Sarah Ramos Instagram – Here is my audition edited into THE BOYS. An actor friend told me she cried when she watched this video series, because it showed me doing “THE work.” A stranger with a long acting career messaged me that he fell into a deep depression driven by pouring work into countless self-tapes that no one ever responded to. Auditions are THE work. So why have we allowed our work to be so disrespected?
Actors embody and reflect humanity’s capacity for vulnerability, emotion, and connection. In return, our employers and this industry treats us with disrespect and disdain so ingrained that many people reading this might think I’m being dramatic. I’m not. If you treat people — let alone sensitive people who work hard FOR FREE for you — like their work doesn’t matter, doesn’t warrant even a response from you, like their hard unpaid labor is just back-up for the person you already offered the job to, or use it as a bargaining chip to pit actors against each other so they accept less than they deserve, you will break their spirit.
Yes, this strike is about money and out of touch assholes underpaying us. To me, for actors, it goes deeper. Why have we allowed ourselves to be treated like this for so long that it feels normal? We’ve accepted so many changes to the process that producers wanted because it made it easier for them, when it made it harder for us. We deserve a casting process that doesn’t drive us into depression. We deserve respectful working conditions. We deserve to be given enough information to decide if an audition is worth our time, talent and expertise. SAG-AFTRA could demand so much more than we are, but we’ve allowed it to get so bad that the AMPTP can’t believe we’re even asking for what we are. So my hope is that we get everything we’re asking for and MORE: I hope actors radically reconsider the way we view our position in this industry. Don’t worry about what other people think, they will follow our lead. A lot of people in this business who are paid better and more regularly than we are are inessential to this industry. Not actors. They. Need. Us. Next time you get an audition request, I hope you remember this. | Posted on 26/Aug/2023 00:41:27
