I was recently talking to my wonderful friend Maya who started telling me about her experiences with her (now, ex) agent. I was shocked by what she said. The agents we (Alexa and Katie) are represented by have always been nothing but personable, communicative, professional, supportive and, industry stuff aside, lovely people. When I tweeted about something relating to what I had heard from Maya I knew there would be some people who could relate but I was disheartened to see how many similar stories were sent to us. So here is a blog post…to support, to relate, to call out and to magnify. The industry’s unnecessary hierarchy so often leaves actors at the bottom. While the 2% have the red carpet rolled out for them, (some of) The 98% are treated like dirt being flicked from a shoe. A rude, power tripping shoe. It’s time to stamp this behaviour out. (Ok I’ll stop with the shoe analogies now…) We will not be naming agents/agencies here but we do want to provide a place for these stories to be heard to hopefully make a start of actors feeling confident enough to not tolerate these situations anymore.
From Butterflies to Raging Dragons
By Maya Grant
When I graduated from drama school at 21 I was acutely aware that I was entering an industry that was over saturated, impossibly difficult to break into and depressingly hard to make a living from. BUT, I had an agent offer, so I thought I’d won half the battle. Just like the start of any relationship, it was new, exciting and fun. I’d get butterflies when I saw their name light up my phone, I made sure my hair was nice when we arranged dates at their office and the emails back and forth felt like we both respected and liked each other. Smiles all round.
After navigating the industry and life as a working actor for a couple of years, there were some changes announced in the agency. I was nervous about a shift in the dynamics but the two agents who replaced the two who were leaving were young, fresh and hungry for work for their clients. After a little while, despite booking a few guest roles on reputable TV shows and getting good feedback from auditions, it seemed that the focus of the agency had shifted to getting me commercial castings. To begin with I was excited at the prospect of making quick money, commercials are usually fun jobs that pay the bills in between the creative jobs, so I threw myself into each and every one of them I was given. However, after a few years of that being 90% of what I was getting sent up for, my enthusiasm for the cattle market I found myself in started to wain. I begged my agents to push me for more theatre jobs, for TV roles I could get my teeth into, for less commercials. All the while trying not to be an ‘annoying’ client, maintaining a good relationship and still believing that they were doing what was best for me, so saying ‘yes’ every time the phone rang. Which is why what happened in February 2018 completely knocked me for six and shocked everyone I told. The honeymoon period was officially over…
For most actors in London, a ‘pay the bills job’ is essential. I was working as a temp in various offices around London (*) and was doing everything in my power to rush to the commercial castings I would have most lunchtimes. I can’t tell you how many commercials I was going up for at this time. From singing about yoghurts in the Swedish hillsides, to pushing posh toilet perfumes to fake orgasming for sex toy websites, I did them all. I never said no, despite my soul being sucked out of me a little bit more every time. I was tired, frustrated and totally run down and my face seemingly reflected what I was feeling. I had seen one of the horrible polaroids the casting assistants had taken of me earlier that week and my confidence had plummeted and I could feel my mental health starting to dip.
So, when a casting that was going to be my third that week (and that would take me an hour and a half to get to) came up, I asked if I could skip it. I wasn’t being ungrateful, I was being self aware. I knew that I wasn’t going to be at my best if I didn’t recoup and the more understanding of the agents said they understood and would pull me from this one.
Ten minutes later, I saw my agents name pop up on my phone so I ran from the reception desk I was manning to the bathroom and sneakily took the call. It was the head of the agency who said:
-“Maya, I’d like to know why you aren’t going to the commercial casting tomorrow.”
-“Oh, um, well, as I explained to ****, it’s just that I’m working in an office and it’s going to be really stressful to get there and back. This week has already been quite manic, I need to look after myself and I can’t really afford to miss another day of work this week I’m afraid.”
-“Well that’s simply not good enough. We put you up for great projects and you never know when a commercial casting could lead to a film role so I think it’s utterly ridiculous to not go for it. If you don’t sort it out and get to the casting tomorrow, you won’t have an agent anymore.”
F L A B B E R G A S T E D.
After 7 years of being with them, making them money, always being a ‘yes’ girl’, I say no once and I’m threatened with being dropped. I would love to say that I called them back, stood up for myself and my choices and calmly said “Thank you for representing me thus far. I won’t be attending the casting tomorrow so therefore, if your threat was real, consider it that I am no longer your client.”
But I didn’t. The fear that the rumours within the industry that you ‘simply won’t be seen without being repped’ were true crippled me. I just wanted to work. So, I begrudgingly made arrangements with my temp agency and took the next day off work.
The kick in the teeth came when, after my 90 minute journey to the audition, I was told I wasn’t even on the list.
The next day I had another phone call for another commercial casting, and whilst on the phone, the ‘Second in Command’ asked if everything was alright. After explaining that I was upset with how I’d been spoken to yesterday, they told me that “I didn’t have a leg to stand on.”
Wow. As if I didn’t feel insignificant and worthless already.
