I’m going to keep this post short with the hope that agents, assistants, and actors will go back to last week’s post and really consider the offer I made. I was very serious about the proposal I made to the assistants about spending a day in my office. Sadly, not one person (agent or their assistants) took me up on it and I strongly believe that it will be a huge help to see “the other side”. How can you possibly do the job properly if you have no idea why every loss or time change greatly effects a casting session? I honestly believe that if they could see what a fully prepped casting session is like, it would be such an eye opener. It would bring a lot of clarity as to why we are so strict. Maybe they would approach the situation differently. We’re all working together to try and get a job done; understanding other aspects of the business is important to achieve our goals and work as cohesively as possible.

I tend to know what agents’ clients look like better than they do. We see these actors more than they do, so if an actor has gained or lost weight, aged (which happens to all of us), or cut their hair or changed the color of it, I often find myself telling the agent. There is no set protocol on how often an agent meets with their signed clients. There is also no rule or advice given to an actor on how to let their agent know these things. I know that it is expensive for actors to take new pictures all the time, but maybe even sending a “selfie” would help. Though I do believe that if the only picture on file does not depict the actor’s age, then they should have an updated one. We request pictures very often and I can’t tell you how many times the pictures are 5-10 years old. My office is always telling agents that pictures they send no longer look anything like the actor. When a casting director is relying on picture submissions and the headshot does not depict the way an actor looks now, they may be passed over for an audition they are right for.

All in all, whether you’re an agent, assistant, or actor in this business, we all need to work together, respect each other, and do our absolute best to get all casting sessions done with quality. I really think that these points could help our business run better and make everyone’s lives easier.

Let’s try again.