This happened as the result of an argument that arose when I was attempting to point our to the person running the session that they had repeatedly skipped over me to go in the room. He told me that he was waiting to pair me with the "right person" because I would have a better chance booking the job. I told him to let me worry about booking the job. Then he said, "SAG says we have you for an hour anyway."
Using the SAG maximum alloted time to keep an actor before one has to pay him as an appropriate timeframe for an audition consisting of two guys and one line made me upset. I told him that, quite frankly, I was tired of being treated like a child at casting sessions. He told me he wasn't treating me like a child, but like a "retarded actor." At this point I lost it - screaming match in the waiting area - and walked out. I value my pride more than a regional lotto ad.
A couple of things struck me about the experience. First, was that not one actor in that room got my back. I may have gotten a little too pissed off, sure, but has it really come to the point where we all just accept being treated like cattle? I do my job well - I prepare for auditions, I'm generally respectful. Why is it so much to demand that a casting session run on or near schedule? Where on earth is SAG on this issue?
I regained my cool - although my girlfriend still thinks I overreacted. Still, if you can't call them as you see them, don't you lose the one thing that makes you an actor? Don't you lose your soul?
