How to Avoid Acting Scams

Video Transcript

"SCOTT DUPONT: Hi. Scott duPont on behalf of Expert Village. Welcome back to the ABC's of ACTING. In this segment, we're going to talk about scams, something very near and dear to my heart. On this DVD, we actually have a story, a heart-wrenching true story of a mom that went to one of these; you hear them on the radio all the time, no matter where you live, not necessarily LA, anywhere in the country. It was one of these big modeling, acting seminars where they're flying all these agents in. "We're going to make your kid a star." Well, what happened--well, I'll try to summarize very quickly here, the mother had her two kids, she dragged them down to the seminar, and they advertised "Leave [INDISCERNIBLE] at home. It doesn't cost a thing" but what happened is they ended up picking these two kids. So, the whole way back, this mother is driving them home and what they do is they pick you to come back to another convention in New York which ended up costing $1700 per kid or something crazy like that. So, the mother couldn't tell the kids no. The kids, for 2 to 3 months, "Oh, we want to go. We want to go. We want to go." So, the mother took out on her credit cards, she got a couple of credit cards, she paid for the acting seminar in New York, paid for the hotel, airfare. It was all said and done. She got snookered for like, I think it was close to $5000 that she's still paying today on these credit cards, just a horrible, horrible thing. So, you want to really stay away from anyone that's trying to do a big seminar or trying to sell you or an agent 'cause agents are not supposed to sell acting classes or photographs. Agents only make money after they book your child a job. So, just be aware of some of those things and the general rule is use common sense. After spending a little bit of money in head shots, a little bit of money on acting classes, you really shouldn't be spending a lot of money on anything. You really should just be getting experience and eventually working your way to getting an agent and to getting some paid jobs. So, we'll be back. On behalf of Expert Village, thank you."