The 30-year industry veteran was talking about the practice of agents sending clients fake invitations to record self-tape auditions.
Deadline first exposed the issuein an investigation onBodhi Talent, a boutique agency based in Manchester.
Watch on Deadline
IAM went further than Bodhi in misrepresenting audition requests.
Actors have asked casting directors if their audition invites were realGetty
The agency forwarded clients emails in which casting directors purportedly declared their wish to see actors for auditions.
In reality, the casting directors had made no such request.
They did not write the words in the forwarded emails.
Mark Barrett
OutlanderactorMark Barrett was the first to blow the whistle on IAMs practicein an emotional interview with Deadline.
He later found that his hope was misplaced and countless days of work recording the auditions was for nothing.
This was not a story about a single client.
Other clients have also spoken out.
Barrett and Sowerby politely and diligently asked casting directors: was my tape fake?
The same question is now being posed by suspicious actors repped by other agents.
Contacting casting directors in this way is unorthodox.
IAM argued they could.
Put simply, IAM said the strategy was in its clients best interests.
Had Barrett known he was recording unsolicited tapes, he would not feel aggrieved at what had taken place.
There would be no story.
So why do it?
Former clients spoke of auditions magically appearing in their inboxes after raising concerns about a lack of work.
This may go some way to explaining the reticence among certain casting directors to condemn fake audition invites.
The CDAs full-throated statement to one side, some casting directors have ghosted Deadlines requests for comment.
The organization did not reply.
One casting director, who wished to remain anonymous, says the profession is a precarious business.
Most CDs are freelancers vying for film and TV contracts, he says.
The CDGs position suggests that current self-tape guidelines are not about to be changed to protect actors.
Its distressing, she says.
The pandemic made self tapes the go-to audition practice and there are many pros.
But the cons have damaging and dangerous ripple effects that need to be acknowledged and prevented, she adds.
While actors have not suffered financial losses in recording unrequested tapes, they tell Deadline of feeling emotionally robbed.
Each tape represented a shot at work or a big break.
Actors had to learn lines, accents, and embody characters for the auditions.
Sometimes, they received scripts that should have been confidential.
For it all to be for nothing feels galling, the actors say.
The sacred bond of trust with their agents was tarnished.
The can of worms is open.
Those affected hope it will be enough to end the fake tape scandal as quickly as it started.
