The following exchange came about due to my advice that actors always keep their direct contact information on their resumes, profiles, websites, etc. My experience shows that those agents who *require* actors not share their direct contact info are just worried about being cut out of a commission. But, of course, every PRO knows you always pay commission. 🙂 So, when a particular agent got wind of my insistence that actors keep their direct contact info on their tools, I got this bit of counterpoint.
Bonnie, I advise my clients not to have their phone number on their resume as it can lead to various types of stalking, but I suggest that before leaving their headshot with casting that they hand-write it under their name. This, however, is rarely an issue as I am available to serve my clients 24/7. 😀 I am called about twice a month from CDs looking for a client from our commercial department whose theatrical rep cannot be found. Of course, I’m happy to help.
Now, of course, if an agent is *actually* available for his/her clients 24/7, I think that’s awesome and it’s absolutely a reason for an actor to have total, blind faith and never feel the need to leave his or her contact information with the buyers. I love it. I wish more agents and managers were this accessible. Of course, every casting director on the planet has a story (or 100 stories) about actors who lost the bookings due to their agents not being reachable.
On a recent ladydate with a commercial casting director friend, the convo turned to exactly this thing and she told me about how she had to move on to their second choice for a huge commercial campaign because the first choice actor’s agent’s voicemail (which was all casting could GET) said, “We will return all calls within 24 hours.” Of course, this was a commercial casting and therefore fitting was happening within 24 hours, so, um, no.
We *all* have horror stories about those fall-throughs that are 100% outside of the actor’s awareness. That’s why having the actor’s direct contact information is so valuable. It’s only scary to the agent if he’s sure his client (the actor) is going to ice him out of commission or, even worse, close the deal with casting himself without taking care of some important details that agents know to address. Um, on behalf of the casting community, let me state, we would always prefer to close a deal with an agent than with an actor. Shorthand and awareness of the terms? That’s a beautiful thing!
As for my agent friend who is worried about his actors being stalked (ack!) there’s this lovely thing called a Google Voice number. You can get one within your preferred area code and point it toward your cell phone, wherever that may be. 🙂 It’s super handy and you can even get voicemail messages at the email address associated with that account, if you’re so inclined. Way badass. And a never-changing phone number you can put out there on your marketing tools. Excellent!
REMINDER: Last week I asked those of you who are so freakin’ proud of your marketing tools to send ’em over for showcasing. Considering the number of readers this column has, the number of emails from ninjas saying, “Sure! Feature me! I love my stuff” was ridiculously low. I’m not saying I’m surprised, but I’m gonna give another week of a nudge here to try and get a few more badasses to share their goods.
C’mon. If you’re sending something to a top agent hoping he’ll rep you, you CERTAINLY can send it to The Actors Voice, right? Email address is below. Use it, baby! Share your toys! 🙂
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001814.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.