"I
don't trust managers," says Billie March, a model mom in
Orlando, Florida. "I would always rather deal directly with
the agent." That's great if you know what you're doing,
but Alex Moore, a baby talent manger with Major Minors in
L.A., points out, "We take time to prep parents so they're
professional at castings." Agents deal with plenty of pushiness
from parents asking too many questions. Susie Mains explains,
"Calling 101 times with a thousand questions doesn't go
over well with a busy agent. If a parent is pushy, we call
those children less - or not at all - because the business
is too competitive to deal with difficult parents." The
best way to handle your child's model schedule is to "take
the information and be at the right place at the right time,"
says Susie. Being a professional parent means you'll need
baby-toting tools: a pager, plenty of toys, grub for tiny
tummies, and portable napping equipment - namely, a lap.
Part two of professionalism is pictures, which, is synonymous
with pricey. Luckily, professional pictures for your fast-growing
models are a big no-no. "I updated my twins' photos every
four to six months," says Susan Pompeo, a Minneapolis (formerly
L.A.) mother of twins, Allegra and Donatella, and daughter,
Cecilia. All agents and managers agree that babies should
not get professional pictures. "Sometimes parents override
the advice of the agency and have professional shots done,
but casting directors are suspicious about the baby's look
[because babies change quickly]," says Susie Mains.
Donna at Carolina Winds leaves picture
replacement up to the parents. "I ask the parents to update
the pictures every four months for infants. If they don't,
I throw the pictures away and no one is out anything." All
legitimate agencies are free. "Don't pay any agency a fee,"
stresses Doris at FFT. And success is not dependent on the
size of the market assures Donna, "Smaller markets are a
good place to start; if you find success there, you can
always take your child to a larger market in the summer."
Success brings TV and film sets,
plus many castings. At this stage of your tot's climb toward
Oscar fame, another figure rides into the picture. Enter
the professional baby wrangler, who handles your bitty babe
during castings and on sets. Doris, of FFT, says, "Parents
should not be wary of them [baby wranglers] taking their
child into a casting. Baby wranglers are always on hand
to watch the babies and make sure the child is very well
taken care of." Linda Valentine, a Miami-based wrangler,
is a regular part of the casting process. "Mothers are always
nice to me because I sometimes help choose who is called
back." (A valuable tip for those parents who aren't already
in the know.) Valentine continues, "I look for babies who
mimic my actions and who have long attention spans—a baby
who has both is a dream."
Handling one baby is hard enough,
and twins are doubly difficult but worth twice as much.
Twins can log four hours of camera time, twice as much as
one child. Susie Mains reminds parents that, "Babies are
animated props and not real actors." Even so, they are paid
union scale for film work, about $600 a day, and soaps,
about $300 a day—just like real actors.
For print and commercials, two to
four babies may be cast in case the first choice is not
in a merry mood, and casting directors are more willing
to work around a baby's schedule. Billie March says, "Keep
a record of when your baby is in certain moods; you'll need
to know that information when the casting company calls."
What motivates parents to get their
babies into this biz? New mom Mollie Welden, in South Carolina,
says, "I want to see if Belle can do some commercials and
make some money for college." For others funds already flow.
"My twins shot a Rightstart.com commercial in L.A. and it
just keeps running," says Susan Pompeo. Then the director
from the first commercial booked the girls for a Pennzoil
commercial, so we flew back [to L.A.]." From those two national
commercials Susan estimates her twins have made about $10,000,
including the residuals - not a bad start for 19-month-olds.
Contracts are even better. Marlene Wallach explains, "Isla
Ng, four years old, just became the new Welch's grape juice
girl and her salary is in the six-figure range." Grape juice
never tasted so sweet!
Alex Moore of Major Minors cautions to keep monetary ambitions
in check. "Each job and client is different so rates are
never the same," and smaller markets have lower pay scales.
Print jobs average $125 an hour, with $95 an hour being
the low end. Although, Alex says, larger companies like
Jergens or Visa offer buyouts for a year of running time
and those pay $2000 and up.
The upside to commercial work is
that "babies work union and non-union jobs because they're
not allowed to join SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) until they're
four years old," says Alex. "The downside is that companies
book a couple of babies and call them 'extras' and the rate
drops to $260 for the day, instead of $480 for a principal
part." Raw deal? No. All tiny-tot extras get the $260, even
if they do nothing but nap in their moms' laps.
With so much money involved, the
business can bring out the green-eyed monster in parents
- an ugly situation for their innocent offspring. Donna
of Carolina Winds says, "It [show business] is a good thing
as long as the parents aren't pushing it. I hate to see
parents pushing kids too hard to be in this business. If
the kid doesn't have the right attitude, then they won't
do well."
"You'll be going on a lot of auditions
and it's easy to get discouraged, " says Susan Pompeo
to intrigued parents. Susan's advice: "If it doesn't
work out that time, it will work out the next time"
If not, you may want to cut back your kid's shoots to just
those for the family album.
