Getting an Acting Agent

How!? How exactly does one do this getting an agent thing? And by that I mean one of the good ones. 

Oh I've had agents. I've had one who was okay and got me auditions for things like Crimewatch and a particularly good medical role playing job for the GMC but ultimately wasn't very get-up-and-go and never came to see me in anything I was in. A couple of years later I had another agent who, frankly, was one of the growing group of what I call Cowboy Agents. These are people who sign up to every casting call website going and call themselves agents for submitting other people's CVs and Spotlights to these online cattle calls and unpaid jobs. They have no contacts in the industry and few to no skills in contract negotiation or entertainment law. Yet wannabe actors and newbie graduates go flocking to them and lock themselves down into pointless year long contracts because they feel that any agent is better than none. Frankly, an agent who fails to chase up contracts, forgets to respond to a major casting director with whom you set up a meeting and calls regularly to ask "Did you say you could sing again? Oh sorry I thought you said you couldn't, that's why I turned down a well-paid job for you earlier", is not only a hindrance but also a great liability. 

Having said that, I totally understand why people are hedging their bets and going with these guys when it seems impossible to otherwise find a footing even right at the very bottom of the ladder in this profession. Like the other billion actors out there I've been curled up around the computer for days with a copy of Contacts at my side, painstakingly contacting one agency after another and selling myself hard. I'm not a Drama School actress (though this does not mean I'm untrained - I'll leave this for another blog) and I don't have a CV boasting an extraordinary body of work with big name companies but I have done a respectable amount of work in theatre and film both paid and unpaid over a significant number of years playing major and minor roles and have received some really good reviews. I have also worked in a variety of other positions in the business including running a live comedy company, directing two fringe plays and interning in the casting department at the Donmar Warehouse. I've written a play which has toured and had fantastic reviews. I have a MDrama & Theatre Studies degree. I have clearly made every effort to stay within the profession and be involved in the creation, presentation and production of theatre and film. I'm not sure how else I can show my commitment to the industry, my get-up-and-go mentality or my clear need to work as an actor. Yet not one agent has shown an iota of interest in meeting me. 

I know I'm not the only one in this position and it doesn't affect my opinion of my talent. None of these agents have seen me perform or read my reviews so their opinions are based on something other than my potential abilities. Plus some of the most incredible actors I know are unrepresented. And you can work without an agent, of course you can. But you have to be terribly organised and disciplined and many actors aren't or don't have the time to be. Plus, an agent's connections really help in getting seen for those important auditions. Many of the casting directors I have spoken to are very open about the fact that they tend to mostly audition from a list of actors pitched to them from the major agencies. 

So how do you get one of these magical Fairy Godmotherly types? From the responses I've had what I have worked out is that you should either: 

a) Stand-out in a end of year major Drama School production

b) Have a kick-ass showreel 

c) Be in a current show that they are able and willing to come and see and be good in it

a) has worked for many many people and is a major reason for going to Drama School (in addition to the training of course). Doing so is not, however, an option for everyone nor is it the be all and end all to being a great actor. Also, a great number of those who do pay thousands and do three years of training do not end up with agents out of it. 

b) is getting more and more common for a way of attracting both agents and casting directors. Most of us have done innumerable short and student films to bulk up our showreels but, of course, not everyone has been as lucky as others in the quality of the productions they have ended up in. Without the agent to help you attract the professional TV and film makers it is not always easy to create a solid showreel. The thing that actors are now doing more regularly is paying £500 to shut themselves into a studio with a script and a cameraman and creating a showreel. 

c) is something I personally find quite hard to master. Firstly the type of theatre productions one tends to end up getting involved with without an agent to guide the way are often profit share, fringe shows and personally I get very nervous inviting agents to come and see something when I have no idea how it might turn out. This is true with any show of course but a little more risky on the fringe circuit. However if you wait for the show to develop before inviting people it's often too late. Putting on a showstopping vehicle starring yourself is not always the great marketing tool that people think it might be since casting directors and agents tend to like to choose shows where they'll get the opportunity to view numerous potential clients at once. 

Yup, despite the fact it's the first step in getting yourself seen for most serious and properly paid opportunities, getting an agent is a real tricky business.