I had an actor friend ask me last week if he should put a role he recently booked on his resume. The project was upcoming and hadn’t filmed yet, so the answer was no. You never put a project on a resume as a credit until it films.
Over the last 14 months, many of the roles I have been offered and booked never happened. The range of why these projects never happened for me is wide and I thought I would give the reasons and some examples.
Funding
I booked a recurring role as a doctor on an independent web series. About a month before production, the investor who was funding 80% of the project pulled out. An email went out to notify us and the project was on hold indefinitely.
Going A Different Way
This has happened a few times . I would book a project and either never hear back or get a text or email that they decided to go with another actor. The one that I never heard back from, I found out when they posted the completion of their project on a Facebook group.
Delays
I have had projects and callbacks delayed from weeks, up to 11 months (as of this writing).
- A series I was on callback for sent out an email that stated I was on callback and the schedule would happen soon. 6 weeks later I get an email that the project was delayed and callbacks would happen soon. I had written this project off and suspected they went a different way.
- Another series I booked in June of last year, I had completely forgotten about. I got a message yesterday that they had completed another project and was about to start this one and would be filming later this year. I still have the role.
- The longest callback to date is for a SAG feature film. I had gotten the callback back in June of last year. Then the strikes happened. The last contact was November of last year stating I was still on callback for the project.
There are so many reasons projects get delayed or cancelled, so I never bank on anything until I am on set. Even then, there’s always a chance you get fired or downgraded. I had an actor friend get downgraded from costar to background because the director felt his look wasn’t ethnic enough for the role.
Shit happens, but it’s almost always out of your control, so keep training, keep auditioning and keep grinding.
Simon Shih 