My job as your agent is to facilitate the opportunity for auditions to come your way. I have to know you, my actor, in order to effectively submit you for the right roles in the right projects. This includes knowing your skills and what level they sit on, knowing your types and how to market them effectively, knowing my buyers and their clients & catering to their needs all the while making sure all of my clients are being looked after.
If I've done this correctly, you - my actor, will receive an audition. YAY! Now it's your chance to do your bit and showcase yourself and your abilities so casting and production cast you in such role. So I call you, message you, email you - whichever way it is your agent uses to communicate with you and I get a "I don't think I'm right for this role." instead of a "thank you".
A couple things come to mind when I hear this:
1. My actor doesn't trust me - and casting apparently (considering they're the buyers and they want to call you in).
2. My actor (apparently) knows their types better than me.
3. They don't understand how the industry sees them.
This is an issue because every relationship needs trust.
You need to trust your agent knows what they're doing because they do. This is evidenced in the fact you have an audition waiting to be confirmed, however you've decided to stall the process and question "why am I being seen for this?"
The reality is, actors see themselves in a very different way than us buyers & sellers do. We see you as products. As commodities that is part of a puzzle that needs to be completed. And it has to be done right because there's a monetary value that's attached so there's rarely room for error.
Why do you have to question this? Because you think you're the leading man when you're actually the boy next door? Reality check. If you agent has submitted you for the boy next door and casting is calling you in for the boy next door, then you're the boy next door. It's a hard pill to swallow but the earlier you accept how the industry sees you, the more success you will see in a shorter amount of time.
The fact that casting has called you in for an audition should tell you your agent knows your type, knows how to sell you, knows their clients well enough that they can see your agent's approach in the brief and they agree. Work WITH your agent and not against them. Provide them with the material they need in order to sell you to their buyers more effectively.
CHECKLIST:
Do I know what types my agent sees me as?
Do they have the strongest material to sell me as those types?
Do I trust my agent?
Do I know how the industry sees me?
have an audition waiting to be confirmed. What's