Canadian agents tend to be closer to their clients than their American counterparts. By its nature, agents say, the Canadian system lends itself to a somewhat more intimate client-agent relationship than that experienced south of the border. Agents point out their fee of 15% (compared to the standard American agent’s 10%) is in part compensation for their duties, which are more managerial than their U.S. counterparts.

‘Most Canadian agents would consider themselves both agents and managers to their clients, which is why we take 15% as opposed to Americans who take only 10% and have managers who take another 10%,’ says Paul Hemrend, on-camera and theatre agent at ETM in Toronto. ‘We have jobs that fall within both those categories.’

‘I describe it to people as much more on the management level than the agent level,’ says MaryJane MacCallum of The Artist Representation Company, Toronto. ‘It’s not like the States where actors have agents and managers. Here lots of us do work like managers. We approach it from the aspect of making career choices like, ‘Let’s look at the right project and take you to the next level,’ as opposed to working on anything and everything for the sake of working. We turn stuff down all the time. It’s more about streamlining and choosing the right project. I consider myself more manager than agent.

‘One of the big reasons [the American system includes managers] is they tend to have huge agencies in the States, like William Morris, and the client really feels that they need someone looking after their interests. Managers get on agents’ backs. It’s more about having that extra person to watch out for you,’ says MacCallum.

‘When you have agents repping hundreds of clients you can fall through the cracks. There are the larger agencies, but each individual agent reps their roster. In the States, every agent works for every client. Agents work for every one of those clients – there’s no way you’re going to know your clients as well. With Canadian agents, there tends to be a personal relationship.’

MacCallum, an agent for almost a decade with The Talent Group before launching ARC, thinks of her 40-client company as a ’boutique’ in the world of talent agencies.

‘Having a smaller number of clients is actually more appealing to me. I’m more interested in working with leading clients. I’ve been very selective and turned down almost everyone – you have to think of the reality of how much time there is in a day and how many people you can effectively work with. I’m the only agent in the agency, but I can sustain the company on 40 clients because they’re all leads. I don’t do day players or commercials.’

Part of the reason so many Canadian agents will assume more managerial duties is that Canada lacks a star system, says MacCallum. ‘The hardest part is that we don’t have a star system in Canada; in the States, there’s such a star system in place, such a publicity machine in play, everyone hires publicists. It’s a real business machine. In Canada there’s a tendency for people to sit back and be polite; you have to be aggressive about it.’

The lure of the greenback leads to a steady stream of Canadian talent flowing south of the 49th.

‘Canadians are generally relegated to supporting leads and day players [in American service productions],’ says Hemrend. ‘At some point, most Canadian actors are urged to go down to L.A. and set up with an American agent, and, through that process, get through the glass ceiling. If you want to ever become a star name who can sell a picture, it’s difficult to sell from Canada. It happens, but it’s difficult and rare. The standard route is to make that move. Good actors can try their hand at L.A. every single year. How many make it is another matter.’

That transition can be bittersweet for the agent who might have crafted a career almost from scratch. ‘If [the Canadian agent] is smart they’ll try to hold on to a piece of their client’s earnings when they go south by creating a commission split situation with the American agency,’ says Hemrend. ‘Someone with heat around them up here…often an American agent will be willing to take a commission split, even with the stuff that’s just in the U.S. Even if you can’t get that deal, if the actor is doing better [because of your work as an agent], it helps your profile as an agent.’

‘I think a lot of agents have a fear that if their client goes to the States they’ll get cut out of the picture,’ says MacCallum. ‘It’s never happened to me, but it happens to lot of people. My clients have been very loyal to me. I’ve made a point of establishing very strong relationships with agents down there, so I see it as a collaborative effort as opposed to a competition.’ *