Local Hire Explained: Why It’s Important and How to Avoid Complications

There has been an interesting and dangerous trend in commercial auditioning of talent claiming they are a local hire, when in fact they are not. I believe this is an effect of boundaries altered and blurred due to the industry shift to self taped auditions and Zoom callbacks. The ease of auditioning from anywhere with no requirements of showing up at the local casting studio seems to have led to a misguided perception by some talent of the definition of what local is.

Why is claiming you are a local hire when you are not dangerous for talent and production? How can this get you into costly trouble fulfilling your booking commitment as well as putting the production in jeopardy? Let’s answer those questions and more to help you understand why this is a troubling issue in the acting business.

What is a Local Hire in Acting?

Let’s start with what a local hire is. Local hire, when stated on casting notices, means the project is only looking to hire people who live close to the shooting location (e.g., your town actors, residents of a specific area, etc.). Traditionally, mentioning local hire signals the reference to union talent payment guidelines.

These commercial union guidelines were set up to protect talent from the cost of spending their own money on transportation, travel days, housing and even gas money for driving to a location. Distances were worked out based on specified “zones.” For non-union jobs, industry standards try to follow the general union rule of thumb for the protection of talent.

Working on the assumption that you are a talent who is respected, professional, reliable and shows up at a shoot when accepting a booking, let’s go further into the meaning and reasoning local hire is called for, even beyond payment guidelines.

When Should a Production Consider Using Local Hire Actors?

When considering using local hire actors, you have to look at how many days, hours and dollars travel is going to cost you when the cost of airfare is involved. Consider how weather conditions and other technical complications out of your control will affect the ability to get to the shoot, and how the change of shoot days —possibly called by the production company— can affect your arrival commitment.

The Definition of Local Hire is Not Open to Interpretation

In recent castings, some talent are making up their own definition of what local hire is, or are not aware of the fact that local hire was called for on the casting call. I am finding on Zoom callbacks that talent might casually mention a city where they live. However, their area of residence is clearly a plane ride away from the shoot location. They say this seemingly oblivious to the fact that, somehow, they would have to get to the location on the day of shooting.

Then, there are the talent who purposely avoid mentioning where they live because they are looking to book anything. They consider themselves local hires because they are willing to fly themselves to the job and have a place to stay at their own expense in the city of the shoot. Folks, that is not local hire. That is an out-of-town actor at best. Local hires do not have to purchase last-minute airline tickets because they live in the shooting location.

The Dangers of Claiming You Are a Local Hire When You Are Not

Why is this dangerous to yourself as an actor and to the production? As an actor, you don’t want to put a production in jeopardy. This will upset the production office and can increase the cost of shooting. This will also cause delays as we will have to re-cast the role if we find out that you are not a local hire. It will also hurt your reputation as the casting department will no longer be able to trust you. You also risk being dropped by your agent upon this discovery.

On a non-union production I was casting, I had an actor who had booked the job directly (no agent involved), email me that they were stuck at the airport for two days due to bad weather trying to get a flight to Los Angeles. Although they were sorry, it would not be possible for them to make it to the shoot.

Upon calling the distressed actor who was still at the airport explaining their failed efforts to me, they were still claiming they were local hire because they were paying their way to the shoot and they had a place to stay at no cost to production.

Why Does a Casting Call Specify the Need for a Local Hire?

Local hire is proclaimed on a casting call, not only to announce that no travel expenses will be paid but to protect talent and production by avoiding the myriad of travel difficulties —that no one has control of— that can get in the way of you getting to where you have to be, with the result of ruining a shoot.
Production has set time schedules, commitments to hired crews, location permits and rental equipment that all have costs involved. Not to mention scheduling to meet editing and on-air deadlines for ad placement.

What You Agree to When You Commit to a Booking

When talent accepts a booking, they are agreeing to be at the booking, on time. A seasoned actor knows there could always be changes in shoot dates as well as even added dates. An educated actor knows if they don’t fulfill their commitment and can’t show up for the shoot, their agent will drop them, the casting office will never audition them again and they could even be held liable for expenses incurred by the production.

Actors, please make smart decisions for a long and successful career. The casting and talent community is based on trust with talent knowing casting has their backs and that casting relies on talent who have a solid reputation and honor their commitments. That is the industry standard of what we can expect from talent.

Whether you’ve accepted a role as a background actor, day player, principal actor or guest star role, if the casting call requires a local hire, please be local to the work stated. If you can’t make it to that area on the day of shooting without catching a plane, then you are not a local hire. There will always be more television roles, film roles and roles in commercials that will come your way (your acting resume will grow over time).

Anyone telling you that you can work as a local hire anywhere as long as you have a means of getting to a shoot location is giving you bad audition advice that can only damage your acting career. Put your best foot forward, be honest about your location and availability, and good luck on your journey.

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