Social Media Storm Involving Atlanta Casting Company Spotlights Pay Inequality For Local Talent

deadline.com:

A Twitter exchange between actress Bethany Anne Lind and Tara Feldstein, the latter a principal at powerful southeastern U.S.

company Feldstein|Paris Casting, has ignited a heated discussion on social media, releasing years of pent-up anger and frustration among actors in the region.Some of the rancor has been addressed at Feldstein|Paris, accusing them for not negotiating fair pay for Southeast-based talent, but many of the comments also focused on the inequality built into the current Hollywood system that allows for actors in places like Atlanta to be paid significantly less than their counterparts with similar bodies of work based in Los Angeles or New York, and to never be offered more than the bare minimum “scale” rate regardless of experience.Following backlash, Feldstein took her Twitter feed private, but the situation, which flared up early last week, continued to escalate to a point where Feldstein|Paris principal Chase Paris stepped in Sunday and posted a lengthy response on Twitter, apologizing for Feldstein’s comments, denying accusations of unfair practices, and vowing to have a better and transparent communication with actors.

He also spoke with Deadline about the controversy.Feldstein|Paris is the leading casting firm in Atlanta, with operations throughout the Southeast region.

Feldstein and Paris have shared in Emmy casting nominations for Stranger Things, Ozark and Atlanta, winning for Stranger Things with casting director Carmen Cuba, and have handled location castings for virtually all Marvel productions shooting in Atlanta including Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home and WandaVision. ***Kicking off the chain of events this past week was an April 19 tweet by Lind in which she shared her