In this instructional video, actor‑model coach Aaron Marcus explains why and how performers should politely decline auditions or jobs. He outlines four main reasons to turn down work—personal morals or comfort, scheduling conflicts, business considerations (pay, future opportunities), and financial viability—while emphasizing that fear of burning bridges should not dominate decisions. Marcus shares personal anecdotes, including a commercial he rejected to protect his reputation with child‑focused brands and a misstep where he critiqued a film and lost future opportunities. He then presents a simple, four‑word response—"I am not available"—as the optimal way to say no without entering debate or creating conflict. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to share their own experiences.
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In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you the 4 perfect words that you absolutely need to say every time you turn down this job. So that way, when you are in a situation where for whatever reason you need to turn it down, now you can do it in a really smart way. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Actor and Model Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. And if you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button. And also, this is really important, the notification bell. And that way, every time I upload a new video, which I try to do every Tuesday, uh, just depending on my schedule, uh, you'll be notified and you'll, you'll know that there's a new video there for you to watch. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up as well. Look, I've been very fortunate and I've booked nearly 1,300 jobs so far. These are acting and modeling jobs. And I think I've turned down maybe about 5 jobs in my life, so I really don't turn down that many jobs. But there are times where it is important to turn down a job or, or an audition as well. And look, it could be anything from maybe you're already booked out for that date, maybe you are, you know, traveling somewhere, maybe you're in school, you just can't take the time off, or something's going on at work. Or there could be other reasons why you turned down a job. And look, I get it. It's really hard to say no to an audition or a job. It's, it's very easy to start feeling paranoid and thinking, my agent's going to hate me, or the casting director isn't going to want to call me anymore or contact me. If you have that kind of relationship and you are contacted directly by a casting director. It can be hard, but let me tell you, just first of all, there are times when you absolutely need to turn down a job or, or an audition. Number one, if it's a project you're not comfortable with. You know, maybe you are, I don't know, a vegan, and you don't want to support any kind of project, let's say a TV commercial, let's say for a fast food restaurant, and you don't want to promote people eating meat. Well, that might be a good time to turn it down and say no to it. Maybe it's for alcohol or cigarettes, you don't want to promote that, you're going to say no. For furs, whatever it is. Or maybe it's the content. Maybe there's language in this project that you are not comfortable saying. Now you can always try to either talk yourself, or if you have an agent, have your agent contact the director and see if something could be worked out. But if that's If that's not the case, then listen, you probably should be saying no. Or if there's any actions in the project that you're not comfortable participating with— look, here's the deal. You don't want to do something that you are going to regret later in your life. If it's something that's going to embarrass you, it goes against your morals, it goes against your beliefs, whatever it is. Say no. And I know it is difficult saying no because once again, we're always afraid that it's going to put an end to our relationship with somebody. But as important as acting and/or modeling work might be, it's, it's not the most important thing in this world. And so, you know, your, your beliefs, the way you want to live your life, to me— and once again, I'm just speaking for myself— I put that on a higher priority. Now, the things that I've turned down— once again, I rarely turn anything down, but I'll tell you, there was one, and I don't mind sharing it with you. And it was, it was just a business decision, had nothing to do with morals or anything like that. It was a— this is years ago— it was a commercial modeling job. And the whole concept of this print campaign— and this, this was a big campaign— was You've got to be really careful. Kids have to be really careful today. Even nice, friendly guys like me could be child molesters, and you've got to be really careful. Now, look, I wasn't concerned that people are going to see me on a poster or something and think, boy, I didn't know Aaron Marcus was a child molester. That's hard. I wasn't concerned about that. Just like when you see Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, people aren't really going to get concerned. Boy, I didn't know he was a cannibal. You know, that, that was my concern. Here is my concern. At that time period, I was doing a bunch of shots, mostly commercial modeling shots, uh, with kids. I was portraying the dad. And so, um, I was doing shots for— well, it used to be Toys R Us, no longer around. Uh, Crayola Crayons was another, um, job, uh, that I had. And Parents magazine there. I did a lot of things with kids. And, and I was concerned, even though I I knew that they certainly knew I wasn't doing anything harmful to children, but if I'm closely connected with being a child molester, that could have an impact on future jobs with kids. And so it was strictly a business decision of saying no to the project. Now, some people also will say no for financial reasons. I understand that. I typically don't— I mean, unless it's just crazy and people want me to travel long distances and not really pay me anything. But look, for me, because I'm in the union, everything is scale, and I'm very happy with scale. And quite often— well, actually, pretty much every time now— if it's a bigger project, it's going to be scale plus 10%, which means that the 10% commission fee that I have to pay my agent is really covered by production. So I will actually see the entire fee that I'll be getting, minus taxes and things like that. But for commercial modeling, everything is negotiable. And I know some people who won't roll out of bed for a job that pays less than $500. And look, if that's your way of running your business, that's fine. I don't, and I'll tell you why I don't. And, you know, it's up to you to make the final decision for yourself. My feeling is every time I do a job— and once again, let's just stick with commercial modeling for right now— who knows, even though if I'm getting paid a small amount of money, who knows how important that shot might be for me. It might be a phenomenal photograph that gets me lots of other work. Maybe I'm going to meet with a new photographer and work with a new photographer who's going to, I assume, really like working with me, why wouldn't the photographer hire me again? Maybe it's an ad agency or the client themselves. Maybe there's another project coming up. So I just always find that work gets work, but it's, it's completely up to you. And it's not a good or bad, you know, you make that decision for yourself. My business model is I like to work. That's why I've worked as much as I have. And because I get a lot of repeat business, so I find that really helpful. But look, if you are in a situation where you are going to turn something down, here are the 4 words you have to say. And before I tell you, let me also just mention, look, you don't want to get into anything about the project itself. You know, I was reading the, the sides and I don't know, I just don't think it's written really well. It's not clear. It just kind of seems so— Don't get into any of that stuff. That's not your job, and you don't want to start creating battles with people in the industry. You know what? I'm going to tell you one other really quick story that is really pertinent to this, and it taught me a tremendous lesson of not creating problems. I did a TV spot for an ad agency, and this particular ad agency did all of the advertising for new movies that were coming into the area. And so what they would do— maybe I shouldn't say all, they did a lot of them. So what they would do is they would have screenings and they would bring in the press and then they would review the movies and would give it a lot of publicity and things like that. So the person who owned the ad agency, like me, like the work I did for another client, invited me. to attend the screening. It was pretty cool. I was getting free tickets. They were giving out things as well. And one time after one of the movies, she walked over to me and said, hey, so what did you think of the movie? So, look, I didn't think that being honest meant anything. I didn't think it was going to create any kind of issues. And I said, you know, it was okay. I don't know. It seemed very predictable to me. A little schmaltzy for my taste. I don't know, it just, it really just didn't do it for me. And as it turns out, it was Dirty Dancing. It's just not my style of films. Turned out to be this tremendous hit, and I got dropped from being on the list. So look, you don't want to start critiquing things with people, you know, and saying that's why you're not getting— you're not going to do the audition or accept the booking. Look, here's what you say. 4 simple words. Just say, I am not available. That's it. Don't get into anything else. I am not available. You're not available because you don't want to do it, but you don't want to go into explanations and details and things like that. So anyhow, using those 4 words, the best 4 words to turn something down. And by the way, if If you have ever turned down a job or an audition, love to hear how you did it and what kind of response you got. Please leave a note in the comments section. And if you haven't done this yet, a quick reminder, please subscribe, click the notification bell, like the video if you found it helpful. And, um, I can't wait to talk with you again soon. I'm Aaron Marcus. See ya. See ya.
