Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The SAG Actors to Locate hotline

For years, the Screen Actors Guild ran a toll-free phone number called “Actors to Locate.”

Though designed for casting directors and journalists, in practice anyone could use it to request contact info for up to three film actors per call; no charge, no automated system (yes, a live person answered), no questions asked. (Of course, they would not give out personal phone numbers or addresses but rather, typically, the number of the actor’s agent or manager.)

Though the info on file was sometimes outdated, this service helped in my research for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman and particularly as I prepared my two big interview series to date: ‘70s and ‘80s superhero entertainers and music video ingénues.

In 2012, SAG merged with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and perhaps as part of that reorg, the Actors to Locate number went away, despite what this December 2013 screenshot from the SAG-AFTRA site indicates:



However, the service did not…it was reborn as a web-only feature (which is more efficient anyway).

But reborn with another change.

I was told that SAG-AFTRA would now give access to what they had renamed iActor only to casting directors or producers who are working with SAG-AFTRA projects and no longer to people seeking members for charitable organizations, personal appearances, speaking requests, interview requests, or modeling requests.

In other words, I was no longer eligible.

I called to ask if I could appeal. The person I reached kindly said she had heard from a number of people who fell outside the “casting directors and producers” category, many with what seemed to be valid reasons for wanting access to iActor. She suggested I plead my case in writing and she’d submit it—with others—to the decision makers.

This is what I submitted:

I’m the author of more than 70 books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman. My work has been covered by The Hollywood Reporter, NPR’s All Things Considered, The Today Show, USA Today, Forbes, NBC, ABC, PBS, MTV, Yahoo; two of my books inspired a TED talk.

I often profile former actors who have long been out of the spotlight yet are still fondly remembered by fans, the kind of people who have never been interviewed before and are, in most cases, thrilled and honored that someone took the time and effort to track them down. In doing so, I have been able to help some of these inactive performers receive royalties that had been accumulating for them but which could not be sent because SAG/etc. did not have their current contact info and did not have luck finding them.

Whenever combining whatever info SAG had with my own detective work has led to success, I direct the talent back to SAG to update their record. Sometimes once they are “found,” they then are hired to appear at conventions for which they are paid. They are very grateful.

Among the people I found and directed to update their SAG record:


Examples of my work in which SAG is invaluable:


Creating such content is hard enough as it is, and even harder without access to agents/managers (though many of these people no longer have agents).

Such features benefit all involved, both emotionally and financially—it gives former performers a chance to discover they have fans (and often royalties) and gives fans original, hard-to-come-by interviews/content. It seems to me that this is one beneficial application of the iActor service.

For these reasons, I am hoping to appeal and get access to iActor just as I had to Actors to Locate. I hope it is clear that I don’t abuse the privilege; I use it to help and showcase others.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

It worked.

I was granted access.

And so the intermittent Hollywood-related research continues.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this. You give hope.

Hello,

I represent the widow of a deceased member of SAG. She is 88 years old, never received benefits and is in poor health. She has memories and mementos of her late husband and I see it's painful when I ask her to recollect.

I see how she can claim any residuals held by The Union, however she cannot recall his membership number. We can provide other qualifying documents as required, moreover we know the number most important.