An Actor's Journal - Pay to Play?

Pay to Play?

by Reginald L. Span

When I first moved out to Hollywood I was a bright eyed bushy tailed young man with one goal and one goal only, to make it as an actor. The odds of making “It” as an actor are already astronomically slim and when you’re in one of those marginalized groups you find out quickly that there is a majority of the minority attempting to do the same thing. With that said, no one sold me any dreams or promised me any talks of making it big. My acting coach believed in me and put me on a path to make it and that was honestly all that I needed to begin with.

This was around 10 years ago so there were still bookstores with manager/agent and casting director listings. You can find all of this information online but for just around 20 bucks you could have it in physical format. Go through your list of names, buy some headshot mailers and submit, submit, submit. Some of those submissions landed calls and a few in person meetings but not enough to warrant buying a new updated list whenever it came out. Paying rent, headshots, acting classes, parking tickets from confusing street signs and trying to eat all while trying to make “it” was already enough. It seemed like getting any kind of in person meeting was a bit like shooting for the stars that was until I found out about workshops.

Workshops were like those talent scout events on a much smaller scale and a fraction of the price. You would pay anywhere from 15-25 dollars to meet with agents,managers, and casting directors. You would perform a prepared or given on the spot piece and given advice along with a Q&A after. We were all thinking the same thing, this was a chance to get our feet in the door and possibly get called in for something. I actually had a really big agency give me a card and tell me to give him a call once I got some more credits and a workable demo reel. I still have the card to this day but that agent has since moved on from the agency. I meet with a few big casting directors and did go in to read for them on some of their projects but none of the big success stories you hear about. It was still a fun time and I felt like I was actually making progress towards making “it”.

After about a year of these workshop’s I had a few student films under my belt and boat loads of extra work. It felt like the next logical step would be to continue grinding out these workshops, because what’s 20 bucks here and there when you could make your dreams come true. Out of nowhere there was a big upheaval in the workshop circuit. The unions released a state on the ethical side of these workshops and essentially said they were pay to play which wasn’t something I had in my mind. I just felt like if you had to pay the cost the be the boss so to speak. I joined the union about a year or two too early (another blog to come). After joining the union we were given the opportunity to meet with those same people and even more famous and prolific casting directors. To be fair to all of those workshops they always said that these events were not intended to hold the promise of work, something I accepted whole heartedly. Because walking down down sunset debating on dropping off a headshot at the front desk of some agency was probably not the best idea.

The whole thing made me take an introspective look into some of the things I was paying for with no real care about the cost. I’m talking Actors Access, LA Casting, Now Casting, Backstage, CAZT. IMDB Pro, Headshots, Self Tapes. I always made a way to keep some cash flow from the cliche, working multiple jobs. Calling out for auditions, exchanging shifts, taking really long lunch breaks to pop down to a studio or casting office It was getting wild for a minute but the cost didn’t really seem that bad.

Life changes and although those big dreams haven’t left, after nearly a decade of spending thousands of dollars a year you get one job that pays back all of it and you can’t really complain after that. The chances of making it are slim but the pros do outweigh the cons especially when you get to do something you really love. I wouldn’t call it paying to play per say…more like betting on yourself. Not all but some bets do pay off.

RS