Central Casting

I had a 5 day gig , got strep throat complete w 101 degree fever- had to call out for 3 of the days. I said I could give doctors notes too.

They were so nice and said no its ok- get better. Then a few weeks later I booked a gig. No one was contacting me the night before w details- I finally got thru, he said oh weird ok well I guess youre not on this. Then a week later I got this email w all this legal crap stating Im banned for life.

I did nothing wrong. They took away my livelyhood, my job, my survival. You cant Sue them either because you just cant win (Ive heard.) I tried going back a few years later to see if it was true- yup they keep that in the system forever. Yet they let predatory *** guys work for them- I have stories there too, and practically homeless guys who smell like human waste- no Im not kidding.

But someone who never is late- does her job to perfection yet gets viciously sick once is banned. Wild huh?

First, they take poor photographs and do not let you replace the key photo! I know of no other platform-of any kind- that doesnt.

Their just checking availability have become a laughing stock among actors.

These dont include location of shoot call times etc-and it very rare you hear back.

Im a working actor and professional. Yesterday was the final straw. In the morning I received an Avail Check for the next day. Responded available within ten minutes also answered the supplemental questions in the affirmative.

Never heard back. 14 hours later they sent me another , identical inquiry (after 1:15 am for a 6 am call time!) despite having told them I was available!

I know they were sold to new owners and have half their former footprint.

They are falling behind and dont know how to service their roster.

They offered me an appointment to take another photo-why bother the lighting is horrible and I dont know many folks who like their pictures.

Why not use an actors BEST photo?

Ill miss the laughs when I would receive an avail check but time to leave Central Casting. They no longer have their act together.

I called three times before my show time to try to make adjustments so I wouldnt be late. I had a call time for 7:30 but I was told I can come at 8.

I called back before the new call time, 3 minutes AFTER the original time. The employee said to me youre an adult you cant just wake up and say youre not gonna come you had a job and you are a no call no show EVEN THOUGH I CALLED 3 TIMES. He also WOULDNT TELL ME HIS NAME because he told me already and I shouldnt listened, I was extremely apologetic the entire time. He even HUNG UP ON ME.

I called back to speak to a supervisor and he told me he was the only one there.

I told him he was unprofessional and I shouldnt be spoken to that way. So Im waiting to know now if I will be suspended for a no call no show.

Employees scattering like cockroaches with lights on. Smart ones got out early.

(Congrats Robert Saldivar & Tony Hobbs.). *** ki$$ers inside may be only ones with any job security. Dumb ones climb aboard monthly. Every time you turn around, a new idiot 20-something is now "casting" a show and none of them are familiar with the talent.

They can't & won't even click a button on actor profiles & research actors' work histories; they are that lazy. To make matters worse, they've adopted a "texting" system that feigns like actors are being submitted & considered for jobs when it's all just a clever ruse to protect EP's *** legally from being examined by DFEH or sued for employment discrimination. Everyone knows production is NOT deciding the bg or stand ins. They don't have time: that's what the casting directors' jobs are there for ...

to select the background! So the casting directors regularly fill roles/spots with family: children, siblings, cousins, nieces, & nephews and friends, neighbors, etc. Many of them get booked regularly through middle men who ask for additional money in a monthly "service fee" to bribe the casting directors for more bookings. And then if and only if there are a few spots left do they fill those spots with a few randomly chosen extras here & there.

It is greased palms & elbow rubbing at it's worst. And it's about to implode. A future discovery or leak of payroll records over the last two decades will reveal the same 300 people are getting 95% of the work and are very curiously, more often than not, relatives of the CD's. Forget the 5,000+ actors in their databse.

They have a family business to run: the business of booking family & friends with lucrative industry jobs and contracts. And since their parent company controls the payroll, they think no one will never know who's regulary shoveling money into their babk accounts from these ill-gotten bookings It's not just conflict of interest. It's bonafide sexism, rascim, ageism, and flat-out job discrimination. Forget that they tell you it's at-will work.

Forget the days of the fruit basket bribes & worse. Won't that be great when it will be the next #MeToo reveal in Hollywood that the very extras who make up the scenes have been whored out in such a way that the days of Central Casting controlling the hiring (and firing) will finally be a thing of the past? Payola systems never went away, everyone. Central Casting regularly utilizes that system because so many of theor friends & families' lives depend upon it.

They own condos and cars and houses and timeshares. All the stuff the rest of the background will never dream of owning. Their argument is that it's perfectly legal to know someone on the inside. What they didn't account for is all of those denied bookings & wrongfully terminated for reasons never even told to them.

What they forgot is that they forced thousands of background to pick up unemployment and forced tax payers to subsidize their job descriminations. Won't it be great when the next major legal bombshell drops? Newbie employees won't know what hit them while the hangers-on will face criminal charges. The newbies are just dumb enough to believe they will be the next Carl Joy.

Be like Maryanne and take your retirement now, senior casting directors. A *** storm is coming your way.

I understand that when people are absent, it is not a good sign. However, if someone is absent and does not inform anybody that you are going to come to work, than that is even worse!

Central Casting has booked me for a lot of work, and there were 2 days, when I couldn't make it in to work because I was sick. However, when I was feeling sick, I contacted their hotline and informed their representatives that I could not make it today. Their staff told me, "it is fine." "Next time, no worries"

The next thing I know, I am terminated. I always read Central Castings rules and Regulations on their website. They state, that if, an individual is absent more than 5 days within a year, it results in termination. Well, I guess that is not true since I only missed 2 days within a year, and they terminated me. We all get sick sometimes, but I did the right thing, and informed them in advance on both days. So to me, it is unprofessional from their staff because I want to continue being in the acting business, and they blacklisted me.

So, if anyone decides to read the rules on their website, don't believe it. It is all rubbish. They have the power to just fire you anytime with no explanation.

Amongst all the myriad of ways Central Casting Los Angeles scams & frauds their actors, chief amongst those means is how if youwant more than 3 bookings per year, you must pay a middleman called a "calling service" (a 3rd party who gives part of your monthly fees back to the casting directors as a kickback), essentially extorting actors for additional monies or no work will be provided by Central (racketeering). Being that all Central's casting directors are now considered partial owners of the company, this makes them all culpable of participating in racketeering.

High time the City Attorney of Los Angeles and the State Labor Board put these bastards permanently out of commission.

The whole company is a total fraud and misrepresents the actors. They are NO kind of "talent agency" whtsoever and shouldn't even be classified as su h.