It was from this moment on that I felt like I had no control over my career, had no say in what I chose to do and I was slowly, silently, being emotionally bullied. Oh, and there were the following incidents to add insult to injury:
● I turned up to an audition to play an 18 year old (I was 28 and definitely looked it!) only for the casting director to say “I’m so sorry Maya, I don’t know why your agent pushed so hard to get you seen for this. You clearly don’t look 18. I don’t want to waste your time.”
● Getting ON SET to find out it wasn’t the job I was told I’d got. My agent hadn’t checked the contract correctly, signed it on my behalf and ‘assumed’ (their word, not mine) that because I’d been pencilled for a phone commercial, the contract they received was for a phone commercial. It was not. I had been booked for a Christmas card commercial, by a totally different ad agency using a totally different casting director. When I overheard the costume department talking I had to ask them what commercial set I was on.
● My agency lost the email with my travel details for a shoot I was going on and then verbally abused the production manager saying they’d never sent it to them.
● I found out first hand from a producer that Second in Command had been sent EIGHT emails that they hadn’t replied to about an ongoing contract; which ultimately had lost me a stills photograph campaign and a substantial amount of money because they never got permission from my agent to release them.
● This same agent also shouted down the phone at a producer (who I was on set with) about a contract and then sent me a flurry of texts slandering the producer, trying to make me believe that they were at fault and that the agency were the only ones looking out for me, which was simply not true.
The final straw came when I went for a voice over audition in April 2019. I met a lovely producer who asked me to sign some of the usual papers - an NDA and a contract with the studio stating that whatever happened, I would be paid for the studio time. However, the night before I had been told by Second in Command that I shouldn’t sign anything and they were going to sign on my behalf. They thought that the contract was worded incorrectly so wanted it revised... (the award winning studio was trying to dupe me out of money and Second in Command had a law diploma, so they knew best.) When I told the nice producer lady that I wasn’t meant to sign anything, she looked confused and said that every other auditionee had signed, so she wondered what the problem was. I called my agency and S.I.C demanded I pass the phone to the producer. What happened next made me want the world to swallow me whole.
My agent, the very person tasked with representing me, proceeded to speak to the producer in a manner and tone that was so rude and aggressive I could hear it through the phone, despite it not being against my own ear. After a few minutes of being barked at and having her sentences cut off, the producer had clearly had enough and she handed the phone back to me saying: “Wow. You can finish that conversation if you want to.”
I was mortified. I’d been told that my agent was rude and hard to work with from a few different people but now I had witnessed it first hand. And I was left to pick up the pieces. But first, I went to pieces. It wasn’t the first time my agents had made me cry but it was the first time they’d made me cry before I had to audition for a room full of people and attempt to impress them, with my tearful, wavering voice, nonetheless.
I left the audition and decided I had bitten my tongue for too long and let them get away with this behaviour one too many times. So, I wrote some notes, sat down and calmly dialled their number. To say I was met with hostility is an understatement. When I said I wanted to talk about how I felt the situation at the audition was handled, Second in Command very patronisingly replied:
“Riiiiiiight, hit me with it then.”
Despite me remaining composed and explaining to them that they had upset me, embarrassed me, jeopardised my audition and that I didn’t want to be represented in the way I had been, the wrath that I felt from the agent was truly unbelievable. I could hear their voice shaking as they got more and more worked up, telling me that I was stupid for believing that the producer and the studio weren’t trying to rip me off, that they knew better, that I should only trust them. When I combatted all this by alerting them to the fact they were screaming at me, their client, so I dreaded to think how they spoke to industry professionals, I was met with yet more fire. It was as if I had awoken a sleeping, raging dragon. After trying to get my point across without success, I concluded that my voice was never going to be heard. They very patronisingly asked if I’d ‘said my piece’ and then slammed the phone down on me.
A few months later, I met the more understanding agent at an industry event. They were very pleasant, bought me a drink, asked how I was and then brought up ‘that’ altercation. They tried to brush it off lightly by saying “Oh, we’ve all been on the wrong side of ****. We’ve all felt their wrath!” When I was going to leave, they hugged me and said “If you’re looking for new representation, I hate you!….Just kidding. But seriously though, don’t leave!”
I did leave. And I left quietly. I never called them out on all their incompetencies or the mistakes they made that cost me money and career progression. They never realised all the times they’d made me feel silly or think I couldn’t do it without them. I never got to tell them that I was scared to call them or that seeing their name on my phone gave me anxiety attacks because I was fearful of being dropped at any minute. I had lost all hope of succeeding in the industry I was so passionate about thanks to their behaviour and how they’d made me feel. The only people to listen to me were Equity, who advised me to get out of the abusive relationship I had found myself in.
I never heard from Second in Command again. Nobody ever apologised for the way I’d been spoken to or treated. I’m fairly sure they knew that I left the agency, and the country, in part because they had broken my trust and our relationship was irreparably damaged.
During my time with this agency, I learnt a great deal about myself, the industry and how important my mental wellbeing is. My findings? No agent is ever as important as that.
(*if anyone needs the name of the best temp agency around, contact me, I’ll hook you up!)
