Kids Talent

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Fisher/kidstalent/17″/mike1st/mark2nd

By SARA FISHER

Staff Reporter

“Good morning, it’s Joy Stevenson at Herb Tannen Associates. I have a lovely young lady named Jeanine who would be perfect for you. She’s adorable and personality plus OK, I’ll fax that picture right over. Thanks.”

Stevenson hangs up the phone, muttering, “I just lied through my teeth. That girl’s absolutely lovely, but she needs more confidence.”

It’s only 9:30 a.m. at the Herb Tannen Associates talent agency in Beverly Hills, yet Stevenson already has been at it for more than four hours. You’d never know by looking at her her royal-blue suit remains wrinkle-free and her blond hair perfectly styled.

Starting at 5 a.m. most days, Stevenson sorts through the day’s “breakdowns,” brief character descriptions for roles that casting agents are holding auditions for. She makes notes on which of her more than 300 clients she’ll push for that day. It’s pilot season in Hollywood, just adding to the typical casting frenzy.

Before the agency’s assistants drift through the door around 9:30, Stevenson already has her breakdown notes on their desks. The assistants type up cover letters, pull out actors’ headshots and resumes, and have couriers send it all out to casting agents around town.

Everyone is working the phones intensely.

“Good morning, it’s Joy Stevenson at Herb Tannen. Listen, one of our lovely girls and a wonderful actor was asking about the Gillian role that went out a day ago. Oh, you’ve cast it already? What about the student role? Do you need another? Great. Her name is Lisa. I’ll fax her picture right over.”

Stevenson glances through the headshots that an assistant had pulled for the first round of mailings. Shaking her head, she asks for a hipper shot of Jeanine, a post-nose-job photo of Lisa, and a makeup-free, younger-looking picture of another girl they’re hoping to send out that day.

Stevenson has worked as a children’s agent for the last 18 years, starting when she was 40 and her husband was out of work. The mother of five (one a child actor) landed an assistant’s job at a now-defunct kid’s talent agency with no experience other than her years of chauffeuring her son to auditions.

“Good morning, it’s Joy Stevenson at Herb Tannen. I have a quick question. Did you pitch Dan? The producers told me that they would review the 15-year-old boys again before deciding anything. They have seen the 6-, 9- and 11-year-olds, but there was still time to I’m asking because I have two boys on the call-back list. The other manager was driving the casting agent nuts, so I didn’t want to get on their nerves with too many of us calling. OK. Great. Thanks.”

Stevenson puts down the phone again, saying there’s no way the boy would get the role. He isn’t getting call-backs for two-line jobs, let alone a leading role. He’s sweet, she says, and at least he has started working with a good acting coach.

Stevenson enjoys handling kids more than adults. With kids, she explains, it’s just make-believe (sort of). Adults have to turn that make-believe into rent money, and the pressure can be painful.

“Good morning, it’s Joy Stevenson at Herb Tannen. The prettiest 16-year-old we have is Emily. She played a young Marilyn Monroe for a movie-of-the-week a while ago. That’s the hot look you want. The other one is Jennifer, who is only 14, but so mature we always put her out for older Great. Bye.”

As Stevenson scribbles down notes, two people simultaneously duck into her office a fellow agent requesting that she meet with a child for possible representation and an assistant with questions about a headshot being sent out. Just then, Stevenson’s phone rings, then she’s paged from the front office. It’s pandemonium, business as usual.

A fax hasn’t gone through in time to get to a producer’s meeting, and a casting agent needs all of the agency’s boys with big brown eyes under the age of 3 by early afternoon. One youngster had shown up to an audition without a picture or a resume, a crisis for the agency. Suddenly, an agent slams down his phone and hands Stevenson a message.

“You scored, Joy. You pushed and you scored,” he almost yells. She had sent a chubby 13-year-old to a casting call for a 16-year-old Spike Lee type, and the Disney producers want to meet him that afternoon.

Stevenson quickly gets on the phone to try and reach the teen’s mother in time for the call-back in a few hours, which proves to be tough. When the actor’s mother finally calls back, Stevenson explains the coup. “Sometimes you just have to go out on a limb,” Stevenson says, breaking into a smile.

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