In this instructional video, veteran actor‑model Aaron Marcus explains step‑by‑step what performers should do when they haven’t been paid for a job. He breaks down three main categories of work—commercial modeling, non‑union acting, and SAG‑AFTRA union acting—detailing typical payment windows (≈90 days for modeling, ≈30 days for non‑union acting, ≈2 weeks for union work) and the flow of money through photographers, ad agencies, agents, and pay‑masters. Marcus stresses a collaborative tone with agents, offering a template for a concise, non‑confrontational email (“we haven’t received payment”) and advises waiting the appropriate period before contacting the agent. He shares personal anecdotes: a delayed TV check resolved via the union’s late‑fee provisions, a Hawaii shoot paid via a photographer’s payment plan, and a small commercial where the photographer went out of business, leading him to abandon the claim. For cases without an agent, he mentions small‑claims court as a possible recourse. Marcus also highlights the benefits of using an agent—negotiation power, protection, and marketability—and briefly touches on tax deductions for agent commissions. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to share their own experiences, subscribe, and spread the information within the acting/modeling community.
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Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and in this video I'm going to teach you what actors and models should do if you don't get paid for an acting and modeling job. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you click the subscription button and the little bell, the notification button. That way, every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. And if you like the video, you found it helpful, please like it. It helps share this information with other people. So I'm going to teach you about different scenarios about not getting paid and how to deal with it. So let's say it's a commercial modeling job or a non-union acting job. So if it's a commercial modeling job, typically I wouldn't even think of contacting my agent until 90 days. And look, I've been doing this for 35+ years and I've had a really good track record of getting paid. There have been a couple times where there were payment issues, and I'll tell you about those later. So make sure you wait the 90 days because that's typically the length of time that you give the photographers to— because if it's going through the photographer to send the money to the agent, and then the agent to send you the money. The reason why it takes so long— I know I'm kind of jumping a little bit— because let's say if it's going through an ad agency, the ad agency, at the end of their payment period, they'll pay the photographer, Typically, the photographer will wait for a certain time period when they send out their checks. Then the agent gets them, they get deposited, and then when the agents send out checks, the talent gets it. So it can take a long time. So here's the deal. If it's a non-union acting job, it's going to be the same process, except typically you're going to— hopefully you'll get paid within 30 days. You don't have to wait the 90 days. But here's what you want to do. Keep in the back of your mind, the agent is on your team. Look, the agent wants to get paid too. If it's a commercial modeling job, the agent gets a 20% commission fee from us, the model, and they typically will get a 20% commission fee from whoever's being invoiced for the job. So the agent is really getting a 40% cut of the job. So they want you to get paid as well. So Here's what you want to do. Look, I know it can be frustrating. I know you can feel angry. It's like, hey, I did the job. I worked really hard. The job was great. They loved it. I expect to get paid. It's been 90 days. I haven't gotten paid. But you don't want to go into it with that kind of attitude. What you want to do is this. For a commercial modeling job, 90 days are up. Send an email to your agent. Give the agent all of the details about the job. Even though we remember everything, the agent's been dealing, you know, potentially with hundreds of actors and models. They're not going to remember. Make it easy for them. So send them the date of the shoot, the name of the photographer, how many hours you worked, how much you're supposed to be getting paid, who the client was. And then in a very short note, just, just say, look, I just wanted to let you know it's been 90 days. And we haven't gotten paid yet. Not, hey, I haven't gotten paid. Where's my money? I just wanted to let you know we haven't gotten paid. And just by changing that one word from I haven't gotten paid to we haven't gotten paid, now you're not insinuating or inferring that maybe the agent isn't doing his or her job. You guys are a team. You're going into it with a good attitude, and it's just a little reminder to the agent. Oh, You know what? I've got to follow up. I will take care of it. Thank you very much. And it's going to be the same thing for a non-union acting job, like I said, except just wait 30 days. But it's the same process because if you go in there and you're screaming and yelling, it's not going to be good for you. Now, if it is a union acting job, a SAG-AFTRA job, it works a little different Because the union has negotiated rates. They've also negotiated how long actors have to wait before they get paid for the job. Now, there are some variations on their rule. Like, for instance, if it's a government training film, well, they can take longer to pay than other— if it's a TV show or a feature film or a television commercial. Typically, and once again, it will vary a little bit, but you should be getting a check within 2 weeks of the time that you did the job. Sometimes it does take a little bit longer just because it goes through— they're called paymasters. When you do a union acting job, the paymaster guarantees that the money is set aside. There are deductions taken, sent to the government for taxes, and money is sent or indicated to the union and So anyhow, that's what those people do. But so sometimes at the end of the month, it might take them a little longer to get things out, but typically it should be a couple of weeks. Now, I was just in a situation, and I'm certainly not going to name any names here, but there was a project, a TV show that I worked on, and I worked on it The end of April, and it was mid-June before I got a check. So I did exactly what I am telling you to do. I just contacted the agent after a couple of weeks and said, hey, I just wanted to check in. I didn't know if you received the check yet. I haven't gotten a check at all from the client. Because, and once again, when it's a union job and you go through an agent, sometimes you, the actor, gets paid directly through the paymaster. Sometimes it goes to the agent first. It depends on how you set it up, what your contract is like with your agent. So the agent told me, no, we haven't gotten the check. We have been in touch with production and we're working on that right now. And I said, oh, okay, great. You know, when do you think I should get back in touch just to kind of touch bases with you? He's like, give us a couple weeks. I said, great. So a couple weeks went by, same thing. So this was going on for a while, and then finally I spoke to the agent, and the agent said, look, we're— we are now in touch with the union. We've gotten them involved, and essentially what