[Casting]

How do you approach your agent when there are problems, misunderstandings or mistakes made on your or their end? The answers to this question are many and depend what the problem was and who is at fault. If the agent is right, you may have to swallow your pride, but if your agent is wrong, you should let them know without ruining the relationship.

Let’s say that you are late for a really important audition or worse, late for a really important job. You should first of all have a really good excuse. Something like the only way to get to the job was by plane and the airport was closed due to weather conditions. This is completely out of control and will be understood if…and this is key, YOU CALL THE AGENT AS SOON AS THERE IS A PROBLEM AND MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE SITUATION. This way the agent can make the producer aware of the circumstances and other arrangements can be made. The producer can make arrangements to get you there by train, get someone else to do the job or maybe delay the call time and allow you time to get to the set.

If your agent tries to give you a hard time about this, and he/she shouldn’t, you can defend yourself because you can easily verify that the airport was in fact closed and that the situation was truly out of your control. If the airport is closed, there is no way that you can get to a destination quickly that is so far away that you were going by plane.

If you are supposed to be off book (a.k.a. have all lines memorized) for a gig and you show up not knowing your lines to the point that the producer tells your agent how terrible you were and your agent tells you off, swallow your pride and don’t let it happen again. When you accept the job it is your responsibility to be off book if the job calls for memorization. If there are extenuating circumstances you should make that known. However, a producer/director knows if the script is particularly difficult, if you have only had the script for one day or if there have been lots of last minute changes and are usually very understanding about this.

There are times when the agent is completely out of line and will try to place the blame on you. There are certain pieces of information that the agent should give to you for each and every audition and job that you are sent on. If the agent does not give you a contact and you can’t seem to find someone to direct you to the set once you get to the location, and you are late by the time you find the right person, that is not your fault. If the agent tries to blame you for being late, you can nicely remind the agent that you weren’t given a contact and finding the right person upon arriving at the location would have alleviated the lateness.

The concerns here are that you need to be respected as a professional. There are certain obligations that you have and certain obligations that an agent has. No matter what misunderstandings take place (within reason of course), you want to maintain a good relationship with your agent. In the process, you don’t want and shouldn’t have to take responsibility for someone else’s shortcoming. When you need to state your case, do so and do it with respect. Also, remember to pick your battles. If it isn’t worth it, just let it go.