Artificial intelligence is the main topic of debate among SAG-AFTRA members over the new contract, which they are set to finish voting on today, but some guild members are trying to raise concerns about another issue that was key during strike-ending negotiations: auditions.
Two guild members who spoke to TheWrap said they were pleased that the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee was successful in adding key reforms to lift financial and logistical burdens facing actors who do self-tape auditions. But they also said the contract language that classifies such auditions could be a major hurdle in a grassroots union effort to earn contract pay, and could also have other unforeseen creative drawbacks.
In the new contract, expected to be ratified by the union this week, SAG-AFTRA secured major gains including a limit of eight pages to read for a first audition. Actors must be given at least 48 hours to prepare a self-tape — longer if it’s before a weekend — and producers must “endeavor” to respond to actors who want to know if a role has already been cast so they can decide whether they want to audition for other roles or make other professional or personal scheduling decisions.
Thomas Ochoa, a member of the SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles local board, says that while those gains are much needed, the language of the contract classifies self-tape auditions as interviews, which are not eligible for the half-day’s worth of pay that studios are required to pay per the terms of SAG-AFTRA’s bargaining agreement.
“There is nothing in the contract that explicitly says that self-tape auditions are classified as interviews, but it is the language that pushes them into a category that is not required to provide audition pay,” Ochoa said.
Along with the LA local, Ochoa is a member of a grassroots campaign within SAG-AFTRA called Auditions Are Work, which seeks to normalize audition pay in the entertainment industry. Since 1947, there has been language in the contract requiring a half-day of scale pay to be given to actors for each audition they perform but don’t book. As of the 2020 contract, that half-day pay came out to $541 per non-booked audition.
“The problem is, studios haven’t created a system to pay actors for auditions, because auditions aren’t part of an active production and therefore don’t get factored in when studios account for union costs like they would on things like paid overtime and meal penalties,” Ochoa explained.
“To get the audition pay, actors almost always have to fill out a claim for it through SAG-AFTRA, and while we’ve pushed for those claims to be granted and they sometimes do, actors can be discouraged from doing that because of retaliation” they said. “They might be branded with that awful phrase ‘difficult to work with’ and lose jobs if they push for the audition pay that we’re owed from our agreement.”
Ochoa says that they didn’t expect audition pay to be addressed in this year’s contract even during the strike, as the issue did not get included in the guild’s pattern of demands after months of membership input meetings.
But Ochoa did say they were dismayed by a clause on page 14 of the full contract, which can be read here, which says that “no compensation is due to a performer for a self-tape.” The clause also says that “performers may not be asked to memorize any materials nor be prohibited from holding sides and/or using a prompting device during the self-tape,” something that was negotiated as part of the union’s efforts to make self-tapes less burdensome for actors.
“It’s a good provision in theory, but since self-tapes no longer require memorization, they can’t be classified as auditions that require pay, just as interviews,” they said. “Also, in practice, even though the producers say they don’t require memorization, that’s what actors still often do because that’s just part of the job.”
A spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA acknowledged to TheWrap that as memorization is a requisite for any situation in which an actor is due audition pay, the new language prohibiting memorization for self-tapes excludes them from such pay. The spokesperson also noted that “half-day scale pay did not apply to self-taped auditions before this contract.”
Beyond audition pay, self-tapes have other drawbacks. Kylie Sparks, a TV actor and a captain on the Warner Bros. picket lines during the actors strike, wrote an Instagram post explaining reasons why they voted against ratifying the contract, with audition pay being one of them.
Sparks also told TheWrap that actors are concerned the contract is a sign that Hollywood is trending towards a new normal where self-tapes are the widespread standard for auditions, which can have creative drawbacks.
“Self-tapes can be convenient for actors who can’t make it to in-person auditions, but with in-person auditions, actors get a chance to speak directly to the writer and the director about the role and can get feedback on how to fine-tune their audition performance,” they said.
The new contract requires producers to provide opportunities for actors to request a virtual or in-person audition, but those would only be made available on a first come, first-serve basis aside for performers who are seniors, minors, or have disabilities.
“Auditions aren’t just for the director,” Sparks said. “They’re also for the actor to see if they’re a right fit to work with the director in terms of their approach to the work…A director and writer may like a performance from a self-tape, but then they could go to set and realize that how the actor works isn’t how they want to go.”
