Will Signing An Exclusive Contract Actually Destroy Your Acting Career

In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you information about whether actors should be signing exclusive agents contracts. If you watch this video till the end, I also have a great bonus video. It's this one huge mistake I made that almost cost me a great headshot session. Okay, let's get started. Hi, 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 that I've learned from my nearly 40 years of working as a full-time actor. Whether actors should be signing exclusive agency contracts, it's a, uh, it's a little bit of a complicated question, and I'm going to answer that for you in just a second. But first, let's Let me just go over a couple of things with you just to make sure you know, like, what, what is an agent's contract? So first of all, an agent's contract, basically it's a, it's a legal written agreement that will state that you are working with that agent. They're going to talk about how much it costs To work with the agent. So the way that it works is if you are a union member, a SAG-AFTRA member, at least as of today— and that might change— but as of today, we are only allowed to pay our agent a 10% commission fee for acting jobs. Now, if you're doing non-union work and you're not a member of the union, typically you'll be paying Either 15%, most likely a 20% commission fee if you're doing modeling, like commercial modeling work. And even for me as well, as a union member, because there is no connection between the union and commercial modeling, I pay my agent a 20% commission fee. And you might not know this, but the agent typically will also get an additional 20% commission fee from whoever is being invoiced for the job, either the photographer or maybe the advertising agency. So the agent really is getting a 40% commission fee from commercial modeling jobs— 20% from us, 20% from whoever is being invoiced. Along with them making money from getting percentages of jobs that you book, the only other time that An actor might be spending money with working with an agent is if they have a website and they ask you to be a part of the website so you can have your headshot, maybe commercial shots, resumes, reels, or whatever they, they want. And that's a very legitimate expense for an agent to ask for. Not all agents have websites and things like that. Sometimes they just have you use places like Actors Access, Casting Networks, 800 Casting. And for some of them, there are fees. Some of them, you can have a free version of that. But anyhow, that's, that's what the cost is, and that's really it. Agents make their money from taking a percentage of, of the booking. Now, with the exclusivity Here's where it gets a little complicated. So exclusive— and by the way, not all agents ask for exclusivity. Some do, quite a few do, some don't. I have a couple that I do have exclusive contract with, and that kind of goes back to where it gets a little complicated. Being exclusive can mean a few different things. Being exclusive could be you're exclusive to that particular state where the agency is. So I have an exclusive contract with one agent in his particular state. I can work with any other agents in surrounding states. That's not an issue. But in his state, I can only work with him. The other thing is With exclusivity, it could be more regionally. So let's say, for instance, let me just pick Pennsylvania, and let's say you want to work with an agent in Philadelphia. They might say, yep, you're going to be exclusive with us for the Philadelphia area, maybe New Jersey, maybe even New York area. I don't know. Would that mean that they're also your exclusive agent for Pittsburgh? Depends. And that's a conversation you're going to have to have. They might not care about the Pittsburgh market because they might think, you know what, that's far enough away. Our primary work is in Philadelphia. So if you want to work in Pittsburgh, that's fine. Or if you want to work in Cleveland, we really don't care. So exclusivity could mean a few different things. Could be around the world. It could be anywhere in the world. It could be just in your state. It could be in your area, surrounding area, in your region. So if you are asked to sign an exclusive contract, make sure you know what does exclusive mean, and then it's going to be up to you. Now, this is just my opinion. Everybody has their own thoughts on this. But I'm thinking if you're just getting started in the industry and there's a good agent that is interested in working with you and they ask you to sign an exclusive contract, I'd say yeah. Now, typically an exclusive contract could be 1 year, could be 2 years. Once again, you've got to read it, you have to understand it. Personally, unless you have a friend who's an attorney, I wouldn't be spending money on it. You can ask the agent some specific questions because these contracts, they're written in legalese. I don't understand that language, but I think you can— you simply could ask the agent. But if you're just getting started, you probably don't have that much time. As you might have another job, you might be a student. You don't have time to be traveling around the country trying to get work with lots of different agents in different markets. So my thought is, yeah, I'd sign an exclusive contract if I was just getting started for my area, or even if it's for around the world. And if you find that things just aren't working out, you can always not re-sign the contract when it comes up. Look, I'm not an attorney. So I can't give you legal advice. I can tell you that some things that somebody or a couple people have told me is that if you have an exclusive contract and you are not getting any work at all— and by the way, if there are any attorneys, if you're an attorney and you think this is right, please let me know. I'd love to hear it. This is— And once again, this is just what I've been told. That if you haven't gotten any work, let's say it's been 6 months, no jobs at all, no auditions, nothing has been happening, that if you have a contract that lasts for a year, you can get out of the contract. And yes, the agent could sue you if they wanted to, but they would have to prove damages. And if there have been no auditions, you haven't had any bookings, there are no damages because they, they're not losing any money. So I would ask an attorney before you just rip up an exclusive contract or any kind of contract with, with an agent and find out. If you are unhappy and things just aren't working out and you've done everything you possibly could and just Zero is happening. Find out if there is a way of getting out of the contract early. The other thing is you could be offered a contract and it's not exclusive. Maybe they just have guidelines as to how much you have to pay them, what their percentage is, how long they have to pay you. It might be 30 days, could be 60 days, 90 days. Every agent is going to do things differently and it also depends on the kind of project. I can tell you that for commercial modeling work, sometimes it can take up to 90 days before there are any late fees. Typically, it doesn't take that long, but it could be. So anyhow, if you're just getting started, I wouldn't have any problem signing a contract, even if it is an exclusive one, and then see how things go. And if things are going well— And you want to continue, then you sign it again. Make sure that you stay with that agent. And if it's not working out, you can always try to go elsewhere. I forgot to mention, if you haven't done this yet, please don't forget to subscribe. Click the notification bell. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That's really helpful. And when you do click the notification bell, That way you will always know when I upload a new video. If you have signed an exclusive contract, please share the information with us. You don't have to give the specific details, you know, the name of the agency and stuff like that, but just go into the comments section and let us know. You know, can you work with other agents in other markets? Is this exclusive throughout the world? Has it worked out for you, or do you just have a regular contract? Was there specific information that you found helpful to read about before you sign the contract, and that way we can learn from you as well. I did mention I've got a great bonus video, and you can see it right up here. And yeah, it's all about this big mistake that I made that almost ruined a great headshot session. I hope you enjoyed this. My name is Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.