Women & Hairstyle

For women, the style or length of your hair compared to the actress isn’t always a major factor. You can have longer hair and get booked to stand in for someone with shorter hair and vice versa.  In my experience, I have found that films have stricter hair requirements for stand-ins than television projects.

Whatever the project, it’s important to be honest about how your hair currently looks. If you have recently changed your color, added highlights, or gotten a significant haircut, you should inform the casting director of this when you get called to stand in. If you don’t have professional pictures of you with your new hairstyle, you can take a candid digital photo to have ready to send out upon request.

Changing Your Hair for the Job

For particular jobs, you may be required to change your hair to match the actor you are standing in for. You will usually see this detailed in the casting notice, and the casting director should be able to give you more information about how the actress’s hair will be styled.

If the casting director didn’t mention that you should be willing to change your hair, then most likely it is not required. If it is required, you would be asked to cut and/or color your hair after chosen for the job, not for the interview.

Making the Decision to Change Your Hairstyle

Changing your hair for stand-in work can be a big decision. If you’re an actor, you have headshots that reflect your current image, and you will have to figure out how to work around that issue if your image changes.

If you are thinking about changing your hair for a stand-in job, here are some things to consider:

• How many days of work will this job give you?

When you get called for consideration for stand-in work, the casting director should be able to tell you how many days you would be working on the project.  A major character could work anywhere from 10 days to 40 or more days on a film. If you would only be working on the project for a shorter term, it may not be worth it to you to change your hair.

• Does it make sense financially to change your hair?

Find out if you would be responsible for covering the cost of changing your hair. A cut and color can be expensive for women, and it could be more expensive in the long run if you decide to change it back to your previous style. You can ask if there is someone in the hair department who would be willing to do it for you. This would save you money, and their stylists would know best about how your hair should look to match the principal actress.

• Will you have to cut your hair?

Figure out how much of a cut you would be comfortable with. Trimming your hair a few inches is a minor change, but a much shorter cut or bangs can change your look a lot, and it would take longer to grow back out to your previous style.

• Will you have to change the color?

Once you change your hair color more than a few shades, it’s not easy to change it back. It could take several appointments to gradually change your hair shade-by-shade to get it back to your previous color. It can also be damaging to the overall health of your hair.

• Are you willing to get new headshots taken?

If your look changes dramatically, you may need to consider taking new headshots to represent your new look. Even if you want to change back to your previous style, you may need a new picture to represent you while your hair is transitioning.

Finally: Ask Questions!

There can be a lot to think about when deciding to change your hair for stand-in work. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you need more details about how you would have to change it. You need to feel comfortable and confident that you are making the right decision. Good luck!

Do you have any comments about changing your hair for stand-in work? Please share below!

On some jobs, you are hired as a background actor then “pulled” to stand in. Many people’s first time standing in is via this method. Casting may have given you advance notice that “you may be pulled to stand in,” and when you arrive to set, the background PA confirms whether you’re standing in that day. Usually this means a pay bump for you as a background actor up to stand-in rate, but it also means additional responsibilities for you for that day of work.  Sometimes it means you just stand in that day and don’t do background, but that’s not usually the case.

On other jobs, you are hired as a stand-in but are expected to do double-duty as a background actor. In these cases, it is often the case that you are a “core” background actor in the production. For example, if the show is a hospital drama, in addition to being a stand-in, you also may be a core doctor or nurse.  In the scenes in which you’re standing in, you may also be doing background work.  As for pay, you are usually just paid as a stand-in, meaning you tend to work a bit harder when you’re a stand-in who is also a background actor.  In this kind of gig, one of the challenges is that it can be hard to know what your principal actor changes in the blocking because you are busy working during the takes.  From my experience, production is usually sympathetic to this kind of situation so they won’t typically give you a hard time if you miss a change in blocking.

On still other jobs, you are hired exclusively as a stand-in, but on rare occasion you are asked to do background work in an extenuating production situation. There may be not enough background actors; there may be a sudden hole in the background that needs to be filled; there may be a needed camera cross; etc.  While these occasions are relatively rare for someone hired exclusively as a stand-in, they are generally part of the job description for a stand-in.  That is, in general, doing occasional background work is part of the stand-in’s job.

That a stand-in can also be used as a background actor can put the stand-in-who’s-also-a-working-actor in a real bind.  Although I stand in frequentliy, I regard myself as an actor first.  Recently I had a great audition for the casting director of a TV show on which I do stand-in work. A day or so later, standing in on that set, I was told I may be used in the background for a scene because a background actor didn’t show. I suddenly had a conflict of interest!  I told the background PA about my recent audition for the casting director that went well, and that if he could hide me should he use me, that would be ideal.  The background PA sounded thrilled I’d had the audition and even accommodating of my request.  Although I was never used in the background that day, I can’t expect all production people would be as accommodating in this kind of situation.

Audition or no, it is helpful to think of how a day of stand-in work may lead to background work, and that this aspect of standing in may conflict with future opportunities you may have for doing principal work on a production.  It would probably be wise to think of background work as “a risk of standing in.”  That is, when you take a stand-in job, you take responsibility for the possibility you could end up doing background work in that production and interfere with your future opportunities for roles on that production.

Do you have any thoughts on doing background work as a stand-in?  Do you have an interesting arrangement with a production?  If so, please share!