We’re used to seeing apologies in castings for projects
being low budget. We hear all the usual excuses due to it being made my
students or the fact that everyone’s working for free and it’s a labour of
love. I know I have plenty of complaints about these types of castings but at
least they're being honest and we know that money can be hard to come by.
However, it’s a very different situation when it’s a well-known company that
rewards its chief executive bonuses that are in their millions.
Today I saw a casting for Experian, the credit check
company and it was for an internal corporate film. Now, it’s no advert but still,
your image is being used for a massive company. And how much do they want to
pay actors to be part of this film? The measly sum of £50. Their chief
executive earned £9 million last year. If we presume that he works every single
second of the year then it takes him just three minutes to earn £50. Isn’t it
lovely to feel valued, actors?
I realise that just because a company makes a lot of money,
it doesn’t necessarily mean they can chuck thousands at the actors that they hire. I’m not
that naïve. However, when a chief executive can give himself a £1.5 million
bonus, it can be a pretty bitter pill to swallow. As actors we give up our face
to help these companies out. Our image can help them sell their product and our
acting skills can help them train their staff better. Ultimately our work is helping them make a
profit so why the heck are we finding ourselves being shoved further and
further down the food chain? And this particular job is for an internal film
meaning that the only exposure you’re likely to get is to Darren in the IT
department. At best you might get a little
snippet to put on your showreel but, more likely, you’ll probably just find
yourself leaving with a sense that you’ve sold yourself extremely short. It’s
hardly surprising that a company that provides credit checks will probably just
be providing you with a credit for your CV and nothing else.
Unfortunately, it seems that these larger companies have now
cottoned on to the fact that many actors will work for nothing, or for very
little, and if they put out a casting offering the minimum amount of cash
possible then they can be sure to get at least enough applicants to get the job
done. This does us actors no favours and the only ones to benefit are the
companies themselves who get to keep their cash and ensure these eye-watering
bonuses keep being given out while we’re left wondering, yet again, how we’re
going to pay our rent.
As usual, I can only keep urging actors to think very
carefully when taking on unpaid work. I know we want to fill our CVs up with
jobs that are less that 5 years old and I know we want to take on anything so
that we can feel like we’re at least doing something. But by doing these jobs,
we’re turning the world of acting from a profession into a hobby. And if that
happens then that means I’ll have to update my CV. Don’t make me deal with that
level of rage.
