Aaron Marcus recalls being a stand-in on a TV set when a production assistant told him to sit in a principal actor's trailer, then the actor showed up furious. He reflects on learning to filter what people tell you and invites viewers to share their own stories.
In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how a famous actor actually deceived me while working on a TV show. It still is pretty shocking to me. Also, watch this to the end and I've got a great bonus video for you. It's 5 easy steps to creating an acting reel even with little to no experience. 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. So this is— this isn't something I normally talk about very much, and I'm still kind of shocked by the way this famous actor lied to me. And I still honestly, I still don't understand it. So I want to share it with you, and then I'll tell you why I'm doing this. Oh hey, before I forget, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget to subscribe, click the notification bell so you're always notified when a new video has been uploaded, and if you like it, give it a thumbs up. That's really helpful. And share the link with your fellow actors. So this is a couple decades ago, and I, I was working as a stand-in on a TV show, did it for about a season and a half. Great, great experience. And if you're not 100% sure of what a stand-in does, I'll just tell you really briefly. Basically, and I learned this, that a stand-in is actually in the category of an extra. You get paid a lot better. than an extra, and you also were treated better. Now what you do is typically they will hire somebody who is the same height, has the same facial features as one of the principal actors, whether it's a movie, a TV show, and you literally stand in for the actor while they're getting the camera set up, they're getting the lighting They might even ask you to do some lines just to get a general ballpark idea of the sound. If you have to walk down the street and the camera is on a dolly, they can follow you. Basically, they do all the technical work with the stand-in so that when the actor, principal actor, is ready to shoot, they bring him or her in and then they can get started. And then the principal actor doesn't have to spend all this time Just doing technical stuff. It's a great experience. I learned so much from doing this, not only from other actors but listening to directors and learning more about what people do on sets. So here's the situation, and, and look, this actor passed away a number of years ago, and I don't know, I don't like saying the names of people who passed on, so I'm not going to identify the actor. And ultimately, it doesn't matter. Very well-known actor who had been in many— mostly movies. He didn't like TV. As a matter of fact, he even told me, he goes, I hate doing television shows. And he didn't like working on the one that he was working on, although he was great. So the situation was this: I'm the stand-in, they're shooting a scene outside, they're getting ready to shoot a scene outside, or getting ready to set up the scene, and one of the production assistants, PAs, saw me and he walked over and he said, look, they're not going to need you for about 20 minutes or so. It's cold outside. He He's— I'll never forget, he said, yeah, see that trailer over there? Just go sit in the trailer. I'll come get you when, when we need you, and that way you're not, you know, you're not going to freeze. And I said, so that trailer right over there? He goes, yep, that's the one. Okay, great. So I walked over to the trailer, opened up the door. The actor's in there! The principal actor, one of the stars of this show, is sitting in his trailer. And I was embarrassed. I was a little shocked. I felt bad. I just opened up the door and this, this guy's just sitting in the trailer. And I said, oh, I am so sorry. I said, there must be a mistake. The PA just said sit in the trailer for a while until they're ready, until they need me. And he looks at me, he goes, no, no, no, it's fine, it's fine. Look, Just come on in. Actually, I need to head to set right now, so yeah, just sit in here and, and they'll get you when they need you. And I said, no, I, I, I don't want to sit in your trailer. I feel uncomfortable. I don't want to do this. He goes, I'm telling you, Aaron, just sit in the trailer. It's fine. I said, you're sure? He goes, absolutely. I said, all right, all right, well, thank you. I really, really appreciate it. It was nice. It was toasty. It was comfortable. And so I'm sitting in the trailer, and I'm not exaggerating, 2 minutes later the PA apparently was like running down to the trailer and he is banging on the door. He goes, Aaron, get out of there, you got to get out. I said, you ready for me now? No, no, no, just get out. He goes, the actor was furious. I said At me? He goes, he was screaming and yelling, what are they doing putting a stand-in in my trailer? What's he doing? And he was— he just went off. This is the same guy who said, no, no, Aaron, come on in, just, just sit, it's fine. And I still— and so I got out of there very quickly. When I saw him, it was very uncomfortable for me. And to this day, I'm still shocked. I still have no understanding of what took place. I don't know. I mean, look, he could have been very nice about it and said, hey, I'm sorry, I just— I can't have you— I can't have you sitting in the trailer. He could have said it very nicely to me. I wouldn't have been upset. I understand. When I have trailers, I wouldn't want other people sitting in there. So I guess one of the lifelong lessons that I got from that was, look, I listen to what everybody in the industry says to me. I always hear and listen to what they have to say. I also filter everything that is said to me, and whether it's something positive— oh, Loved your take, that was great, that was wonderful, your talent. Okay, I'd rather hear that than I think you're awful. But you know what? I don't necessarily take that in either. And when I hear bad things, I don't take that in either. What— so what I've learned is to filter everything that people say to me. And look, I'm sure this is not just true in the acting world. Sure, it's true globally in any kind of business that you're in, but I've been in enough situations where people have said things to me that apparently they didn't mean, they weren't being truthful. And so I— it was an invaluable lesson, and I really wanted to share that with you. And I'm curious if you ever had a situation where somebody said something to you that They just weren't being honest with you for whatever reason. Please share it with us here, and you don't have to name names if you don't want to, that's fine. But just tell us about the experience so that— and how you dealt with it, so that way we can learn from you. And I know I've said this before, but this is why I have this channel, so we have a group of, of people who are helping each other, sharing information. We're learning from each other. So please share that. I would really, really appreciate you doing that. I did promise, and if you look up here, you're going to see the little icon you can click on to watch this bonus video. And it's 5 easy steps to take to learn how to create an acting reel. even with little to no experience. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
