8:40
Aaron Marcus recalls his first New York agent, Arthur Bronfen, and the peers who told him not to bother pursuing acting in the city. He shares what actually worked: headshots, resumes, and the willingness to try despite discouragement.
Aaron Marcus recalls his first New York agent, Arthur Bronfen, and the peers who told him not to bother pursuing acting in the city. He shares what actually worked: headshots, resumes, and the willingness to try despite discouragement.
I had a dream last night and it got me thinking about something that I want to share with you. So the dream was about my very first agent in New York City. His name was Arthur Bronfen. He was the owner of what I thought was— still do think was— the best commercial modeling agency in New York. It was called McDonald Richards. They haven't been in existence for quite some time. And unfortunately, Arthur passed away, you know, probably a dozen years ago. But he was just a really kind, just a really kind, kind person. And it was a big deal going to New York. And it— and I don't want to— it's not really— this video is not about the dream, but I just want to share one quick thing. Because the world, the world has changed so much since then. But at that time period, and I'm talking about the late 1980s, you could actually go into the agent's office and they had a room that was devoted just for commercial models. You would go in there, you'd hang out, you'd talk with other commercial models. You didn't want to bother the agents too much because they were busy on the phones, but You walk in, you say hello, how are you doing? And I did a tremendous amount of work with that particular agency. So what I want to share with you was how I got there. And I will never forget, I was working, living in a secondary market. And I had spent 4 years working in smaller markets in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, kind of started making my way into Philadelphia and New Jersey. I felt like I was ready. And I had a contact. It's a long story. I'll tell you about that another time. Wasn't with McDonnell Richards. Actually, you know what, I'll just tell you really quickly. I had a contact with someone from the William Morris Agency— huge, it's like one of the biggest agencies in the world— and sent this agent my headshot and resume, and we set up an appointment. I was going up to New York. I happened to see a model that I had worked with On the train, and he was heading up to New York. I told him what was going on, and he was very, very, very nice. And he said, look, if for any reason things don't work out at William Morris, here's my agent's information at MacDonald Richards. So go to the William Morris agency. Showed her my headshot, we're talking, resume, and she looks at my phone number and she said, 410— actually, at that time it was 301. She said, where is that? I said, oh, it's in Maryland. She said, oh wait, when did you move to New York from Maryland? And I said, no, no, I didn't. And she's— once again, to make a long story short, she just said, I'm sorry, I can't work with people from out of town. When you move to New York, let me know. So felt pretty crushed, and I still had a phone number for this other agency. That's actually how I got to MacDonald Richards. So Backing up to my dream and what popped into my head that I want to share with you. I remember when I felt like I was ready to try to hit the New York market and break in there. I had a number of agents— a number of agents, sorry. I had a number of fellow actors who said to me, Aaron, Don't even try to do this. You're going to get your heart broken. And these are people I knew, and I started thinking, am I really wasting my time here? They were saying, look, there are so many actors who, who try to break into New York every day. They have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, very successful You live in a small market. And I was thinking about it and I was wondering, should I— am I wasting my time with this? And here's what I learned. When you have fellow actors telling you, don't even bother, don't even try, you're wasting your time, this is what they really mean. And what they really mean is They didn't have the courage to give it a try for whatever reason. And I'm not a psychiatrist or psychologist or social worker who can do therapy and really understand what's going on in their brains. But it was very clear to me that they didn't have the courage to do it. And here, here was my way of thinking. I, I could live with attempting to get representation in New York City and striking out. Wouldn't be happy about it, feel horrible, especially, you know, I really wanted to break into New York. However, I realized I could live with that. What I couldn't live with was not trying it, because I knew if I didn't try it and do everything I could to prepare, to make sure I had the right experience, make sure I had the right materials— the headshot, the resume, the commercial photos— because I had done a lot of commercial modeling work at that point before I felt like I was ready for New York. What I couldn't live with was not trying it, because if I didn't try it, every time I saw a big national commercial modeling ad or billboard or poster, I would have thought, I wonder if I could have done it. Every time I saw a national TV spot, every time I saw a television show, every time I saw a feature film, It would be gnawing at me, and I'd be wondering, I wonder if— that I couldn't live with. Couldn't live with not knowing. So I decided to take a chance. And like I said, I prepared. I had studied with people ahead of time. I felt like I knew what I was doing. And as it turns out, it was a life changer. I decided Not to move to New York. I commuted. It was really hard. It was really hard. For decades I would travel up to New York, sometimes every week, sometimes every 2 weeks, do auditions, attend go-sees— the audition for models— get bookings. And so I want to share with you, if you ever have other actors telling you Don't even try this. What they really mean is they probably don't have the courage to try it themselves, and they don't want to see other people succeed. So filter everything that you hear. Look, if you have ever had an experience like this where you had other actors telling you, don't even try, don't even bother with this, please share it here. I'd love, and I'm sure everybody who was on this channel would love to hear and learn from your experience. And look, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget to subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up and share it. That's how we continue to grow the channel and have fellow actors learn from each other and help each other. So I hope this was helpful to you. I love sharing this one. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again. See ya.
