Expert: Phil Nemy - 12/1/2009

Question
I'm an 18, almost 19 year old male from the western part of Kentucky.  I have been in plenty of plays, and have even auditioned at an open casting call back in January for the movie debuting on Christmas named "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin.  I also can sing, participating in musicals and auditioning for American Idol.  Just recently I participated in a short horror fan film for the Halloween series, in hopes to be noticed by John Carpenter, and for the love of acting.  I'm in my first year of college, and personally would leave further education behind (I'm going for a degree in acting anyways) if I could just get a big break.  I also, if I needed too, as I've seen in most of your other answers, have a way to get to Los Angeles because I have a relative who lives there and would be more than happy to buy a plane ticket there.  The main problem for me though is money.  In the event I were to go to Los Angeles and pursue a career in acting, I am wondering about agents.  Would I have to pay to aquire one, or in time if I were to attend auditions and was "noticed" by any of the casting directors, would I eventually aquire one?  Also, how does the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) go about with joining, because that could have really helped me out when I auditioned for It's Complicated.  Thanks in advance for the reply.

Answer
Mark,

Thanks for writing. You don't pay agents a fee for the right to represent you. Agents get paid IF AND ONLY IF you get paid for acting work. For example, if you book an acting job in a film and let's say it pays $5000 total. The producers will mail a check to your agent for $5000. He will cash the check, take $500 from it (his fee is 10% of what you earn), and send you a check for $4500. So you don't pay him up front. He earns money when you earn money.

There are a number of ways to get into the SAG which are spelled out in my book, GET A REEL JOB. You might read the section for actors in the book as I think it will be quite helpful to you.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Phil