Last Friday I had a conversation with an agent about an actress who left for another agency. I won’t mention any names. It’s enough to say that her old agency held her in high regard and thought she had a ton of potential.  Apparently, the actress walked into the office one day and found that all the agents were either on the phone, or had the door to their office closed. That left her feeling disconnected and unappreciated. As I understand it, she also sent an email to somebody which wasn’t responded to in a timely manner.

Those perceived slights, along with the fact that she wasn’t working as much as she thought she should be (a common complaint), was enough to start her shopping for a new agency. As soon as she found one willing to sign her, she sent an email to her old agency notifying them of her decision to leave, as well as her reasons for moving on.

Happens all the time, right? What’s the big deal?

Well, in the first place, the fact that it happens all the time doesn’t make it right. In the second place, this actress has effectively taken out a gun and shot her career in the foot. Here’s why:

The agency she left was working hard for her. If she had any idea just how hard, it would make her sick to her stomach. They had high hopes for her. I know, because they told me so themselves. That sort of respect doesn’t come easily; it has to be earned. It takes time. This actress had put in the time, done the work and earned their respect. She was on her way.

Had she bothered to call the agency and set up an appointment to discuss her career and future plans, all of that and more might have been communicated to her in the space of 15 minutes.  She would have had a chance to explain how she felt disconnected and out of touch, and the agents would have had a chance to explain that an agency is a business. The good ones are supposed to be busy.

Now this actress has signed with another talent agency, and she will have to start from the ground floor and work her way up all over again. She has probably just set her own career back by a full year, maybe even more. Of course, that assumes her new agency ever believes in her as much as her old one did. No guarantees that will ever happen.

But even if she does get there, what’s to stop her from repeating the same mistake? Surely it’s only a matter of time before she hits a dry patch, or feels slighted in some way. What then? Will she jump ship and work her way up from the bottom with another agency all over again? Regardless of how talented she is or how good she looks, as long as she keeps hopping from agent to agent, she will continue to undermine her own career. Sooner or later, she’s going to have to muster the courage to communicate; that, or run out of agents.

Most actors have no problem opening up to their agents about their innermost personal anxieties. This is because actors want to be friends with their agents, and they believe opening up brings them closer together. And yet, these are the same actors who find it all but impossible to talk about business-related issues which are bothering them, because they don’t want to create a rift. They’ve got it exactly backwards.

Agents are business people.  They might listen to your personal issues out of politeness, but that doesn’t mean they want to hear them. Now, if you’ve got a business related issue you want to discuss - that’s a different matter entirely.

If you have a problem with your agent, call the office and set up an appointment like you would for any other business. Then show up on time, sit down and talk about it with them like an adult. If the matter isn’t important enough for you to set up a face-to-face meeting, put it in an email. Like all business people, agents prioritize their emails, so there is a chance your task might get marked as ”low-priority”. You should understand that this doesn’t mean the agent regards you as low priority – just the email. The average agent is about a thousand times busier than the average actor. You need to cut them plenty of slack.

Leaving an agency is a big deal, because you are essentially firing them. That is the sort of message nobody likes to get in an email, or have left on their answering machine. It’s just rude. How would you like it if someone treated you that way? How much more betrayed would you feel if it was someone who, up until now, treated you like a close friend? You’d probably consider it a cold slap in the face – and with good reason. It’s a weak, gutless way to handle the situation.

If you do get to the point where you decide to move on and leave your agency, have the courage and courtesy to meet with them face-to-face before pulling the plug. There are two sides to every issue. Your agent deserves a chance to present theirs.

Not everyone was happy about the news, however. A small group of SAG members led by Ed Harris and Martin Sheen were so strongly opposed to the idea that they went so far as to file a lawsuit aimed at preventing the vote. That move was rejected by a U.S. District Court Judge. The legal bickering may continue for some time, but the merger is now official.  Based on 82% of the votes in favor, I think it’s safe to say that the majority of actors see this as a positive step forward. I’m encouraged by the development, but there are still some major issues which need to be addressed. Take pension and health for example:

Currently, AFTRA and SAG have their own benefit plans.  Each of these is run by entities which are separate from the unions themselves. When an actor works under a union contract, the producers make a contribution to pension and health on behalf of the actor. This is what pays for the coverage. In order to receive coverage, an actor must therefore earn a minimum amount of money under union contracts each year.

The problem is that a substantial number of actors fall into a “split wage” netherworld. This happened to a good friend of mine back in the mid-90’s. I think the cutoff to qualify for SAG health insurance at that time was something like $10,000 (meaning he had to book a minimum of $10,000 in SAG contracts for the year in order to have the producers contribute enough on his behalf to qualify). Unfortunately, he fell about $70 short of where he needed to be. Nor was he able to pay the difference out of his own pocket. The cutoff line for qualification is hard and fast, with no exceptions. If you fall even a dollar short, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.

It’s the same with AFTRA. In this particular instance, my buddy’s contracts for the year were about a thousand dollars short of the cutoff to qualify for AFTRA health insurance. In other words, he wound-up earning something like $19,000 under union contracts for the year, (well beyond the minimum required by each union’s plan), but since his earnings were cruelly split between the two plans, he didn’t qualify for either of them.

This split-wage issue has been a bit of an embarrassment for SAG and AFTRA for some time now. I hope that by merging the two unions we’ve just taken a major step forward towards combining the two benefit plans, but it remains to be seen.  Stay tuned and I’ll be sure to let you know when I hear of any developments.