I was at an Oscar Party presented by the Talent Manager's association when I met an agent who wanted to meet with me to discuss commercial representation. He was excited about me. And that's really great. Stroke my ego. I'm an actress. I love it.
Wait, did I say actress? I meant waitress...
Anyhoo, so I just got off the phone with my manager and we decided to drop my current representation to go with this new guy.
Now, where I was before: The CEO is a great guy, he was extremely excited about me. But unfortunately, that just didn't translate to me getting any auditions. In fact, his underlings, who were submitting me, never met me. When I was at the Oscar party, I had no idea who they were, and I'm pretty sure it was mutual. That's not great. What IS weird, is that the commercial agent was talking to my manager going on about how they love so and so, and so and so, and how they really like me. REALLY like me. When my manager asked why he liked me so much, he responded that I've got a great look, and so many pictures. So when my manager pointed out to him that I've only had one theatrical audition from him, the guy was surprised. When he said that it was another agent who submits me for theatrical, and that he only submits me for commercials, my manager must have lifted an eyebrow when she told him, oh, well, isn't that interesting, as she has not had ANY single commercial auditions since she signed with you in July.
I love my manager.
And she works hard. There is this thing called a "Submission Report" that is automatically done every month with the program the agents use to submit their clients. An agent can scroll through each client individually and see how many times they were submitted, out of those, how many auditions they had, how many callbacks and how many bookings.
When my manager asked for my submission report after a few months of no auditions, the agency was...slow in getting them to her. She had to wait two months to receive a report on one of her clients who actually has some amazing credits and is probably going to be pretty big by the end of this year. How many times did they submit her? 14. And this is a gorgeous, toned blond. She should be submitted about 140 times a week. At least.
And she was never given my submission report. Hmmm....
And I still haven't mentioned how hard it was to get a hold of CEO agent. And my manager, who is extreeemely patient, well, I inferred she was upset by it. I knew I was.
But this new guy: He told me that I could get a hold of him 24/7 if I needed to. And he's small. Have I mentioned my credits? No? Probably because I don't really have any.
Okay, that's a lie. To my friends and family (Hi Dad!) I have quite the impressive list. And I've been on tv several times. On cable channels you might have even heard of. But to the Industry, I'm a joke. I know this, I get it. I'm also not even Sag! Wow. I can hear you laughing. But I'm Aftra! Wow. Are you choking? Are you okay? Breathe! Breathe!
Yeah, so I get it. I need a small boutique agency who "gets" me. When me and soon to be new agent were in our meeting and going over my acting reel, he kept complimenting my work. That was nice. And he loved my headshots. Loved Loved Loved. And if you remember, I take great pictures. Not only have I been featured on Chris Sista's website, but I have also been featured on LuckyShotsphoto.com as well as on LauraBurkephotography.com, as well as her postcard flyer. I am a MODEL, goddamnit! I'm pretty! And photoshop makes me even prettier! (I love you CS3!) So it's exciting to me that I'm going to be with an agent who is working hard and who is excited about me, and who is excited enough to know and remember who I am.
Let's all get excited with me and cross our fingers. I could use me some auditions. And it's not like I think small, people. When I hear other actors say, "oh, I only need to book just one commercial," fuck that. I needs to book me a CAMPAIGN. That's my goal: to have so much effing money from my commercial campaign that I can pay off all student loans (did I mention I got my degree in pretend? and my minor in making up stories?) and actually help my family out a bit. I've put a lot of pressure on myself.
We're kinda in a recession. Have you noticed?
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