SAG

I love my union. Not just for the screeners they send at award season, or great health care benefits, but because they really do protect us as actors. And while it is hard to remember this when I have to biannually write a big fat dues check, I am grateful to be a member.

I joined the union a few years ago, and in a rather unconventional way. My agent, at the time, submitted me for a co-star role (someone with less than 5 lines) on a CBS show. I pre-read, then went in for producers, and booked it. Submitting me for a SAG project, while knowing I wasn't in the union, was not kosher. It is generally frowned upon, and most agents will just wait until you've done enough extra work to be SAG before even signing you.

But my agent believed in me, and didn't seem to care that I had zero credits and no SAG card. He felt confident that I would be right for this role, and his take was always, "let them fall in love with you, and we'll deal with SAG later." So he submitted me, without revealing to casting that I was non-union.

When I booked the role, casting was livid to find out that they had to Taft Hartley me. (FYI: Taft Hartley is when, as a non-union actor, you book a union job, and paperwork has to be filled out so that you can instantly become a union member, and legally take the job.)

For years after that job, when I saw those CDs, they were always annoyed (remembering how that whole thing was played), but at the end of the day, it paid off. I have worked ever since, and perhaps if it wasn't for the ballsiness of my agent, I would maybe be trying to accumulate vouchers.

One never knows...