What is an Avail?
Explaining this important, non-binding agreement
(By Tonya Tannenbaum)
(Photo: Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels)
You (or your rep) submitted your materials in response to a breakdown. You secured an audition. You did well enough in the audition to receive a callback (or perhaps they didn’t conduct callbacks). Your callback went well!
What happens next? Well, depending on what you auditioned for, you might be put on “avail”.
What is an Avail?
As you might imagine, the term “avail” is short for availability. It means that the people in charge of the project you auditioned for, such as the casting director or the producers, have singled you out as one of the last remaining actors whom they might hire for the role.
Avails are a non-binding courtesy granted by the actor, meaning no contracts are signed. But it’s expected of actors to honor this agreement.
As such, they would like for you to make sure you keep yourself available for the upcoming shoot dates, should they decide to hire you for the role.
Otherwise, they would run the risk of casting an actor, only to find out that that actor has now been cast for a different project, or for whatever other reason, is not available for the shoot. At that point, they would have to scramble to find a replacement, risking time and money if production is pushed back. So, to avoid chaos, they ask their selected actors to leave open their availability.
Avails are a non-binding courtesy granted by the actor, meaning no contracts are signed. But it’s expected of actors to honor this agreement.
An Avail is not a booking
Being put on avail does not mean that you will book the job. In fact, you may not even be their first choice. You may just be a secondary option; in case their first choice is unable to perform for whatever reason.
Being put on avail does not mean that you will book the job. In fact, you may not even be their first choice.
Nevertheless, you’re still expected to leave your availability open until final decisions have been made. Once final decisions have been made, actors who were not cast are free to pursue their next opportunity.
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