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EXCLUSIVE: A British casting director says the scandal, which was unknown to him professionally until February, is “absolutely rubbish”. The 30-year industry veteran was talking about the practice of agents sending fake invitations to clients to record self-tape auditions.
Deadline first exposed the issue in an investigation into Manchester-based boutique agency Bodhi Talent. Founder Archie Parnell was accused of copying legitimate self-taped invitations and pasting them into emails to clients who were not invited to auditions. One actor gushed about her ruse when the audition arrived in her inbox 30 minutes after the application deadline passed.
Twisting open the linden-shaped Russian doll revealed similar concerns about a larger agency, International Artist Management (IAM). The London-based company claims to have 400 customers on its books and is run by Luc Chaudhary. He is a billionaire who is said to have once been engaged to Silent Witness star Emilia Fox.
IAM went further than Bodhi in misrepresenting audition requests. The agency forwarded an email to the client purporting to be from a casting director declaring his interest in auditioning the actor. Actually, there was no such request from the casting director. They didn’t write those words in the forwarded email.
Outlander actor Mark Barrett first sounded the alarm about the practice of IAM in an emotional interview with Deadline. Audition brought a ray of hope to his life during the dark days of his father’s decline due to Huntington’s disease. He then realized that his hopes were misplaced and that he had spent days recording auditions in vain. Some tapes disappeared into a digital black hole because IAM never gave them to the cast, even though they said they did.
mark barrett
This wasn’t about one client. Since publication, former IAM insider Vic Anderson Cross has gone on record saying that IAM was sending false tapes to actors on an “industrial scale.”
Other customers also chimed in. Coronation Street actress Bianca Sowerby says she was “shocked” when she found out she had been filming an illegal tape while she was pregnant. “This must be terrible news for you. I’m sorry to have to tell you that,” one BAFTA-winning casting director told her.
Barrett and Sowerby politely but earnestly asked the casting director, “Was my tape fake?” The same question is now being posed by a suspicious person handled by another agent. It is unusual to contact a casting director in this way. This violates unwritten rules regarding how information is shared between the casting triangle of directors, agents, and actors. But by asking such simple questions, the actors were searching for a more important truth. The question is, can you trust your agent?
IAM claimed it could do that. The agency, through Carter Ruck, one of London’s best-known media law firms, will ensure actors get maximum exposure by giving them the opportunity to open locked doors without keys. He explained that he was doing so. Simply put, IAM said this strategy is in the best interest of its customers.
Others see it differently. Equity Secretary-General Paul Fleming asked: “If IAM is acting with noble intentions, why aren’t they being open with their customers about the process?” If Barrett had known that the tapes were being recorded unsolicited, he would not have been outraged by what happened. There will be no talk.
The Personal Managers Association (PMA), the professional body for Britain’s top agencies including UTA’s Curtis Brown and Independent Talent, kicked IAM out of the club within hours of the report starting. The statement cited the foundation of “honesty and integrity” that unites actors and their representatives.
The Casting Directors Association (CDA) states: “Actors should never misunderstand that they have been asked to record by a casting director. Doing so destroys the chain of trust between casting directors, agents, and actors that is at the core of our industry. It will be.”
So why do it? Mr. Boddy was accused of sending out fake audition invitations, giving the false impression that he was soliciting leads, in order to satisfy volatile clients. Former clients said auditions magically appeared in their inboxes after they expressed concerns about a lack of work.
Luc Choudhury, founder of International Artist Management.getty
IAM has faced similar allegations, but has taken pains to point out its good intentions and that it has not derived any economic benefit from this action. In recent days, Mr. Chaudhary has been on a charm offensive with customers, including inviting them to champagne lunches, and explaining plans to revamp IAM’s position and processes, people familiar with the matter said.
Some IAM sympathizers confuse phantom audition invitations with unsolicited tapes, but that’s just part of the business, for better or worse. In some cases, actors get booked for roles, and some casting directors quietly welcome such advances for serendipitous reasons.
This may go some way to explaining the reluctance of some casting directors to denounce fake audition invitations. Some casting directors ignored Deadline’s requests for comment, taking the CDA’s full-throated statement one-sided. One veteran begged his name not to be included in the article, even though he publicly tweeted out honest advice to actors on how to avoid falling into the trap of fake tapes.
The Casting Directors Guild (CDG), which is responsible for developing the 2021 industry guidelines for self-taped auditions along with Equity and the PMA, declined to comment on the entire matter. Deadline said in an email to CDG that the guild’s silence could be interpreted as tolerance for its members’ words being distorted to mislead actors. The organization did not respond.
One casting director, who requested anonymity, said the profession is precarious. Most CDs are freelancers vying for film and television contracts, he said. The official added that casting professionals also want to have access to as wide a pool of talent as possible, meaning calling in agents is not in their best interest.
CDG’s position suggests that current self-taping guidelines will not be changed to protect actors. Mr Fleming, head of equities, said the guidelines were created with the premise that agents would adhere to best practice, adding that it would be “ridiculous” to include rules against actors not committing fraud or lying. .
Still, some casting directors have suggested tightening the process, such as sending audition invitations in PDFs with clear ways for actors to verify the authenticity of their requests. Spotlight, the European directory that commercialized the casting process, is said to be considering tightening its procedures to weed out phantom audition requests.
alexa morden
Actress Alexa Morden, who runs the podcast “98%,” which has influence over lower-ranking performers, said the guidelines needed to be updated for the benefit of all performers. He says there is. “Never in my 10-year career have I ever considered that an agent could lie about an actor being asked to audition, but “We’re now being told that people are doing this. It’s tragic,” she says.
Morden pointed to North American casting platforms that store audition notices, requests and self-tape uploads, bringing transparency to the process. “Due to the pandemic, self-tapes have become mainstream in auditions, and many professionals are using them. But their shortcomings have harmful and dangerous ramifications, which we need to be aware of and prevent,” she added. .
The actors told Deadline that while they suffered no financial loss from recording the unsolicited tapes, they felt emotionally robbed. Each tape represented a shot at work or a big break. Actors had to learn lines and accents and embody their characters for the audition. In some cases, they received scripts that were supposed to be confidential. Actors say it hurts to see everything go to waste. Their sacred bonds of trust with their agents have been damaged.
The can of worms is open. Those affected are hoping it’s enough to end the fake tape scandal as quickly as it started.
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