EXECUTIVE DECISION

Many actors are SAG-Eligible. We had a situation this week where we had an audition for a role a day before it shot. The director’s choice was an actress who was SAG-Eligible, meaning that they had to pay their dues to SAG before taking their next job. I was worried that the actor was not going to be able to pay their dues and we certainly didn’t have money in the casting budget to pay for the actor to join SAG. Lucky for us, the actor, upon hearing that they got the job went to the SAG office and paid their dues and showed up cleared by SAG to work the next day.

When we spoke to the actor’s agent about this, the agent said that he advises his SAG-E actors not to join until they book a job. However, I pointed out that what would have happened if the actor was in Atlanta and could do the job but would have to fly back to LA that day; would there have been enough time to join SAG and report to the set? Probably not. Also, if I had a choice of actors that the director liked and the director said to me, “pick who you want,” I may have been more inclined to go for the SAG actor as I knew that I would not have to deal with any additional problems with getting an actor to set.

Speaking of getting an actor to set: Last week we had to hire an actor and the director was very busy shooting on location and the hiring of the actor was based on pairing them up with another actor. So, I called the agents for the two choices for the role and asked them to put their actors on alert that they may get a job the next morning. Both agents assured me that their actors were available. Well, it became very late in the day and I had to decide on someone because wardrobe was having a minor coronary, so I picked the actor and spoke to the manager (whom I had been dealing with the whole time) and the manager assured me that the client would be on set the next day. I had to close the deal and as the actor’s agency was not open after 7pm, I had the manager’s word that everything would be fine. I did as much of the deal as possible and sent the terms to the agent via email not expecting any problems as the role only shot for a day.

At about 8:30pm I received a panicked phone call from the 2nd AD saying that he tried to call the actor but there was a “funny” message on the voicemail that said the actor would not be back from vacation until Tuesday. As it was Tuesday, I got a little worried and called the actor myself, and nobody answered the phone. I then called the manager who was in the middle of her dinner at a restaurant and explained the situation. She did not seem phased at all. I asked if she had spoken to her client and she said, “no, but don’t worry she will be there, and if she is not there I have a back-up for you.” Golly, thanks…

Well, needless to say, I was worried (pissed off & angry were also emotions I was felling at the time). Fifteen minutes later I get a call from the manager, explaining that her client’s airplane had arrived late and she would be too tired to report to work the next morning, but “don’t worry because I have a back-up.”

Really? Don’t worry? You never told me that your client was out of town, how am I supposed to trust that your next in line will be at the set AND I don’t know who this person is, so how can I hire her? I made an executive decision and called my back up and gave her the role. She was very happy to get the phone call, reported to work the next day and was apparently fantastic, so the casting Gods, made it all work out.

I wanted so very badly to write an email to the manager about how disappointed I was that she misleads me into believing that her client was ready for work. But, I decided to hold my tongue  (and write about it in the blog instead ☺), seriously, though, I was miffed but I solved the problem and he show went on.

Later I received an email from the manager explaining herself. I read one line and deleted it. It didn’t matter anymore…