Actor Growth

In an unexpected turn of events, tomorrow I will be meeting with an agency as upon inquiring about it apparently they are super interested in signing me. This one came from a recommendation as well which I guess is a big reason for that.

The good thing too was that they mentioned they would give me the contract and all to think about which is usually a good sign and they said they would be glad to answer the questions I have about it. As well, I was talking to another agency on the phone and although they represented principle talent as well, it was great that they were very open on how they didn’t focus too much on it and therefore it may not be the best choice for me.

Honestly at this point, I think any agency is better than the one I am currently with for my principal representation. I’ll be sure to ask a lot of questions too as this agency seems like it has been around for awhile too.

When I was talking to the agent the other day, one pitch that he gave me was how he expressed that the difference between him and my current agent was that my current agent has a view that I work for them whereas his philosophy was that he works for the talent.

While I personally never exactly got that vibe from my current agent, that was a very good point I thought when it comes to finding an agent. I remember one actor told me once how it is so easy to forget sometimes that you are hiring these agents and so it should equally be important that when you are looking for representation that you are interviewing them as well.

Just like hiring anyone, if you are going to be working with them for a good part of your career then you owe it to yourself to make sure that the person is suitable and will do the job that you hired them to do. Just like how you shouldn’t barge into an agency thinking you are way above the agent, similarly they should not act as if they are way above you either.

So recently what came across my mind is that although I am primarily focused on acting, commercials can be a good way to get more exposure as well as meeting more people. Now usually commercial background work can give you an opportunity to land commercial roles as well.

The things is, while I have been to commercial auditions as a regular actor, the background agency I am currently with doesn’t seem to do commercial background work at all. So, what I was thinking of was discussing with my agent on whether or not the agency intends to expand into this category as I currently am pretty happy with them.

The only other alternatives would be for me to change agency all together into one of the bigger firms which is something that I am not too keen on. I’m the type of person who is usually pretty loyal to people unless they did something wrong to me and so in this case just changing agency would kind of bother me. We’ll see how this goes.

I was talking to an actress recently and she was mentioning how she wasn’t too thrilled with her agency representation as most of the work she has gotten herself. Apparently her agent even told her that as the actor you have to work hard to promote yourself still as the agents can only do so much for you.

That is definitely true as I guess in many ways people who are new have the mentality that once they get an agent all they need to do is sit and wait while the agent scrambles to try and find you roles to audition for. You should always definitely be promoting yourself to try and land roles yourself as well.

At the same time, I personally believe an agent should be actively trying to suggest ways for you to try and get your career going while at the same time going out of their way to get you established as well as it benefits everyone in this situation. Kind of awkward if all the person is doing for example is negotiating contracts for you. The agent and actor relationship is definitely extremely important.

Even for myself, literally all the roles I have done so far were from my own efforts. I’m personally not just sitting there and waiting for things to happen.