How to Obtain a Sag Card

Obtaining a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card is one of the toughest professional affiliations to achieve but it is quite possible if you are dedicated to the cause. The guild is a large union that represents actors. Getting a SAG card is very important, and without it you are not taken as a legitimate actor in Hollywood. There are three ways to become qualified for membership. As soon as you meet the criteria, you need to pay an initial amount of $2,335 as of August 2010 along with the annual membership fees. After obtaining the SAG card, you are supposed to decline non-union acting work.

Instructions

  • 1

    Become a lead actor in a SAG member film

    Try to get the role of a main lead in a Screen Actors Guild movie. If you get casted in a speaking or lead role in a union movie with a SAG member producer, you will be qualified to obtain a SAG card. This is very difficult as majority of the union film producers cannot sign an actor that doesn’t possess a SAG card already. On the other hand, if you have the card then you can work at minimum rates. You will definitely get acting jobs and can avail all the rights of a professional actor in the field.

  • 2

    Prove that you have worked as an actor before

    Show them your employment letter as a background actor with a production company signed to a SAG agreement. You should have acted for a producer who is contracted with SAG for at least three days. He must also provide guarantee to pay actors at SAG wages and fulfil all their rights. Remember that copies of vouchers or pay stubs are not acceptable. As a result of this, you are expected to give them a full report from the payroll department that consists of name, social security number, the company name, the title of the production, the fees that they gave you and the project dates as well.

  • 3

    Enrol in a SAG-affiliated union

    Become part of a SAG-affiliated union for at least a year. An actor will be fit to get SAG membership after being an active member for a minimum of one year at the American Guild of Variety Artists, Television and Radio Artists, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Guild of Musical Artists or the Actors Equity Association.

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