Dream merchants
By : Justyna Wrobel
When Jerzy Gudejko and his wife Grazyna set up their acting agency Gudejko in 1989, industry naysayers thought actors didn't need anyone to represent them.
But times have changed. Now their company is the biggest and most prestigious agency of the 10 or so on the market. In the past decade, the perception and importance of acting agencies has developed to the point that if an actor doesn't have a professional agency working on her behalf, she may forever go undiscovered.
"When Gudejko was established in 1989 everybody thought the idea was preposterous and wondered why such companies were necessary," said Bogdan Szczesniak of the CMC Talent Agency, which was started four years ago. "Now, the same people prefer to talk to agencies much more than with the actors themselves."
According to Szczesniak, all actors have agents these days and the first thing that young performers do is find an agency to help them.
While 10 agencies may not seem like many for a country the size of Poland, according to Szczesniak the number is just right. "The market is increasing, and the number of actors is also greater."
Starring
Just a few years ago an actor was someone who earned his master's degree from an acting academy. Now, TV and film performers don't have to have any specific education or training; they only have to have talent, and of course luck.
Bartek Morawski is an amateur actor. He returned from abroad two years ago where he got his start in acting. While he's not a graduate of an acting school, his experience allows him to work in the profession, but only from time to time.
"You have to do something different if you want to survive and I work as a travel guide," Morawski said. "I cannot depend on acting." He spent six years in Canada where he completed acting courses and starred in theater productions. "I knew that there was no chance to survive here (Poland) from acting alone," he said. He also said that established actors block access to certain roles, making it difficult for younger talent to progress. Polish TV productions aren't on a very high level, but they do offer chances for young people, Morawski said.
He said that this past January to April he tried to survive on the money he earned from acting, but it wasn't enough.
"That's why I decided to become a guide because it allows me to manage my time and coordinate it with working on a movie set," Morawski said. He also said that he uses acting agencies CMC and the Variety Studio (formerly called Deadline) to represent him.
His current acting gigs include appearing in a couple of episodes of the TV movie serial "Przeprowadzki," directed by Leszek Wosiewicz, as well as a bit part in Boguslaw Linda's film "Sezon na leszcza." Performing these kinds of roles earns him about zl. 220 a day after taxes and the agent's fee. But he recently landed a better role, financially speaking, when CMC offered him a chance to appear in a TV commercial for insurance company Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU). After the initial casting, he nabbed a supporting part in the commercial. For his three-second long appearance, which took four hours on the set, he was paid zl. 4,000. He'll get even more if PZU's advertising campaign is used in newspapers and if it lasts until next year. "Then I can get as much as zl. 10,000, but it will only be thanks to my good agent," he said.
Although performing in commercials pays better than doing bit parts in movies, Morawski said TV ads are not a pleasure. "I do it only for the money," he said.
While Morawski is working with CMC and Variety now, he has also tried the Gudejko agency, which he wasn't satisfied with.
"They didn't treat me in the same professional way as the others," he said.
"We just represent actors," said Gudejko, referring to his company's responsibilities. "We look for a job for them and they look for a job in our agency."
He added that Gudejko tries to fit particular actors with certain roles and convince directors that their clients are the best available. They also make appointments, collect photographs and handle rehearsals and preliminary shots for their clients.
"We only sign exclusive contracts with our actors," Gudejko added.
Slicing the pie
That exclusivity comes at a price. According to CMC's Szczesniak, a normal feature of exclusive agreements is that their commissions are typically lower, around 10%, while open contracts can net as much as 20%.
Jarek Wozniak also charges his clients 20% commission. His agency, Variety Studio, doesn't sign any exclusive contracts with its pool of 50 actors.
"There's no need to tie their hands," Wozniak said. "I know that there are some agencies that sign exclusive contracts with actors, but they don't offer them much."
He also disagreed with Szczesniak's (CMC) assertion that the number of agencies on the market is adequate given the limited pool of talented actors. "The number (of agencies) doesn't correspond with what is going on," Wozniak said. "The only way to operate well is to have interesting people (actors) to offer and know in what way to promote them," he added.
However, Szczesniak isn't complaining about the competition. "The number of agencies is appropriate at the moment," Szczesniak said. "If their number was too small, then new ones would certainly be set up." He added that the agencies work independently and don't interfere with each other.
The indie route
But relying on professional agencies is not the only way burgeoning actors try to make their big break.
