Jason Pugatch is the author of Acting is a Job: Real Life Lessons about the Acting Business, which has received high praise for its candid look at the acting business. He has also written the feature film Coach, starring Hugh Dancy, to be released in NY and LA this Spring. As an actor you might have seen him on Law & Order, Numbers, Medium, Lincoln Heights, or hawking a number of products, services, and breakfast sandwiches between such shows. He’s also the Associate Director of the Young Storytellers Foundation, a non-profit that builds literacy and self-esteem through writing programs in Los Angeles area public schools. He lives in Echo Park with his wife, Rebecca.

“They were supposed to come to my wedding reception. I found out that day. Thanks APA.”

Allison (not her real name) just explained to me how it came that she was dropped by her agent. After five years of representation, two of which were spent as a series regular on a network television show, her manager gave her the bad news. It came as does most bad news in this industry: as a fleeting aside while the real world, and its real rules, keep turning.

At a certain point in an actor’s career, one moves past the anxious, desperate question of “How can I find an agent?” to the new-found paranoia of “How can I keep my agent from dropping me?” This feeling, much like a heartbeat, thumps harder after a blown callback or, worse, weeks on end without an audition. But, in the experience of being dropped lies the greatest lesson of all in this business. Ready for it?

Be a human being.

Why is this business of ours a dirty business? It’s not the cliché of casting couch sessions that make some of us feel the need to take a Silkwood shower after a day of auditioning. It’s the subtext that runs through every “business” interaction we as actors have. You are a property, a stock on the Dow; your worth is determined in an ever-changing market. Many of the people who are judging your “acting” are not doing anything of the kind. Instead, they are judging your “type” or your “look” and your “naturalism” and placing a value on it. Even if they are convinced that they know what they are talking about, you have to remember (politely, please) that you know more about acting than most of the people you are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Some of them will admit this, some of them will not.

This includes your agent, whose only notion of your ability and success as an actor is determined by the commissions he or she takes. Which translates to are you booking jobs, which comes full circle to whether or not you are meeting the current “tastes” of the industry.

One aspect of the “be a human being theory” is realizing that there are things outside of your control that you cannot do a thing about. Being dropped is one of those things. Instead, look back to those moments where you did have control and chose not to exercise it. You do have control in signing with an agent. You do have control of accepting or rejecting the material you go out for. Some of the most successful actors I know have declined auditions for material they didn’t care for and it has served them very well over time. Believe it or not, there are small parts, and it’s the better actors who decline them.

With my first agent, who later dropped me, our signing was the equivalent of a whirlwind tete-a-tete—the girl you bring home from a bar, sleep with, fall in love with at breakfast and have your heart broken by before lunch. In hindsight, was it really love? Was this the stuff of a relationship? No, it was two people getting what they needed, one getting fooled by the other, and me landing hard at the end.

Sure, I could have refused to sign with this agent, but I like doing things like auditioning during pilot season. I could, however, have had my antennae up a bit higher. I could have called them if I had concerns and spoken about them, like I would with other humans in my life. I could have done things to cement the relationship in some actuality (getting feedback, maintaining contact), and if I wasn’t met halfway, I would certainly have been more prepared for the dumping I was about to undergo. The point is, as is so often the case, the problem started well before it turned bad with the agency. The problem was there all along.

Now, I take a different tack with my agent. The other day, I was sent on a third call (2nd callback) for a commercial audition. I got a phone call at 3, saying get to Santa Monica ASAP. I was at my day job in Downtown LA. I left work, changed my shirt, and drove across town.  As I pulled into my parking space about an hour later I got a phone call. The audition was cancelled.

I was livid. Can casting do this? I just wasted my time, the time of those in my office, got myself all psyched up and now—cancelled? Earlier in my career I could have swallowed this whole, a bitter pill bound to pop up later. This time, I called my agent, told them exactly how I felt about the experience, and asked them to relay that to the casting director. When my agent did, I received an amazing response. Heartfelt apologies, huge kudos on my audition, a promise to bring me in for many more auditions, and an explanation about what had happened (the client wanted someone of a different race). There was nothing I could do, but I reacted like a human being, and lo and behold, I was treated like one. Also, I’ve had more auditions this past month than I have in a very long time.

I can’t advise you how not to get dropped by your agent anymore that I can tell you how to book a role, or have a huge film career. No one can. That’s the point. There’s no magic wand anyone can wave. There is, however, knowledge and empowerment. If you deal with everyone in this business like you would other human beings in your day-to-day life; if you try to discern who actually cares about you the person, not you the product; if you put the same values of compassion and integrity onto the people you audition for and meet with, then you actually have a chance at survival.

That’s the point of this blog, and it’s the point of any advice, if you can call it that, I would ever give to an actor.

Be a human being.

You can purchase Jason’s book, Acting is a Job: Real Life Lessons about the Acting Business, in the Minerva Shop. Broadway producer Roger Berlind calls the book “an indispensable guide to the business of acting. Pugatch pulls no punches in describing what it takes to succeed in this difficult, demanding profession. His book is a blast of reality for starry-eyed novices and seasoned pros alike.”