Some advice from me about Agents & Acting…

A question that actors ask me all of the time is, “What agencies or agents do you think are the best in L.A,” or “What makes a good agent/manager?”

Wow! What a question! I have had to come up with an answer for this question because it comes up all of the time when I am teaching a workshop. So, here it goes:

The answer is very complicated. The answer is, it doesn’t matter what I think or who I think are the best agents for actors, because it is really about how well your agents performs and represents you, the actor. Because actors don’t see their agents or managers in day-to-day life they probably don’t understand the inner workings of how they operate.

Agents and managers come in all different shapes and sizes. You have your companies that represent hundreds if not thousands of clients with literally 30-200 agents in those companies all scrambling for information, a big pay day, etc… Within these agencies you have internal company politics. Fly-on-the-wall stuff, that affects choices and decisions agents make in deciding what information they bring to their clients. If you are an actor with a few credits but are considered, “hot” or an “up-and-comer” by an agent at one of these agencies, make sure that you understand that this means you have a finite amount of time to use that leverage to meet everyone in town that you can meet in order to book work. Once you book work, you are an asset to the company and more agents or managers within that company will see that and because of the structure of the company and how companies cover films (by Studio, Casting Director, Producer, etc…) your name will pop up more and more within internal talent meetings and pitches to casting or executives, because you will be considered hot, trendy, new, whatever…Saying this, big is not always better and many times, actors success comes from smaller, boutique agents and managers who put the time in and develop their clients by finding projects to build their career.

A good agent or manager, makes phone calls, pitches, hustles, is  always on the phone and is insisting that you see their client. This may sound like captain obvious, but in my experience many agencies just submit their clients and hope that they get a phone call. The theory here is that you submit a large amount of talent and surly one or two of those clients will get called in for an audition or offered the job. This is the lazy way of agenting and yes, there is a pattern that I have noticed with certain agents who do this.

Personally, I like talking to the agent or manager who is passionate about a client. It let’s me know that they are willing to put themselves on the line and vouch for their talent. This lets me discover their taste in actors and also makes me think of them when I really need help.

For example, the lead actress in a film I am casting has just dropped out. A new actress needs to be on set by Monday. Who do you think I am going to call? The agent or manager that hardly ever calls me, or the agent/manager who bugs me all of the time about their clients and wants me to hire their clients. In a “casting emergency” I need a responsive person on the other end of the phone that I can trust to help me.

So, it boils down to trust. Who do I trust, and who trusts me? Those are the agents that I like to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

If you are getting auditions, it’s probably because your representative is making an effort to get you those auditions. If you find yourself sitting at home or working  (not working on a set acting :0( ), sadly this is probably because your agent is not on top of things for you, while they may be on top of things for someone else that they represent. I will say this though, if this is the case, you have to do something about it. You cannot and should never wait around for auditions. You should be in classes, dropping by your reps office, taking a casting workshop with a CD you want to meet, targeting casting directors, marketing yourself (there a books on this) and being proactive. If you do this you are hustling and that energy is attractive and will help you in the long-run. I know, I have seen it work.

I hope this helps, because I can’t and won’t give out names, but let’s just say, you would probably not be that surprised that some of the most successful agents/managers are so-called for a reason. They work hard and overtime. They care about their clients and the also have good taste.

P.S. I want to make a differentiation between getting auditions and being well represented and booking a job. These are two different things. One does not lead to the other.