hope will make you a lot of money. At the appointed hour, the actress arrives dressed in dirty sneakers, sweat pants with a hole in the knee and a tank top. Her hair is a mess and she has earphones glued to her ears.

Is this someone you are inclined to spend time and energy and money on to help launch a career? Is this person serious about acting as a profession? Is this how she'll show up to auditions?

When attending agent meetings, you do not have to dress in formal business attire. But do dress in nice fitting, clean, stylish attire. Have well-groomed hair and, for females, a modest amount of street make-up.

You need audition material:

If you were a commercial artist, you would carry a portfolio of your work around with you to clients or job prospects; to show your skills and abilities, your creativity and competence.

If you were a print model, you would show a portfolio of the ads you've appeared in and photos of your different "looks."

As an actor, your portfolio is you. Usually in the here and now, although audition tapes and even the internet are used. You must be prepared to show off what you can do. Usually, an agent will want you to perform one or more of your prepared monologs. You might also be asked to perform a cold reading.

Cold Readings:

A cold reading is reading from a script without having memorized the lines and perhaps never having seen the script before. You will be given part of a script (called a "side" ), some background information and some time to analyze the script and make some decisions about what you will do. You may look at your script to become familiar with it, but do not waste time trying to memorize it.

In the brief time you have to analyze the side, strive to understand the gist of the scene. You are not expected to memorize the lines. Look up from the script as much as possible. You are supposed to be acting not reading. Run your thumb down the side of the page to keep your place.

When deciding what actions to play, limit your actions to only those that are absolutely necessary to convey the dramatic effect. Avoid meaningless gestures. Use your face muscles. Be expressive. Be reactive. Especially with your eyes. Because you are auditioning in an office, your facial expressions and actions should be more normal - not big and broad like they would be for a big stage performance - unless you were auditioning for an agent who books big stage productions in which your actions must be seen 100 feet or more to the back row. Use a natural voice that is appropriate for the character and the action unless you were auditioning for an agent who books big stage productions in which your voice must carry 100 feet or more to the back row.

Make choices about a few intentions appropriate to your character in the scene. Then play them. Make choices about a persona for the character - then play them (make choices that are consistent with your type).

Don't hold back. Give it all you've got. This is no time to be shy or wishey-washey.

Monologs:

Besides cold readings, the agent might ask you to perform a prepared monolog. A monolog (or monologue) is a performance in which one actor speaks alone. The performance can last for less than a minute or go as long as several hours (as when one does a one-person [solo] performance).

For auditions, a monolog is usually one to three minutes in length. Frequently, auditioners are requested to perform two "contrasting" monologs. Example: a comedic monolog to contrast with a tragic monolog; a monolog with lots of energy, movement and a highly animated character to contrast with a monolog with low energy, not much movement and a lifeless character.

When auditioning for an agent, you will almost always perform monologs from contemporary scripts (one from the mid 1900's to present day) unless the agent represents actors trained to perform classical works (ancient Greek up to the early 1900's). Do not perform a classical monolog as an audition piece for an agent unless requested to do so.

Where do you find monologs? In books of monologs. Some monolog books also contain two or three person scenes. The monologs are usually from produced scripts although some books contain stand-alone monologs that are written specifically for audition purposes and are not part of a play.

Most monologs books will provide a brief character description and synopsis of the scene in which the monolog occurs. When preparing to rehearse a monolog, it is best to read the play from which the monolog comes. This will help you better understand your character, the circumstances that lead up to the point in the play when the monolog occurs and the relationship(s) between the monolog's character and the other character(s) in the play to whom the actor might be speaking or speaking about.

Where can you find monolog books? You can purchase such books through on-line bookstores. You can also find monolog books for sale in many local book stores. Although the selection is generally limited, a bookstore can get any monolog book that is still in print. Ask the bookstore clerk for assistance. Most well stocked libraries also have some monolog books. If you live in a small town and do not have any useful monolog books in your town library, ask the librarian what might be available through an interlibrary loan program.

