Aaron Marcus lost a national print campaign because he cut his hair between a go-see and the shoot. The photographer refused to use him. His rule: never change your appearance after an audition unless your agent confirms you're out of the running.
Here's another Acting and Modeling Quick Tip with me, Aaron Marcus. Well, the title of this is Don't Cut Your Hair. And, you know, that feels a little bit weird here. I'm talking about my own hair, looking at my hair. Hair's kind of long. And so I've wanted to— actually, I've wanted to cut it for a little while now, but I decided not to. And I'll tell you why in one second, but it's all based on one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in this industry. Hi, Aaron. And I'm going back maybe 25 years ago, but I still learned this invaluable lesson. To make a very long story short, went to a go-see in New York. It was a big national campaign, print campaign. It was going to be running on billboards. Went to the go-see. They took a couple pictures, didn't hear anything. And then I booked a job for the United States Navy. It was a training film, and I had to get my haircut. And, um, About another week after that, I got a phone call from the agent saying, hey, congratulations, you booked that national print ad. I said, well, that's wonderful. So I went up to New York, and when I walked into the photographer's studio, he looked at me and he said, looks like you cut your hair. I said, yeah, yeah. I mean, this was about 3 weeks ago, and I had another job. I had to cut it. And he said, I don't think I can use you. And so he took a couple pictures, looked at it, and said, nope, can't use you. And I'm able to talk about it pretty calmly now. It was devastating. I, uh, I felt horrible. I felt embarrassed. I felt very unprofessional here. I've got to go back to my agent now to say that I've been fired. And I'll tell you what I've learned from that is that anytime I go to a go-see or I have an audition, And if I feel like I'm ready to get my haircut or I want to, I always contact my agent to say, just want to check in, is it okay to change my look? Have they made decisions? And so my hair is a little bit longer than it— than I would like it to be, but I had an audition. They haven't made decisions yet on this film, and so I'm waiting. And I did speak to the agent about it, and so— Anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you. It is crucial that you should not change any kind of appearance that you have from the time you went to a go-see unless you find out that you've been released, you're not being considered, or you definitely don't have the job. And that is how you can avoid some really painful situations, and that's being a professional as well. So if you were watching this on Facebook, please give it a thumbs up. Like this on YouTube. If you're watching it there. And if you've had any experiences that you would like to share with things that you did that perhaps you would do differently today, leave a comment. That way you can share it with other people. You can put it on my facebook.com/howtomodel page or just post it at the bottom here. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. Thank you, Aaron.
