Aaron Marcus, an actor with 30 years and over 1,200 jobs including House of Cards and Mr. Robot, was rejected by a talent agency because his headshot didn't show his teeth. The agent even suggested Invisalign. Marcus argues that superficial requirements shouldn't stop actors from pursuing their careers.
Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you're watching this on YouTube, welcome to my Acting and Modeling Quick Tips YouTube channel. Don't forget to subscribe, click the notification button, and that way you'll know every time a new video is uploaded. So I just had a pretty amazing experience. I want to share it with you. All I can say is I am so glad I didn't hear this from an agent over 32 years ago when I first got started. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be in the industry. So I heard about a new agency. It's a small agency, and I thought, well, why not? I mean, most of the auditions that I get in a certain area, there are agents already in place that submit me for it. But I thought, hey, you know what? Let me open myself up to another agency. Maybe there'll be some projects that the other agents don't know about. So I submitted my information and I got a response from the agent saying, I don't see your headshot showing teeth. And I need to have teeth in your headshot in order for me to represent you. So I responded and I told her that I don't have a headshot with teeth. It's just not a look that I like, and it's not just because of my teeth. It's just, it's a very different kind of look for me, and I like having a closed-mouth smile for my headshot. And she wrote back kind of like a little bit of a terse email saying, If you want me to move forward, you gotta put together a headshot that's showing teeth. And so I wrote her back and I just said, well, I can just tell you I've been a full-time actor and a commercial model for over 30 years. I've booked over 1,200 jobs so far. And I listed some of the things that I've done. Recurring role on House of Cards, worked on Mr. Robot, Halt and Catch Fire, Gotham, Rectify, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Wire. I mean, I didn't list all of these things. And I've done ads for McDonald's, for Parents Magazine, for Disney World, and listed some films that I've done. And I said, I certainly would like to work with you. As you can see, I've had a lot of success with the headshots that I've been using. And hopefully you'll reconsider. And she sent me back an email and she said, Well, you should try Invisalign. That way, you'll straighten out your teeth. Otherwise, I can't work with you. So anyhow, I wrote her back and I said, thank you very much for your response. I'm sorry we're not going to be able to work together. So the reason why I wanted to share this with you is, look, if you get some kind of response like this, it doesn't matter whether your headshot shows teeth or not. Yeah, maybe for a A toothpaste commercial, you're not going to be considered if they can't see your teeth right away. Although if you have the right look, they can say, hey, send me something showing teeth so we can consider you or not consider you. But not to represent an actor because they're not showing their teeth in a headshot, it makes no sense. And but I can tell you, you know, when I first got started, I would have felt kind of devastated. I would have thought, boy, can I really work in this industry? Because I'm not about to do braces or Invisalign or anything like that. So anyhow, if you get a response from that, disregard it. There are plenty of agents who want to work with really talented actors and commercial models, whether you're showing your teeth in your headshot or not. Hey, and I just, just wanted to mention too, if you've ever had any weird experiences and gotten comments from agents that, that you feel like you can share with others, just so we can learn from it, please post them here. And as also, as you can imagine, I always ask, with all of my quick tip videos. If you're able to make a donation just to keep the channel up and running, as you can imagine, it takes a very long time, not just shooting and editing, coming up with ideas, but there's a lot of text that goes into placing them into the website. So if you could just click the button below, it goes straight to PayPal. Make a donation, whether it's $5, $10, $25, whatever you can afford. greatly appreciate it. And, uh, if there are any topics that you want me to cover in a new quick tip, uh, let me know and I'll see if I can do it. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus. It was great sharing this with you. Can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