You will not find any good, contemporary monologs on-line. Why? Because good monologs usually come from well written scripts. Writers who write good scripts publish their work and want to get paid for it. They will rarely post their good material on-line for anyone to download for free. You can find some sites with poorly written monolgs posted, but if you are looking for quality material (which is what you want), you will need to go to the library or purchase monolog books. You can, however, find the text to some public domain plays and some classical plays on the internet to download for free, like Shakespeare's complete works at http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html.

Auditions:

When auditioning for an agent, do not include the agent into your performance as if they were characters to whom you speak. Do not focus on them as if they were audience members. Such inclusion and direct focus gives agents the willies. They should be invisible observers, as far as you are concerned.

It is a good idea to direct your lines and actions to an imaginary character who you place somewhere in the acting area with you. You should speak to this imaginary character, who you then imagine reacts to what you say and to whom you then react. If the script calls for you to be talking to another character, then imagining one is easy since the invisible character is supposed to be there anyway and is supposedly reacting to you. You just have to imagine their reactions and movements and respond to them.

If, however, you are not speaking directly to another character who is on the stage, or if there are not supposed to be any other characters in the scene, then you will have to ask yourself, "Who am I talking to?"

Characters do not talk to themselves - even if no one else is on stage and it seems like they are talking to themselves. Nor does a character talk to the audience (unless they are intentionally speaking to the audience - as in an "aside" or as some sort of audience-directed exposition).

And even though it might seem as if a character is speaking to the audience or even to another character on the stage, they might in fact be speaking to another character - a character who isn't even on the stage! A character in their mind! Acting can be so wierd.

The Interview:

The in-office audition will also involve an interview. You should prepare "material" for this part of the agent audition as well. The interview is more than a simple rehashing of the credits listed on your résumé. Be prepared to briefly discuss aspects of the productions or classes you participated in. Aspects such as skills you found yourself particularly good at, how each role further developed your performance skills or understanding of acting, how you handled certain characters or performance challenges and relationships with other production members.

Be prepared to discuss positive comments from directors, teachers, other casting people and other people in the industry, positive personal discoveries, the "type" you believe you best portray, what kind of roles you are seeking, your limitations as an actor, what you expect from the agent and what you are doing to further your career.

In addition to discussing yourself, you want to interview the agent. Some of the things you want to know about the agent include how many actors of your type they currently represent, who else they represent, how often you could expect to be sent to auditions, how they percieve you as an actor, how to contact them and keep in touch.

You need determination, persistence, and the ability to endure rejection with a smile:

If you hope to make a career as an actor, then expect you will spend many years developing that career. It won't happen over night.

Look at it this way. Say you need to have a couple of fillings done on your teeth. So at the bus stop, on your way to the dentist, you meet some guy who notices you are in some pain. You explain you are going to the dentist to get some work done.

"Hey, save your money, buddy," the guy says, "I been to the dentist a couple 'a times. Seen a movie about it on the public TV once. It don't look so tough ta' do. I'll do them fillings for ya', an' I won't even charge ya' a cent."

Nice guy. Well what do you think? Would you trust your teeth to someone who's "been to the dentist" a couple 'a times" an "Seen a movie about it on the public TV once" ? Or are you going to trust a professional; someone who has spent many years studying, training, practicing and developing experience in the fine art of tooth repair?

So why would anyone expect to become a successful, professional actor or actress without spending a considerable amount of time and energy studying, practicing and developing experience in the fine art of acting?

Of course that doesn't mean you can't get acting jobs early in the process of building a career. Just remember that it will take time to go beyond the occasional acting job toward a career as an actor. It could be years before you will be able to earn a regular or decent living as an actress or actor. A lot of people never earn all their income acting and must have other sources of income.

If you are pouty, ill-tempered, prone to explosive outbursts when things don't go your way, walk out in a huff, are frequently negative, and often times exhibit other such disagreeable behavior - then do everybody a favor, stay home. Who the heck is going to want to work with you more than the one time they get stuck with you. Such behavior will eventually effect your ability to continue getting acting work - and to secure the services of a good agent.

Chapters: One   Two   Three   Four   Five   Six   Seven   Eight   Nine