In all of our research about the children who work on Days, we've learned a bit about the casting process, life on the set, and the various laws and guidelines that dictate a child's work. Here, we share that info with you. Remember, procedures very from set to set and from state to state. We've mainly highlighted how things happen at the Days studio and other soap sets in California.
Casting the Role...
Have you ever wondered why twins and triplets tend to be cast in baby and toddler roles on the soaps? It all has to do with child labor laws in the United States as well as individual guidelines in California and New York. The soaps try to follow the guidelines (which aren't laws) as closely as they can. The guidelines suggest the hours and days that a baby or child can work. The younger the child, the stricter the guidelines and the less time they can perform. So, if a show hires twins, they are able to write the character into the story more often. The children can work more because the babies are being switched. It's also a benefit in production because if one child is cranky, his or her sibling can be brought on stage to be in a scene instead. When dealing with children in the "terrible twos," some directors have been known to have as many as 6 children as backup. That insures that production isn't held up due to an uncooperative child. It's much cheaper to pay additional children than it is to wait forever to get a scene done because a child was cranky.
It's fairly standard practice to cast twins for any role up to age 2. This has been standard practice in television in general since the 60s, but the first set of twins Days hired for a role were Jessica and Amanda Gunnarson for the role of Stephanie in 1990. For older roles, twins may be cast due to a specific storyline need. However, as we've seen on Days, those twins who started on the show at age two, like Brandon and Eric Billings (Brady) continued until age 7. If that role were to be cast for a 7 year old, twins would not be cast, but since they were in the role for more than 4 years, the producers continued to use both boys.
In the early days when twins were used in showbiz, two babies showed up at their particular call time and the work was completed with one baby or the other. However, in a new effort to get more work time for the babies, these days the first baby is usually given a specific call time and the second baby given a "Will Notify." But, for parents' convenience, the second baby usually arrives with the first. With the second baby "off the clock", the producers effectively double the infants' time on the set or under their control. In recent years, after some complaining from associations working for the welfare of children in Hollywood, guidelines have again changed. Now the second baby is usually given a specific call time, rather than a "will notify."
All work by children on soaps require them to have work permits. According to the New York guidelines from child welfare, babies under 3 months will not be issued work permits. In California, the guideline is 15 days. You're probably wondering how those newborns look so small if they're older. Casting directors on the East Coast usually try not to hire children under 3 months. Instead, they will call agents looking for premature babies who are 3 months or older (and are still small) or for babies who are just about to turn 3 months.
If a 3 month old is not available, shows have some other options. They may use a newborn for the newborn scenes in the hospital, but immediately recast the child for future scenes, using an older baby/babies. In order to cast a child under 3 months in a role in New York, the show has to write a letter to the child welfare authorities explaining why they need to use a newborn, how long they'll use them on any given day, how many episodes the child will be in, and what the set conditions and lighting are going to be like. The shows resort to this infrequently, so they usually don't have problems getting it approved.
What do they look for?
"When they're very little, you look for personality," says Fran Bascom, the Days of our Lives casting director. Aside from the look and personality, it's also important that the children are comfortable around strangers. They will rarely be with their mother or father while on the set. Instead, they may be passed around to a variety of actors in any given scene. While Bascom says that they will sometimes audition three year olds, usually an older child who can "play younger" ends up with the job.
Once a casting director has narrowed down his or her choice, the executive producer usually meets with the child or children and makes the final decision. Some are very open with the children, asking them outright if they want to act and be on the show. It's fairly easy to tell if a child is interested or if he's just involved for mom or dad's sake.
At the studio...
Depending on a show's schedule, a child may report to work as early as 7 am, in which case they're usually finished by 12 p.m. Or, a child may not report to work until 4 or 5 p.m. Shows usually contact the families about 2 weeks in advance to let them know that the child is needed for a scene. They will receive the script a few days later. Working parents need that much notice, if not more, to take the necessary time off work. A family may not find out about a call time until the day before filming, so usually the full day must be made available to the show.
According to the AFTRA-SAG Young Performers Handbook, the standard for both interviews and jobs is one parent per child. Therefore, a parent of twins must bring another adult to the studio to watch the non-working child while the parent is close to the set with the working child. "It's pretty much whomever I can drag along," says Kristin Carpenter, mother of Shawn and Taylor (Will). "I have a lot of friends who are fans of the show, so they're just happy to come because they get to meet people."
There are also guidelines about dressing rooms for children. They must be provided for all working children and they cannot be occupied simultaneously by an adult of the opposite sex. Some shows have one or two dressing rooms that are rotated among various children as they work. "When I pack up to go, I bring what they need to eat, and bottle and diapers. The clothes are provided by wardrobe," Carpenter says. "We have our own dressing room with two high chairs, two cribs and, when they were infants, we had two swings, all provided by the show." The Days studio also has a playroom for the children, where they can hang out in between scenes. It has a few playthings, but most of the kids bring their own coloring books, crayons and other various toys to keep themselves occupied. Those who are school age don't spend much time in the playroom, as their spare time on the set is spent with a tutor.
