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July 2

Open casting call policy/convention for more-than-extra roles

I just saw this: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/02/england.harry.potter.attack/index.html?hpt=C2 and it isn't clear to me how major movie makers decide/are required to have (or specifically not have) either a casting call open to the public or open only to card-carrying (e.g. SAG) actors. Can someone explain? Thanks! 20.137.18.50 (talk) 18:10, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Screen Actors Guild tries mightily to make sure producers use only SAG actors. So, firstly, SAG actors promise to not work for any producer who has not signed a SAG contract. (Many voiceover actors in SAG do nonunion work under a pseudonym, but that's another matter.) This is the usual reason that producers sign a SAG agreement; and once a producer has signed a SAG agreement, that producer can only use union actors. (see this book, page 70.) The producer may be able to get a waiver from SAG to allow the hiring of a nonunion actor, but that's up to SAG. Producers can do a casting call for union and nonunion actors alike; there is no SAG requirement to exclude nonunion actors from casting calls; but SAG does get the right to look at the sign-in sheet and see what you are doing. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:13, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

So if once producers want to hire a non-union actor they have to get permission (for an exception to the norm of union-only actors for speaking roles) from SAG to hire someone for their movie, that would pretty much mean that every time you hear about some unknown that got famous by going to an audition on a whim, a special exception was involved. Am I understanding correctly? Thanks.20.137.18.50 (talk) 19:20, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but I don't think the exception is quite as big of a deal as you suggest. This site says that Taft-Hartley waiver applications are rarely turned down by SAG. (I could see why; I believe it's because the closed shop is illegal in the US.) If a nonunion member nails the audition, the impressed producer could get the Taft-Hartley exception, then the actor's got 30 days to work both union and nonunion jobs; and after that, for the next union job (if I am understanding all this correctly from the actor's point of view), the actor has to join the union. This book mentions that SAG signatories are supposed to get all their extras from the Screen Extras Guild, too, for what it's worth. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:13, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]