I just returned from an interview with "The Actor's Studio" which was still called Universal Talent when we answered an ad for movie extras in the Star Ledger last week. My partner and I left feeling that this was not legitimate, so I looked it up and found all the reports in your site about this scam. I wanted to make sure to get the word out that these low lifes have moved to Totowa, NJ, and taken the name of "The Actor's Studio" of all things, one of the most respected and cherished acting institutions in the world. The scam is pretty much the same. We called them and they set up an appointment. We arrived at a small, nondescript office building and went upstairs as directed. There was a photo studio on one side of the hall and the agency was on the other side. They are still moving in and some guy was painting the walls. Jim greeted us and asked if we had pictures. We didn't so he insisted on making us pay $10 each for a polaroid shot before he would let us be interviewed by his assistant.
We asked why we couldn't be interviewed first so we could decide if we wanted to work with them, but he said he needed the pictures for the file so we reluctantly (kicking myself now) agreed. We went into a small office and talked to his male assistant, (I don't remember his name) he said he was new. He proceded to tell us how they could get us extra work in movies and TV, siting some recent examples of shows they'd, worked with and then proceded with the usual scam: We needed to pay for photos, only their photos would do, as other photographers put their names on the pictures and that created a problem with copywrite laws and for $595 each we would also get a months free acting classes. We would get 50 photos and they would keep 50 and the photo disk. We could pay half and they would take the rest out of our pay when they got us work. We asked if we could take the contract home to review but he would'nt give it to us. He wanted us to sign it right then and there.
My partner and I have acted, directed and modeled before and knew this was not the way things worked, so we left, but not before Jim offered to give us a discount of $100 each on the photos. I'm so sorry I didn't look this up before we went, but I hope this will warn other people about the name and address change. We were lucky they were still using the old name last week. It's much more difficult to look them up using a famous name like "The Acting Studio".
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