In California, a state-certified teacher is on the set any time children work, even if the children are not of school age. Studio teachers must be present because they are teachers and are responsible for the welfare of child actors on the set and for making sure that child labor laws are followed. The state's strict laws governing child actors say that no child can work on a film or TV show after 12:30am and that a studio teacher must be on the set at all times when children are employed. They may give the children things to do also. Children who are of school age are typically enrolled in a regular school, just missing those days that they are at work. On those days, they must have on-set tutoring. The length of time they are in "school" on the set depends upon the amount of time they work and their age. They usually receive tutoring equal to the amount of time they work. So, if they work for three hours, they must get three hours of tutoring, making for a full day at the studio. This schooling rarely happens for a solid three hours, due to the happenings on the set. A child may be in "school" for 30 minutes, then be called back to the set to work for another hour, then go back for another amount of schooling. Laws regulate that the schooling must take place in chunks of at least 15 minutes. Those three hours could end up accumulating in 12 different sessions during a work day, making it hard to ever really focus on schooling itself. Child actors on many TV sets report directors and producers waiting outside their dressing rooms or trailers waiting for the 15 minute minimum to be complete so they can call them back to the set again. All of the above guidelines apply to California only. In New York, there aren't always onset tutors. This leaves parents responsible for helping a child complete the work that they miss while away from school. Because of this, it's common for parents to choose instead to home-school their children. In New York there are some schools that only enroll children actively working in showbiz. These schools allow more flexibility for kids who are in and out of school.
Both California and New York also require a registered nurse to be present when minors are working. Their main responsibility is safety. They make preventative checks on the set, looking at a child's working environment. They might look for items the child might be able to pick up during a scene or check the stability of a high chair or crib that the baby might be in. The nurse will often be on the set during dress rehearsals and blocking, consulting with the stage manager or director about things a child might need. Currently on AMC, Maureen Mooney and Sister Noreen Cunningham are the Baby Nurses (2003). It is important to note that a baby nurse is not a babysitter. The parent is always responsible for their child in the dressing room.
According to laws, children cannot wear makeup when acting. However, soaps can get around this by using food products instead. To simulate newborn birth scenes, babies may be smeared with cream cheese and jam. If bruises must be depicted, other types of food are used.
Actors who work with the children often spend time before taping in the children's dressing rooms. They get to know the children and play with them, so the children aren't scared of them on the set. If there happen to be other children working on the set that day, they will play with one another when they aren't taping.
When it is time for the child to head to the set, the parent will be notified via the public address system. If it's twins, the parent will make the decision about which child will work first. The nurse and/or teacher might also offer an opinion. Parents know their children best and will choose which one will act first depending on the child's mood or the demands of the scene. Older twins may create a system of their own, switching off after each scene or each episode.
Parents usually aren't directly on the set when their child works, but may be just offstage watching on a monitor. They typically try to stay out of sight, so a child won't be calling for mommy. With babies and toddlers, parents stay close, so they can be a friendly face if a child seems upset. The nurse stands behind the cameras throughout the show to observe the taping. When a scene has finished taping, the parent or nurse will walk over to the actor with the baby and retrieve the child.
The Rules...
In California, a child who is
Also note...NO BABY can work from their birth day to fifteen days... for obvious reasons. They are just too fragile for modern show business.
In New York, the guidelines vary considerably, with both the ranges they cover and the total work time.
In 1938 the Federal government exempted kids in the entertainment business from Child Labor Laws and left it up to the individual States. Individual States compete for the big dollars film and television production bring in ... and more than a few have avoided passing any child labor laws for those reasons. In most other States, there are no requirements to have a Welfare Worker or a registered Nurse on hand when babies under six months old go to work.
In California, companies in the Entertainment Business that employ minors have to have a permit to do so. It's called the Certificate of Eligibility to Employ Minors. This permit is issued by the Department of Labor which has a Commissioner appointed by the Governor. This "Certificate of Eligibility" must be obtained by the major studios and the much smaller independents if they wish to hire minors.
Compensation...
Children's soap roles are typically non-contract or "under five" roles. They receive the same amount of money an adult actor in that category would. The soap sends the child's after-tax earnings to the child's agent. There are then guidelines about where the remaining money goes. The agent or manager take their cuts, then the money goes to the parents. In most states, including California, there is a law that requires that a percentage of the child's earnings are put into a trust fund that cannot be accessed until the child is 18. This law is called the Coogan Act, named after Jackie Coogan, a child actor in the 40s.
