I am finding your articles very interesting but I have come up with a question that I’m not sure has been addressed. I’m wondering if you could tell me some scenarios of what happens when an actor either leaves an agent or is dropped and it is a nasty “divorce.” Is there still a “blacklist” in Hollywood? Do casting directors or new agents care if there was a nasty divorce? Is there some mystery bulletin board where agents “talk” between agencies?
I followed your advice and took the high road and stayed positive. However I’m not sure that is the case on the agent’s side. I want to stay completely confidential but some facts you could probably use are: I have little or no credits and did nothing wrong. This was with a relatively new agent at a small agency in California. Should I just change my name? (Okay, a bit drastic but hey, I’m so new who knows?)
Thank you for any insight you might provide.
First things first: You did the right thing by taking the high road. That way, no matter what spin your former agent chooses to put on things, you’re covered by the truth: That you treated the “breakup” with professionalism, dignity, and respect for both yourself and your former agent. That’s awesome.
Next, you mentioned that your former agent is “relatively new” and that the agency is “small.” Both of those things bode well for the amount of badmouthing that might happen, on the part of the agent. He is building up his reputation in the industry just like you are. The way to do that is by doing consistently good work over time. People who gossip or talk trash are not impressing anyone, especially if they’re grousing about former clients rather than hustling to get auditions for their current clients. Even if your former agent is on the phone to every CD in town bitching about you, he is doing his reputation more harm than yours.
You asked about a mystery bulletin board among agents (and if there is such a thing on any official level, I haven’t heard about it), but the idea that agents are out there posting messages to one another about actors they no longer represent is a little wacky. I don’t know when they would find the time — seeing as they have a current roster of actors to pitch and deals to close on existing projects. And keeping their energy on actors they don’t rep seems counterintuitive (not to mention unprofessional and a bit obsessive).
That said, sure… people talk. It’s human nature to lament a relationship gone sour. And agents certainly have professional relationships with one another that sometimes spill over into the personal (and that means drinks or coffee dates or chats on IM). If they really feel burned by a client, they may say, “Ooh, don’t sign so-and-so. He screwed me,” but even so, everyone knows that every agent-client relationship is different, the reasons for a split may be complex, and there are too many variables for anyone to believe there are any absolutes.
One agent’s worst client is another’s best. And what others say about you says more about them than it could ever say about you.
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Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000730.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.