Terminology Tuesday – Offer Only

Offer only is the term used to describe an actor who will only consider a role if it’s offered outright. 

That means no auditions, no callbacks, and no tests.⁠

Dream come true?⁠

With most things in life, there are some caveats. ⁠

But first, let’s discuss the different types of situations where you could be considered offer only:⁠

When your agent has established that you should be considered “offer only,” a few different factors will be discussed:⁠

– Will you be offer only for all TV/film roles? Or…⁠
– Offer only for just co-star roles?⁠
– Offer only for just TV roles?⁠
– Offer only depending on the size of the project/people involved?⁠

You want to make sure you are always on the same page with your agent as to which roles you want to be offer only for AND if (regardless of project) you STILL want to be sent the audition information to decide for yourself. ⁠

Opportunities can be missed without these discussions. ⁠

Other caveats to consider are that once you have declared yourself to be an offer only actor, your reel is now a substitute for your auditioning skills. And TBD if it will do the trick. ⁠

As casting directors, our mental library of actors is expansive and that’s what producers rely on us for. So when we send them a fancy little list with names, pictures & links, the choices are typically made heavily on whatever is in those links. ⁠

And many times, actors are continuously losing out on roles because their reel isn’t up to par but they’re set on saying goodbye to auditioning. ⁠

However, for the right role/project/director, actors may be willing to come out of their “offer only cave” and come back into the audition room (this is especially the case for pilots).⁠

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 & 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲. ⁠

You 𝘤𝘢𝘯 decide to use your reel in replace of auditioning for 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 roles, but consider that some opportunities may be lost; especially for productions where the producers and/or the director are passionate about seeing the roles read aloud. ⁠

#themoreyouknow#TheCastingDirectorsCut#terminologytuesday

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