From time to time, you might work on a TV or film production as a SAG-AFTRA background actor or stand-in, and you might find that that production has someone else doing stand-in work who is not in SAG-AFTRA.

The person might be an assistant director (AD), a stage manager, a production assistant, or someone else who is not in SAG-AFTRA.

That situation is a little awkward, if you think about it. Stand-in work is work covered by SAG-AFTRA. So, arguably no one except someone in SAG-AFTRA should be doing this work (unless this person is being paid under a SAG-AFTRA waiver to do this work).

For example, if you were a stand-in and saw an AD doing stand-in work, would you then turn around and do AD work?  If a camera assistant were doing stand-in work, would you then start pulling focus during a take or two?

Hopefully, the answer is no. But these kinds of situations lead to questions of whether SAG-AFTRA work should ever be invaded in these ways — and whether SAG-AFTRA, a labor union, should vehemently object to these kinds of invasions.

When you might see this activity, it may be in the early days of a production. You might think, Oh well, one time is no big deal, they’re figuring things out.

However, you might see this activity on a production that has been around for years. You might think, Why is there no stand-in doing this work … still?

You then might start to think:

Where is the SAG-AFTRA field rep?

Should I ask someone in production about this?

Should I report the production?

Would SAG-AFTRA even care?

How would the Union even catch the production?

What should I do??

So, Stand-In Central turns the question to you:

Question:

When someone who is not a SAG-AFTRA stand-in is standing in instead, how do you feel about it? Do you ever do anything? When do you do something, and when don’t you do something? And if you do something: What do you do?

Post your thoughts in the comments box below to help others understand how to approach such situations.