could happen is there should be late fees because the union contracts read If the actor is not paid within a certain time period, they actually get slapped with a fine, and the actor will get a late fee because of the delay of us getting paid. If it gets really bad and they're still not paying and it's been a really long time, they actually have the ability to shut things down. They could, they could just tell all the actors, you're not working, and that would end production. So Just to let you know, as it turns out, I did get paid. And so I got everything. I have not gotten my late fee yet. And so I did contact the union directly, and that's something that they're working on. But let me just tell you one other scenario, and I think this will be really helpful to you. And this is going back quite a few years, but I had a modeling job that was cast in New York. But we shot it on location, and this is like one of those dream jobs. I actually was flown to Hawaii to shoot this job. And so I got— within the 90 days, I actually got my check for the travel time because I was getting paid 2 days for travel, and there was some other money that I was getting, but I didn't get paid for the job itself. So I contacted the agent and the agent said, look, here's what's going on. I've worked with this photographer for many years. I trust this person. They're having some financial issues because the client has not been paying them all their money. She said, look, I don't have any doubts that the photographer is going to pay, but it's going to be delayed. Unlike the union, there isn't any set law with late fees and things like that. It is up to the agent. Sometimes agents do have things in their contract. Stating if you don't pay within a certain time period, they will charge more money. A lot of times agents don't want to do that because they don't want to ruin a potentially, you know, really good relationship with the agent. So the agent got back in touch with me and said, look, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to put the photographer on a payment plan. And so every month the agent is going to pay a percentage of what is still owed. And she said, I have full faith in this person that he will pay you in full. And that's exactly what happened. It took about— I'll tell you, it took about 6 months for me to fully get paid for this job. But the photographer came through, the agent came through, so everything worked out. Here's the thing. If you book a job on your own and you don't have the agent, you don't have a union behind you who can help you with this stuff, Look, I'm not an attorney, can't give you legal advice, but I do know people who have gone through small claims court. Now, every state, I'm assuming, has different laws pertaining to small claims court. Maybe you can only go to small claims court if it's— if you're owed up to a certain amount of money. But you can, and you don't— you don't need an attorney for this. You can take somebody to court. court, small claims court. So that is another option if everything else fails. Or, and I can tell you this, the only other time I had a problem, and this is the one time that I just never got paid, it was a fairly small commercial modeling job. This also was a number of years ago, and I waited the 90 days. It was a direct booking through a photographer. And when I went to contact the photographer just to say, hey, look, it's been 90 days, just wanted to find out what was going on, found out the photographer went out of business. So it's like, what am I going to do? Am I going to start hiring an attorney and start trying to go after somebody or start trying to do small claims court with, you know, for a small amount of money who, you know, with a guy who just went out of business? It just wasn't worth my time. I didn't want to spend— The energy doing this as well. So I just let that one go, and I thought, you know what, those things happen. You know, there's nothing you can do about it. But, you know, for the other things, especially if it's through an agent— and that is one of the advantages of going and booking a job through an agent— is that you have the agent to fight for you. Because personally, I don't like negotiating. Personally, I don't like having to, you know, contact people and say, hey buddy, you owe me money. I just don't like that. I like acting. I like doing the commercial modeling work and things like that, but I'd like to leave things up to the agent. And that is why sometimes even if I get a direct booking from either a photographer or an ad agency, or it might even be through a casting director, Pretty much all the time, I am still going to send it through an agent just because if there are any issues at all, I don't have to deal with it. I'm just going to let the agent handle it. And I'll tell you, the other advantage is if you do find work on your own, and once again, I'm suggesting sending it through your agent, is because the agent, if there's wiggle room to do it, the agent can actually negotiate for you. And you might get a better rate because of the agent. If this is supposed to be on billboards throughout your state and the photographer says, hey, I'll give you an extra $150 on top of whatever you're going to get for the shoot, well, the agent might be able to negotiate a much higher rate for billboard usage. And if there's a problem, the agent can deal with it. And I'll tell you, the other thing too is when you do send a job through an agent, The agency sees that you are making money. The agency sees that you are marketable. And so when another project comes up, why wouldn't they think of you? Because you're making money for the agency. So to me, it's well worth giving up a percentage for all of those reasons. And once again, can't give you legal advice. I'm not a CPA. Can't give you tax advice. But I can tell you For me, I am able to deduct percentages, the percentages that I pay to agents as a deduction for my taxes. And once again, you might not be in that situation, so, you know, don't just go out and do it. But I know that is something that I am allowed to do. So anyhow, if you don't get paid for a job, just Work as hard as you can to try to get paid. Be nice about it. Remember, your agent is on your side. Don't battle with your agent. You don't want to ruin a relationship with an agent, you know, because of that, if especially if it's out of the agent's control. And yeah, I just hope it doesn't happen to you, but if it does, these are the things you want to do. The very last thing If you have ever been in a situation where you didn't get paid for a job, please leave a comment below. Let us know what you did. Was it effective? Did you get paid? Did you just completely get burned by it and you didn't get paid anything? Share that as well. And if you don't want to give out the specific details, certainly there's no reason to do that. But the whole reason for having all of these videos is for All of us in this family to share information and to try to help each other. So please do that. Once again, don't forget to subscribe, click the notification button, and like it. And please share this with your friends. You know, let, let them have this information as well. So, you know, just take the link, send it out through your social media platforms. You can email it out to people. And let's try to help continue to build this community of actors and models who are here to help each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
