A
lot of confusion exists among actors about the definition,
value and necessity of personal managers, and I'd like to
help untangle it. A personal manager is a person who shepherds
an actor's overall career, dispensing advice, guidance,
connections. He takes a more personal role in the actor's
career than does an agent and, in exchange for this, collects
15% commission on the actor's earnings. Although he is prohibited
by law from soliciting acting work directly, the better
managers are extremely well connected to mainstream talent
agents and make it their business to schmooze with casting
directors, producers and other power players.
In a word, a legitimate personal manager is a good thing
to have -- if he is a legitimate, well-connected personal
manager. Unfortunately, any joker can call himself a personal
manager. There are no California state regulations governing
personal managers. And so we are seeing an increasing number
of ads for "personal managers" in search of "new faces."
Really, they are in search of "new money."
Talent agents, in contrast to personal managers, are licensed
by the state. They are considered, in the eyes of the law,
to be a special variety of employment agency. Actors need
to have agents if they want to get paid to act, and it is
best to have a SAG-franchised agent. But actors do not necessarily
need a personal manager. Indeed, the wisdom in the biz is
that one doesn't need a personal manager until one has a
career to manage.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you are considering
involvement with a personal manager:
1) Legitimate personal managers do not charge actors money
for classes or photos. A manager may suggest training or
photographers, may even recommend particular teachers, but
they stay out of the middle of it financially.
2) Legitimate personal managers earn their income by charging
15% commissions on the earnings of their actor/clients.
This means that you, as an actor, will pay a total of 25%
commissions if you sign up with a manager -- 10% to the
agent, plus 15% to the manager.
3) Legitimate personal managers from other states and distant
cities are extremely unlikely to be conducting talent searches
in San Francisco. There are plenty of un-discovered actors
in Los Angeles and New York. Managers from those cities
do not need to come here to find talent.
4) Legitimate personal managers usually manage fewer than
twenty actors. (Heather Locklear's manager, Joan Green Management
in LA, manages thirteen, for example.) If a manager is boasting
to you that he manages "hundreds and hundreds" of actors,
that's a red flag.
5) Legitimate personal managers never refer to themselves
as "talent placement" companies.
