Part 2

Beverly Agency Advice

Actors are professionals.  You knew when you signed up for the process you were not paid for most auditions.  There are some SAG exceptions however, for the most part just if you were interviewing for a job in the Corporate World, you are to conduct yourself as a professional!  You may believe that the role is not right for you.  You are entitled to your opinion and sometimes you may be right and in speaking with your agent you may come to a conclusion that its simply nor right for you.  However, it your game is simply to pick and choose, not show up and to tell your agent what to do,  when you are not paying them expect them to too Dump you like a bad habit!  There are exceptions however, agents look for actor who are hustlers, go getters, ready to work now, available, with the ability to deal with difficult casting professionals if need be, make great choices when auditioning, on time, attacking role(s) in which what they had not seem themselves as booking.  Who would have believed Brian Cranston as drug distributor based on his past roles?  

Remember this we are in a rapidly changing world.  Now the booking process is turned up too super fast.  Whatever the venue(s) when they call to book you or even to see you, you have to be ready to go!  I use to get calls from Leno literally hours before the scenes were supposed to shot.  My actor was 80+ years of age and never missed a booking.  She understood her role as a professional.  I am suggesting to all actors take your opportunities seriously or simply get out of the business!

Take a look at what I get from casting directors weekly or sometime several times a week.  This one the casting director chose polite words usually...hum......not so nice.

The last several jobs I've done, the amount of cancels are out of control. Not only that but the amount of people that are confirmed that all of a sudden cancel right before they're due to come here is astronomical. It is so unfair to the actors in this town that want to work. I implore you to send out a mass email to your rosters once again reminding them that this is a job interview not a hobby. Not only that, I need you to start being honest and not just confirming people when they are not in fact confirmed.

I have to look through over a thousand submissions per role on average. I usually select 30 people max. That takes a lot of time and energy, if you know me at all I'm an equal opportunity casting director that actually goes through every submission. I'd appreciate if the same respect was given to me from you and your talent. Let's have a wake up call to remind actors that this is a serious business and remind their theatrical reps to communicate with you. Thanks.

No one should have to send you anything concerning availability.  Here's how it works if you want to be seen as a professional, go about acting like one, show up on time, with headshot and resume in hand,  forget deciding whether casting processional need the headshot, if they do you have it, if they don't shove it some where until the process has been completed. know your sides, if they give you side that you did not know you were supposed to prepare, immediately compose yourself,  do not spend any time telling anyone that you did not get the sides unless they ask, make a brief statement and leave it all on the casting floor, check in when you get there, work with your agent instead of against them,  update your casting sites often paricularly with new credits, if your headshots needs updating get it done and last but no least get yourself a demo reel.  So many casting decisions are made from demos and resume, don't miss out on a booking because you do not have the necessary tools.  Last but not least, if you really can not respect the process God Bless and take yourself onto another industry.

Uniquely Beverly