How Do You Qualify to Join Screen Actors Guild?

Shortly after we arrived in L.A., some parents told me how important it was to join Screen Actors Guild. They used a lot of terms like ‘Taft-Hartley‘ and ‘must-join‘ that made absolutely no sense to me.

We were told that it would be hard for my daughter to get auditions if she did not join Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

We were also told that it was getting harder to get into SAG. Someone even told me that if we were new in Hollywood, we might as well go home because no one new was going to get into SAG. Well, maybe it was not in those exact words, but that was the gist of it.

Well, the fact is, you can’t believe everything you hear “on the street” here in Los Angeles.

There is a little bit of truth in what I heard, but for the most part it was a lot of hogwash. Perhaps it was a lack of understanding or perhaps it was just parents of other young actors wanting some of us newbies to go back home where we belonged. And I ‘get’ it.

There are about 120,000 Screen Actors Guild members worldwide. The competition is pretty fierce for SAG jobs.

I soon learned more about the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and realized it was not quite as grim as it seemed. So, how do you qualify to join Screen Actors Guild?

You can qualify to join Screen Actors Guild by doing one of the following:

1. Work as a principal actor or have a speaking role in a SAG project (film, videotape, tv program, or commercial).
2. Work as a SAG-covered background actor for three or more days on SAG projects and at the full SAG background rate and after March, 1990. (Be sure to verify with the producers that a particular background job will meet the SAG requirements to qualify you and give you what is often referred to as a SAG voucher.)
3. Work for and be paid at least once as a principal performer on a contract with an affiliated performers’ union (AFTRA, ACTRA AEA, AGMA, or AGVA) and be a paid-up member of that union for one year or more.

For additional recorded information on how to join Screen Actors Guild, you can call (323) 549-6772, or visit the SAG site.

If You Are Not in SAG

If you are not a Screen Actors Guild member, it might be a little harder to get into some auditions for SAG projects, especially as you get older, but you can still get into them.

For some SAG projects, it might be that only SAG actors are called in. Or SAG actors may be called in first, and one of them might book the job before non-SAG actors even get a chance to audition. Or the non-SAG actors might be called in later.

For children, it is even less of a problem if you are not a SAG member — you certainly have to start somewhere.

But if you have a talent agent and/or a talent manager, and you are submitted for a role and have the right look, you can definitely still be called in to audition even without being a SAG member.

If there are two actors who are equally right for the project, and one is in SAG and the other is not, the SAG actor is probably a little more likely to get the part over the non-SAG actor.  But you never know for sure.

Taft-Hartley

If you are not in SAG and get into an audition for a SAG project, and the casting director, director, and producers think you are perfect for that project, what happens next?

You have to be  ‘Taft-Hartley‘ d by the production company before you can be employed for a SAG project.

This just means that the production company must fill out and file some extra paper work to get you. They must justify that you are uniquely qualified for their project in a way that no current SAG actor is.

If the justification is not approved by SAG, then the production company must pay a small fine.

SAG-Eligible or SAG-E

Once you complete work on your first SAG job (as a principal actor),  you qualify to join Screen Actors Guild.

You are now classified with a special status that is actually quite desirable. You are now ‘SAG-Eligible‘ (sometimes written SAG-E).

Being SAG-Eligible means you are qualified to work on SAG jobs, but at the same time you are still able to work on non-union jobs. That is a nice position to be in.

You can’t actually join Screen Actors Guild until the paper work is received from the production company and processed by the Screen Actors Guild. This can take only 10 to 15 days or it can take weeks.  You can also take a copy of your pay stub from that SAG job to the SAG office for processing, and after they process the information (in about 10 days), you can join.

Must Join

When you work your second SAG job, you are put into ‘Must-Join‘ status. This means that you have 30 days, during which time you can work on any number of SAG jobs without joining. But after the 30 days are up, you must join Screen Actors Guild before you can work on another SAG job.

Is there any reason to join Screen Actors Guild before you absolutely have to? Most would say, “No!”

But  talent agents and talent managers are probably eager for you to join so SAG will appear on your resume. You may be eager to put that on your resume as well.

After you join SAG, you can no longer work on non-union jobs.  Take advantage of your current status and continue to build your resume by working on non-union jobs as well as SAG jobs for as long as possible.

When you get offered that next SAG job after the 30 days are up, if what you’ll earn won’t cover your SAG initiation fees, you’ll have to decide whether to take the job and pay the large initiation fees or not.

In future posts, you can read additional information related to the Screen Actors Guild.

For more information on SAG and many other topics related to your children and showbiz, please sign up for Your Young Actor’s Newsletter.

Sincerely,

Debbie Sikkema