In this instructional YouTube video, actor Aaron Marcus explains why he declined a high‑profile nationwide billboard modeling campaign about child‑abuse awareness, despite the job’s visibility and pay. He frames the decision as a business‑reputation concern: as a father and a frequent child‑focused commercial actor, appearing on a billboard that could be interpreted as portraying him as a “child molester” might jeopardize future child‑related work. Marcus uses the story to illustrate broader criteria actors should consider when accepting or rejecting jobs, including scheduling conflicts, moral or ethical objections, and unwillingness to support a company or product. He advises a concise, professional decline phrase—“I’m just not available”—and stresses the importance of communicating the decision early to agents. At the end of the video he teases a bonus clip offering three tips for handling rejection from agents, and repeatedly encourages viewers to subscribe, like, and share the channel. The video serves both as a personal anecdote and a practical guide for actors navigating career decisions.
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People were shocked when I turned down a great modeling job. And after you watch the video, you're going to get a chance to really learn a lot of different decisions that go into accepting or turning down a job. And at the very end, I've got a great bonus video for you. If you've ever been turned down by an agent, felt rejected, I've got 3 tips. Okay, let's get started. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with you from the 38+ years I've been working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you always know when I upload a new video. And if you'd like it, give it a thumbs up and feel free to share the link with fellow actors. This was many years ago, and I was offered— it was a direct booking, and because I had worked with the photographer before, and it was a great modeling job. It was going to be on billboards across the country. And so it was a pretty cool job, and I turned it down. And people were really wondering, why, why would I turn this job down? Well, let me explain to you before I tell you the specific reason for this job, just a couple of reasons why you might want to turn down a job. One, well, of course, if you're already booked out on that date. Now, sometimes, you know, depending on the kind of job it is, if it's 2 commercial modeling jobs and it's in the same area, you might be able to play around with the times and do both jobs. You do have to be very careful with that, and you have to let people know ahead of time what's going on with that. The other time that you want to turn down a job is if you really don't want to support the company, the organization, the product. I mean, let's say you are you know, a vegan, you might not want to do any ads for fast food restaurants because you might not want to support people eating meat. You know, that's a very legitimate thing. Just make sure you tell the agent ahead of time. Don't go to a go-see, book the job, and then start thinking, well, maybe I really don't want to do it. So that's another time. Another time is if it just goes against your morals, your beliefs, if you don't like the content, if you don't like the language, Look, I know it's hard to turn jobs down. I mean, after doing almost 1,300 jobs, I think I've turned down about 5 or 6, so I don't turn down that many things. But you don't want to do something that you're going to regret. And once again, it's hard. Trust me, it's hard. You don't know how the agent's going to react. But this is your life, and as important as work is, Your personal well-being and mental health is more important, and you never want to look back and say, boy, I really wish I hadn't done that. Explain it to the agent, and hopefully the agent will understand. So getting back to this modeling job, it was a great job. I was in full support of it. I hope it would— I was hoping it would be a very effective one. I just didn't want to do it. Here's the scenario. It was about child abuse, and it was about how kids today have to be very careful because there are some bad people out in this world. The reason why I was requested for this job is because, you know, typically you might think of somebody who looks scary and evil as being a child molester. Well, you've got to— you got to be careful with everybody. Even nice guys like me. And I didn't turn it down because I was afraid people would think I was a child molester. Look, we're actors. Anthony Hopkins, you know, people don't think he really is a cannibal, you know, from Silence of the Lambs. So I wasn't concerned about that. But here was my concern. I, at that time period, I was the young dad. I was doing a lot of ad campaigns. with kids from actually when Toys R Us was still around, Parents magazine, Toys— not Toys R Us, there's another product I remember I did. Oh, Crayola crayons. I remember doing some big things with them. So I was doing a lot of things with kids, and even though I knew that people would understand, I'm not— I don't have any problems with children. I've got kids and they love me and their friends love me. But I thought that it might hurt business for future jobs. Even though people got it, they might not want to hire me because I am closely connected with being, you know, a child molester up on billboards across the country. So I thought about it and I decided it wasn't a good business decision for me, and I thanked the agent very much. And I just— and these are the words I always like— I'm just not available. That's how I like— I don't want to get into all this stuff a lot of times unless, unless it's really necessary. Those are my favorite words. Thank you so much. I'm just not available. And I use that a lot for turning things down. So anyhow, I wanted to share that with you. Hey, look, if you have ever turned down a job for any reason, or even just an audition, please share it in the comments section so we can learn from you as well. Don't forget, if you haven't subscribed, Uh, please do that. Click the notification bell, share this, and oh, I almost forgot. Um, if you look up here, you'll see the little icon you can click on to watch this great video. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
