I feel really stupid now after reading another report about Exploretalent.com. I had signed up on a free membership a while back and in late January/early February received an email saying that a casting director was interested in me. When looking to see what it was, it turned out to be for a local hair show and it paid $100. I was really excited about the audition and I looked up the company and they were legit. When I had called Explore Talent to get the information, they looked on my page and said, 'oh you're not a pro-member, I can't give you that information unless you sign up as a pro-memeber.' I asked how much it was and they had said something around $33 a month or I can get a 'deal' and pay around $70-75 for three months and that I'd have more of a chance getting more work with a longer period of time. I thought it was kind of weird that I had to pay to get information and told him I'd have to call back because my funds were low so I'd have to ask my boyfriend if he can spot me the money. He then said 'you have to ask your boyfriend?' So I then told him yeah and explained again because I had no money at the time. My boyfriend said to save money I should do the three month thing and when I had called back, the guy took my information and 'set up' my pro-membership and started giving me all these compliments like 'you have some pretty pictures' and even told me once that 'did you know you have other casting directors interested in you too?' I thought he meant I had others who had sent me emails that I hadn't gotten or something. So this made me even more excited. Well I didn't end up modeling for the one company that emailed their interest to me, but did model for another one I met at the show anyway. When I was looking at my 'pro-member' casting page, I saw that they had these pretty 'generic' casting that you would find in a newspaper or on a theater website or something. Another thing I found odd and I didn't appreciate was that the 'booking department' would 'submit' me for these roles that I didn't even fit! One that I remember was for an MTV True-Life that wanted lesbians and another MTV True-Life that wanted people going off to war or coming home from war. First of all, I see these castings already on the MTV.com website. Second of all, I'm not a lesbian and I haven't been to war nor come home from any kind of war so I was wondering 'why am I being submitted for these?' I felt mad because I didn't know before reading the other response to this rip-off that they don't actually submit anything to anyone. I was thinking that they were submitting me to these and that I would be getting calls or emails or something and have to explain that no I don't actually fit their criteria they want. Another thing I didn't like was that they had me list three cities that I prefer working in. I live in the Midwest and had locations such as Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. I was getting casting calls for New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. I feel totally ripped off and wish I would've just turned down the offer to become a 'pro-member' so that I could get that audition information. I hope that something gets done about it like a class-action lawsuit or somebody puts their foot down that has a powerful say in the matter because Explore Talent don't care about their 'models' and just worry about how much money they can rake in.

Heather
Ladysmith, Wisconsin
U.S.A.

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