Casting directors in Toronto are up in arms over what they call actions ‘not in the best interests of Canadian performers’ by the Canadian talent union actra.

actra has pledged continuing support of the sag/aftra strike against the u.s. advertising industry, ongoing since May 1. This despite an independent arbitrator’s ruling that Canada is open for business, and that, contrary to actra’s insistence, performers should be paid by the applicable rates in the expired sag/aftra commercial contracts, rather than in the sag/aftra interim agreement.

Shasta Lutz of Jigsaw Casting, Toronto, is among the most vocal of the casting directors unhappy with actra’s actions. She claims actra has been acquiring breakdowns for non-union shoots and sending out faxes, warning talent agents and producers that they had better not employ union performers on non-union shoots.

Lutz believes that these faxes ‘insult’ and insinuate wrongdoing on her breakdowns that specifically call for non-union talent. Lutz says many casting directors and agents are really irritated.

Lutz is particularly inflamed about a letter actra forwarded to all the u.s. advertising agencies, pledging continued support of the sag/aftra strike, despite the arbitrator’s ruling. In Lutz’s eyes, this letter constitutes a veiled threat to the Americans.

‘We have this arbitration saying that Canada is open for business and then they’re [actra] sending out this fax to all the agencies saying, ‘Well yeah, technically we are open for business, but we’re really not happy about it. So don’t be surprised if we sabotage your commercial,’ ‘ Lutz says.

Alex Gill, communications director for actra’s Toronto office, confirms that actra has, indeed, become more vigilant in sending out alerts.

‘We’ve started to [send out alerts] wherever we’ve found out that there is a non-union casting call out there for a commercial. Whereas in the past we’d hear about this and we didn’t have the resources to deal with it, now we’ve got to the point where we’re saying, ‘You know what? If they’re going to do a non-union casting call, that’s fine. But we want to remind our members that you don’t go to work for non-union casting calls,’ Gill says.

Gill explains that there are ‘sympathetic people’ who will telephone or send a fax with the details of a non-union casting call. That’s when they ‘do a fax around to the agents citing that information and say, ‘For product x with casting director y, being held at this location – just to remind you, this isn’t an actra signatory gig, so don’t send your actra members out there.’ And that, I think, might be what’s irking the casting directors.’

Brian Levy of Brian Levy Casting is another in the casting fraternity who feels actra is ‘waging a disinformation campaign.’ He goes on to say ‘they’re not acting in the best interests of their performers’ and that the reciprocal agreement is ‘a one-way street.’

Levy also goes so far as to question the union’s agenda and to hint at what he suspects is ‘an ulterior motive.’

‘I think actra is letting just enough information out to suit their purpose. And I’m curious as to what their purpose is. I get the feeling they’re doing everything they can to prevent people from having a good work experience in Toronto and from saying, ‘Hey, this was fabulous, we’ve got to come here all the time,’ ‘ Levy says.

In a letter sent to every casting director and talent agent in the country, Levy ‘hypothesized’ that perhaps actra has designs on becoming ‘something like SAG Canada.’

This actra firmly denies. Says Gill: ‘It must be a pretty secret agenda to merge with sag because I don’t think anybody around here has heard of it.’

Gill goes on to say, ‘Essentially, the reciprocal agreement with sag is in the best interests of professional performers, wherever they work. It is our moral duty to support that kind of action [the sag/aftra strike].’