The last thing anybody wants to hear is an agent complaining about his job. I totally get that. But truth be told, representing actors can be exhausting. And that’s coming from a dude who worked in construction when he was younger.
You’re probably wondering what’s so hard about being an agent. After all, we’re just glorified salespeople. Our clients are the ones who do all the real work, right? Wrong.
On some level, agents are indeed salespeople and actors are our product, but there’s a big difference between what I do for a living and how the sales team at Tesla earns its money. I can tell you right now those cars have never stalled during a test drive because they were having a bad day, and I guarantee a Model S never left a perfectly good dealership to go with a bigger one just because it was time for a change.
The products I sell are actors—they’re human beings. And that’s a completely different game.
Actors are creative individuals who are trying to practice their craft in an uncertain world that doesn’t always reward talent. That kind of pressure makes them needy and unpredictable. So as an agent, you just never know what might derail your best-laid plans to sell them.
Take just the other day, for instance: I finally got one of my guys in for one of the last series regular roles still open, and he totally tanked the audition. Why? Because he had stayed up late fighting with his girlfriend. I can promise you this never happened with a Tesla.
Then there was the client who called me twice a day for an entire week wanting to know if I had heard anything from casting about his audition. “Did you hear anything?” “Did you hear anything?” I tried to explain that agents don’t keep secrets. As soon as we know, the actor knows. But that didn’t stop this guy from calling me over and over until I finally told him he didn’t get the job.
READ: 3 Tips for Bidding Your Agent Farewell
The ultimate frustration in my world is that agents often get punished for doing their job too well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve signed young actors with no credits, sold them to the industry, helped them build a career, and then watched helplessly as they left me for a bigger agency.
I know, I know—cry me a river. You’re probably thinking I should man up and stop whining. Well, I’m not Superman. Bullets don’t bounce off me, and even when I should know better, I still get attached to certain clients, so when they leave, it can be devastating.
But the bottom line is that I signed up for this life. It was my choice to become an agent. And when I zoom out to the big picture (which is a good practice in mindfulness for everyone, especially people in this business), I see that I’ve had more good days than bad. Many of the actors I’ve represented have become famous, and I’m proud that I had a hand in guiding their careers. When all is said and done, I enjoy my life as a 10 percenter—and that includes all the craziness and frustration that come with it.
Ask SAM more about agent life on the Backstage Community forums today!
