As an actor based in Atlanta, I have been represented by a talent agency in the Southeastern United States for most of my career. Recently, I had an actor friend of mine give me a referral for another agency based in St. Louis, Missouri. I am always looking to expand my reach and get representation in new markets to increase my chances of landing roles, so I sent them my portfolio package. I got a response right away that they were interested and they setup a virtual meeting. I thought I would share what happened in that meeting.
What I Sent Them
The package I sent them was the basic package I send to any casting calls I submit to myself. The only difference is that I wrote a few paragraphs about myself, a summary about what I have accomplished so far, what I have coming up. The rest of the email were links to my reel, my Instagram and my IMDb profile. Attached to the email was my resume and all of my headshots. I actually have most of this pre-written in a notepad file so all I have to do when I submit, is copy and paste and then attach the resume and headshots. It saves me a ton of time and ensures that all my links work and my spelling is correct.
Preparing for the Interview
The email I got from the agent gave me most of the information about their expectations. They wanted me to perform a 1 minute monologue and they were going to send me a script to cold read about 15 minutes before the meeting. Because I was going to need my teleprompter, I decided to have the meeting in my audition room so I could setup my ipad right behind and above my laptop. This also allowed me to use my gray, solid background and my lighting.
The Interview
The agency I met with was a boutique agency and only had two agents. Both were present for the meeting. After introductions, they asked questions about me. Where was I from? How long have I been acting? What were my hobbies?
Then they asked me to perform my monologue and then the cold read. The cold read was a commercial read done directly into the camera. What they were looking for in the cold read was the ability to do a cold read, annunciation, and personality.
After I got done, they went over their company, what they would provide and what they expected. Then they asked if I had any questions. I only had two: what was their policy on rejecting auditions? and would they only represent me in St. Louis, MO or did they cover the whole midwest? Because they are close to Chicago and get casting calls from the shows filming there, they said they would represent me in Chicago if I was interested.
The End of the Meeting
Two things could happen at the end of one of these meetings. 1) They can offer representation right away 2) Or they can let you know that they will make a decision sometime after the meeting is over. In this case, they opted for the first.
Simon Shih 