"Belonging to an agency doesn't guarantee that you'll get to act,' said Rafal Kosecki, a young Krakow-based actor who uses a Warsaw agency. That's why Kosecki, like Morawski, doesn't rely solely on his acting jobs to pay the bills. "I don't live from that, it just gives me good fun," said Kosecki, who works as a PR specialist. He said that 10% of his income comes from acting and that a real agent should seek roles for his actors. Although he is quite happy with his agent, he said he would like to have more work. "I would be able to pay him more, even 40%, if he represented me in a better way," he said.
He added that he didn't think there were any truly good acting agencies. "They have so many people that they are not able even to get to know them very well," he said. Kosecki said he pays his agent 20% commission and does not have an exclusive contract.
Breaking it down
If an actor signed to an exclusive contract lands a job without any help from his agency, the agency still get its commission. At first glance, it would appear that the agency is getting paid without doing any work.
"(Let's take for example) Gudejko, he warns you that whatever you do on your own, he still takes his commission," Kosecki said.
Gudejko disagrees. "If an actor gets an offer on his own, it doesn't mean that on a certain level the agency didn't influence it before," he said.
Over the years, Gudejko has changed its catalog of actors a few times. The company's current catalog contains the details and photos of about 300 actors. Gudejko said that stars such as Piotr Machalica, Edyta Olszowka and Agnieszka Wagner have been working with the agency for a long time.
"Piotrek (Machalica), for instance, had a few proposals to leave my agency (from others), but he didn't take them," Gudejko said.
Sometimes actors do leave, however. "When an actor left my agency, at the very beginning my wife and I couldn't handle it and we were very touched," Gudejko said. "We took it very personally, even as a betrayal."
He added that actors migrating from one agency to another are more common now. "Different agencies demand different things and actors are just trying out their options," he said.
"Negotiations with producers are more of a partnership now," Gudejko said. "It's a miracle of capitalism and it's also convenient for producers as much as for actors."
Gudejko said he charges his actors a commission equal to 10% of their contracts. "This is the basic commission but there are a lot of variants," he said. Most of his firm's actors receive contracts for movies, because, as he said, most of them are stars. They also do commercials.
Gudejko, like other agencies interviewed for this article, refused to reveal his income, and restricted himself to saying that the money he earns from promoting actors is pretty satisfying. "Revenue is growing all the time, but at the beginning, it grew faster," he said.
Star search
Zbigniew Gruz is the co-director of "Quo Vadis," which started filming a few months ago. The movie, directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, is the biggest Polish production to date. "We put feelers out to all acting agencies, because the better the access to information, the better the result," Gruz said. These agencies included Absolwent, Gram, Gudejko, Passa, CMC, ABM and ZASP (the Polish actors union).
"Actors change their phone numbers, their apartments," Gruz said. "So acting agencies make life easier." He said that all methods agencies use to keep tabs on actors are very useful, especially for the actors themselves.
"Years ago fees for actors were the same and arranged by film studios, and increased the more an actor worked," Gruz said. "Now, nobody establishes concrete fees and the importance of an agent is tremendous."
Especially crucial are those agents who promote small groups rather than Gudejko's hundreds. Agata Domagala started her career as an agent by working with one of the most popular Polish actors, Zbigniew Zamachowski, over a year ago. Her idea of being an agent is to have one star (like Zamachowski) and couple of young but very talented actors. "My concept is to have one great star and surround him with talented people such as Maja Ostaszewska and Agnieszka Warchulska," Domagala said.
"I don't need to promote Zbyszek (Zamachowski), I just work for him handling his contracts, conducting negotiations," she said. Domagala describes herself as a manager rather than an agent. She is aware that the approximately 10 actors she manages, especially those who are less well known, benefit from being under her protective wings.
"Unfortunately the number of productions on the market is lower then the number of people who want to act," she said.
While Domagala's Zamachowski is an extremely popular movie celebrity and proposals come directly to him, other actors have to try their best to land any role. This is especially the case with actors who have contracts with large agencies.
"Actors have rights to demand special care," Domagala said. "And the truth is that these large agencies cannot support them (as I can) because the number of actors is too large." The reasons why actors need special attention is obvious to her. "They work under stressful conditions," she said.
Domagala said that until she became an agent she didn't realize actors needed care. She also said that her dealings with her actors are based more on friendly relationships than on business. In addition, Domagala is quite happy with the profit generated through managing their careers. "I can't complain," she said. "But the money isn't tremendous."
She added that she's never charged more than 10% commission. "I couldn't take more," she said.