Below is a collection of some comments we had on twitter and in our email inbox…
“I had an agent that asked me to audition for a lead role in a production. I said I couldn’t go as I was getting married that weekend. I was dropped by them and haven’t spoken to them since.”
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“This [twitter] thread made me realise why even as a ‘proper adult’ (30s) I’m still nervous about agents...I’ve had agents yell at me, hang up on me, offer me representation then email me to say it was a mistake, laugh in my face when I said I wanted to do TV work, gaslight me, pull my showreel apart loudly in a packed restaurant, send me passive aggressive emails that nearly had me in tears, and call my face boring. These were all different people.”
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“Try being out of action for nine months because you cared for a terminally ill family member who subsequently passed away and you rightfully took a bit of time off afterwards. You're then dropped because "we're not the right agent for you."
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“I got offered a job on a cruise ship that I didn’t even audition for as my agents submitted my CV and showreel etc, even after I told them I don’t want to do cruise ships, and then when I turned it down they dropped me!”
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“My previous agent tried to drop me three weeks before my wedding. I explained that after the wedding I could dedicate more time to my career so could be more active again. We agreed to stay together only to have her, the week of the wedding, send me an audition request for my wedding day that would film over my honeymoon. When I turned it down she said she’d forgot I was getting married (even though I’d sent her the day when I booked it 18months before) I never heard from her again. 6 months later I found new representation and emailed her saying thank you but I had moved on. She never responded.”
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“Around 2 and a half years ago my agent agreed that I’d attend an audition in Hamburg for a cruise without my consent, I said I shouldn’t go to the audition because I couldn’t really take the job right now as my housemate had just been diagnosed with cancer and I needed to stay in the city or the country at least. My agent dropped me.”
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“My ex agent made us sign contracts that included a sliding scale percentage on tv commercial ranging from 20-30% + vat for commercials 15-25% on tv etc etc then he would insist you sign contract early to ensure yourself an invite to the Xmas party. He’d say fees are negotiable but that was only ever in his favour. (If he’d verbally agreed 15% he’d later argue that he would never of done that and take 25% anyway.) He’d never tell you what a fee on an ad was never give you the contract fraudulently sign your name as opposed to allow you to see what you were working for fee wise, he justified this by saying buyouts change we don’t want to make you nervous going in the audition room knowing it’s worth 25k or 2K. When I did get work he was utterly shit at reading contracts and negotiating on my behalf, he under sold me, so that I found myself on a series abroad making 10% of what the majority of the rest of the cast were on, and when I asked him to look over and ask for more money before going to another season of show he shut me down as if I was being greedy and assured me everyone would be on the same.”
Helen Clarkson, an agent at UK agency Curtis Brown, has started 2020 tweeting some sound advice to actors about the actor/agent relationship. Her initial tweet is what prompted our response which led to this blog! (“A quick one, if you are scared to pick up the phone to your agent in case they might shout and call you the c-word then there’s something terribly wrong. Just saying.” @helenrclarkson)
We wanted to have her involved in this post to finish with a positive note and good advice.
Here’s what Helen had to say to us…
“I feel that the client/agent relationship should be completely balanced. There should not be a person in a position of more power in the relationship otherwise the client feels trapped with no voice or the agents become “yes people” and unable to advise the actor properly. There should be no fear to speak to the other person on both sides, honesty is crucial, empathy/kindness is needed and communication is key. Agents should never have a “hold” over a client or be aggressive with them - that can only be detrimental to a career and the actor should seriously think if it’s a healthy relationship to be in. Finally, life is a balancing act - family, friends, weddings, children, partners jobs, moving house etc. will sometimes have to come first for a while and the big audition/job has to be turned down. Those important life things happen and the actor should never be afraid to put the acting career second every so often - an agent should always respect that and never make an actor feel bad.”
Actors, remember: you do not work FOR your agent. You agent works WITH you. If they have YOUR best interests at heart they should relish the opportunity to represent you just as you appreciate being represented by them. You should have confidence in, and a fondness for, the people who are helping to shape your career. And it’s easy to think this goes without saying but if you ever feel like your agent isn’t doing their due diligence when it comes to contracts, payment, commission, all that businessy stuff that is one of the main reasons we have an agent and something we are not trained to do then speak to Equity and reconsider who you are signed with. It is imperative you do not get yourself into sticky situations when it comes to t&c’s!
The relationship between and actor and agent is just that…a *relationship*. If any other person in your life treated you with disdain, made you feel unconfident or unsupported or filled you with dread when the phone rang - you’d leave that person out of your life. If a relationship is toxic - get out. You are worth more than that. We have plenty of followers who are happy being self represented and are finding their own work (we even have a blog post on it!) Value yourselves highly, we believe in you!
Thank you to Helen and the many other hard working agents out there working to make this industry a better place and providing a nurturing relationship with respect for your clients. A massive thank you Maya for sharing your story with us and for so bravely waving anonymity. Your voice deserves to be heard! As does everyone else’s, thank you for your tweets, emails and DM’s. We see you, we hear you and we’re with you!
Alexa & Katie
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Want to share your story with us, or blog for us on a different subject? Email us the98percentpod@gmail.com or use the Contact Us page!