It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday. In a three-bedroom apartment in Lincoln Park, The Commitments blare from a CD player. Paul McDevitt flails around his tiny room, belting out the words to “Mustang Sally.” The ones he doesn’t know, he makes up.
The 6-foot-2-inch, 26-year-old actor stops in front of the mirror, runs his hands through his wavy brown hair and proclaims, “You’re gonna get this one!”
“This one” is the television commercial he’s auditioning for today. It’s about the 30th audition he’s been to this year. This one’s for a restaurant. If he lands the commercial, it’ll be his fourth. Not bad in an industry where some insiders say you can expect to snag one out of 20 roles you audition for. Other insiders say one out of 80.
A few hours later, the bubbly, baby-faced comedic actor is standing in front of the audition camera, purring to an imaginary plate of food: “Oh, hello, Miss Chicken. You look so beautiful tonight! You and Mr. Ribs are so fine, I can’t wait to eat you!”
Then he goes home to wait for the call telling him he got the job. It doesn’t come. When the phone does ring, it’s his agent, telling him about the next audition, for the next commercial. The Commitments blare on.
It isn’t easy to break into acting, especially in a town such as Chicago, which draws actors from around the country. But if you think you’ve got what it takes–a little money, a lot of talent, a chunk of commitment and a mountain of patience–read on for advice on how to join the ranks of the rich and famous, or at least the struggling and semi-recognized.
– The first thing you need is a headshot taken by a professional photographer. That costs between $150 and $400. That’s a big initial outlay but necessary if you want to be taken seriously by any agent or casting director in a town where every other actor has professional pictures.
Explains Judy Kasner, an agent at Emilia Lorence Ltd., “They’re your calling card as a performer.”
Kids get a little leeway. Since they grow and change so fast, many agents and directors will accept recent snapshots of kids. Make them jumbo size and no more than a month old.
– Your second task is finding an agent to represent you and help you find work. Many casting directors–the ones who actually hire actors for television and print ads–prefer to work through agents. The process works like this: A restaurant decides to make a commercial. The restaurant hires a casting director to find actors. The casting director contacts agents around town to get names of actors who fit the specs. Your agent says you’d be great for the role and, voila, you’re fondling chicken and ribs at an audition.
Agents work only on commission (10 percent for television commercials; 20 percent for print ads), so it doesn’t cost you anything to get one. No reputable agency will charge you to register, says Kasner. “The only time an agency makes money is when that talent wins a job.
– So, how to land an agent? Like McDevitt, you can send your picture to talent agencies all around town. He sent out 25 pictures before an agent agreed to represent him. Now he’s got several agents, which is common in Chicago–it’s called being multilisted.
The other way to get an agent is to drop by for an interview– but only during an agency’s open registration hours. You’ll find a list of agents in the booklet “Act One Reports” ($5, 773-348-6757). A partial list of agents appears on Page 3 of Your Money.
Myrna Salazar of Salazar & Navas accepts as clients about one-fourth of the hundreds of actors who apply to her agency every month. It’s not just the beautiful people who get past the gate, but, she admits, “This is a very physical business. There is work for charactery-looking people, but they need some kind of acting background.”
Kasner concurs. She frequently looks for actors with faces you’d associate with a cleaning product or a big department store–that wholesome, ordinary, smiling, family next door. But, she adds, “There are a lot of blue-collar roles in Chicago. Some clients want a dirty, grubby, tow truck kind of actor.”
– Once you have an agent, you’ve got to start going to auditions. And going to auditions. And going to auditions.
“Being an actor requires a lot of patience, the ability to wait around a lot and the ability to handle repeated rejection,” says Elayne LeTraunik, who runs an audition announcement hot line called Casting Call. You also have to have a very flexible schedule, because you don’t get much notice before each audition.”
Jane Heitz, a casting director whose firm, Heitz Casting Services Inc., hires actors for commercials, looks for actors with personality. “Somebody who’s bubbly will certainly do better than somebody who’s sour.”
– Now, the big question: Does becoming an actor mean you’ll be waiting tables, eating Spam for dinner and buying only one-ply toilet tissue for the rest of your days? The amount of money you make in commercials depends on whether the work you’re doing is covered by one of the unions: the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which covers commercials shot on film, or the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA), which covers commercials shot on videotape.
If it is a union commercial, and you have a principal on-camera role, you’ll get a minimum of $478 for an eight-hour day of taping. For an off-camera role (you’re heard, but not seen), you’ll get $359. Extras earn $259. But if the commercial is shown far and wide, you can make a lot more in residuals. On the high end, for an on-camera role in a network program commercial that runs for 13 weeks, you’d earn $478 the first time it ran, and less each successive time, down to $46.65 for each time past the 14th.
If the company runs the commercial past 13 weeks, the payment cycle restarts. You can’t join a union until you land at least your second union-sanctioned job. While joining a union is prestigious, it’s also expensive. AFTRA is $856 to join, plus yearly dues of $113; SAG is $1,116, plus $83 annually. SAG and AFTRA have about 5,000 members in Chicago.
– Print ads (photographs that appear in magazines, catalogs and billboards) are not regulated by the unions. For a print ad, says Kasner, an adult might earn $150 per hour; a child, $65 per hour.
– Another non-union gig that can be a lot of fun is becoming an extra in movies and TV shows that film around town–and there are lots of them.
Last year Julia Roberts filmed “My Best Friend’s Wedding” here and some extras got to work on camera for a month, says Karen Peake, of Karen Peake Casting (312-360-9266), which specializes in placing extras. Another agency that does the same is Holzer & Ridge Casting (women call 312-922-4043; men call 312-922-4042).
Extras earn $45 for eight hours, or, more typically, $65 for 12 hours, says Peake.