Screen Actors Guild, which acts as the de facto representative for babies, does not require that children join the Guild until the age of four. There are two pay scales for babies. First, as an on-camera performer when the baby is an integral part of the scene. The second pay level is as an extra.. significantly less... and is meant for background performers.
A Days child actor remembers....
John Amour played Mike Horton in the early 70s. Here he shares his recollections of life on the set.
A typical day for
Mike back in the early 70's went pretty much like this:
I would receive a script the day (sometimes a maximum of 2 days)
before taping. If you weren't on the set the day prior, a courier
would hand carry a copy to your home. If you were on the set that
day, you picked up a copy and did a real loose rehearsal prior to
leaving. The night prior was rehearsing dialogue with my Mother.
Bless her heart.... she was NOT a "Stage Mother" at all. Never pushy.
But always there when needed.
Mind you... the shows back then were only half hour shows, so a total of only about 20 minutes of actual taping went on. And it was "Live Tape." They taped an episode about 5-6 days prior to airing it. All indoors. There was a "dry rehersal" in the morning at about 7am in a huge empty sound stage. We would all move over to Studio 9 (Home Base!) to our dressing rooms at about 9am from the "dry rehersal" studio. That's when I would meet my Welfare Worker for the day. Boy, I had my share of unique individuals! It was like having a substitute teacher every day! LOL! She (very, very rarely ever a he) was there to see I put in a minimum of 3 hours of schooling, looked after my general welfare, and made sure others were aware that a child was present. I can remember a time when Susan Flannery (Mom, Laura Horton) got into some trouble for using offensive language. Heck! I've heard worse on the playground back at school. (Susan was a great person nonetheless. I got to know her well and was able to spend time with her off the set in a hideaway she had near Mt. Whitney. Fond memories of catching fish and riding her Honda 90 motercycle around! There was a time I brought a cow's brain in to dissect for a school project, and Susan Flannery was right there poking around telling me all about it! She used to crack me up more than anyone else on the set. )
There were many days that I was kept being called to the set for one reason or another, before I was able to get my "minimum 15 minutes of schooling in" to accumulate the required 3 hours. Oh how I hated that!
You usually had make-up in between time - and I fondly remember Tommy Cole (from The Mousketeers) being my make-up man! He was cool to talk to! And a great guy! "Dress Rehearsal " took place around 11am, and "Final Taping" was at about 1PM. They ran through the taping as if it was live. [This is different than today's method of constant stop and go as scenes are perfected. Unless there was a horrible mess up, the tape didn't stop for much of anything. Actors just had to work through line flubs, etc.] They would take time out between prolougue-scenes-epilogue for commercial time, and be cued to start the next scene right on time! It was amazing clockwork. I remember messing up a few times.... but, I'd rather not go into details there.....
The only time I can remember being an U/5 (under 5 lines - different pay scale) was when Mike was laying unconcious on the hospital bed after being hit by a van while running away from the park after seeing Mom kissing "Uncle Bill".
It is true that a percentage of your earnings had to be put in a trust fund of some sort, but a certain percentage was made available to be able to buy neccesities related to the job. It was a way to protect some parents (and there were some viscous ones I remember seeing during calls) from taking all the child's money. And 10% would go to my agent.
I remember auditioning for the role. There was about 15-20 kids waiting with an adult in a hallway to go behind "The Door" the first time I went. I then got a "call back" a few days later, which is a good thing! This time there were only about 5 other kids. Things must have gone well because I got called back one last time. This time there was Betty Corday [executive producer], Jack Herschberg, Wes Kenney [director/producer], MacDonald Carey [Tom Horton], John Clarke [Mickey Horton], Susan Flannery [Laura Horton], and a couple of the writers. I didn't read a single line this day. They just all took turns at asking me some questions... and I remember laughing real hard.... and then feeling like I was on the verge of crying at other times. I guess that emotional range was natural enough for them, and I was shooting my first show less than a week later.
Things started getting funny! I was getting fan mail, being recognized in public, and seeing write ups in the mags about stuff I didn't even know about!
I was literally heartbroken about 2 years or so later when Mom told me one day after regular school that Mike had to "get older" and I was no longer on the cast of "Days Of Our Lives." I think I cried my eyes out that evening...... I got so attached to the "gang" it was like losing a whole family.
One thing I do remember quite well though.... is asking my Mom to see if she could arrange me coming back one day to say my final good-byes when all of my favorites were on the set..... that was a real special day when it came true only a few weeks later.
Info compiled from Soap Opera Digest (1/5/99) and Soap Opera Weekly (4/29/97) with some info from Lena, Iris and Dave. Some info from A Minor Consideration and Paul Petersen.
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