Taylor Hayden's bizarre behavior and scam tactics must be stopped. This is the strangest ordeal I have ever been involved with in my many years in the entertainment industry.
This is an account of the incident: On 6/8/12 at 1:48 pm UniStar Talent was contacted by our client Alyssa Belen with regard to a acting job with Taylor Hayden. She had responded to an ad on Craig's list with regard to an acting job with Mr. Hayden. She indicated that she was very skeptical because of the posting she had read on this site with regard to Taylor and on Google and asked us for our assistance. We got back to her and told her he appeared to be a producer of films but did have enough information to make a recommendation. Shortly thereafter we contacted Mr. Hayden and asked for information. It was then that Mr. Hayden informed us that he was the producer of a number of films and he was in need of actors. We also recommend other actors with our agency and submitted head shots as well. On following up with Mr. Hayden he revealed that he did not pay actors for their work, which was very odd. We did some checking and found the same information on RipOff Reports and Google found by Alyssa. We are very careful about recommending jobs that are posted on Craig's list for actors as this can be very dangerous. Shortly thereafter Alyssa then notified us that she had received a number of harassing emails from him during this two hour period and would not be working with him. We then contacted him as well via email and informed him that our actors expected to be paid for their work and could not perform for free. He responded and stated that he had already replaced Alyssa with another actress that had applied that had more experience. A few minutes later we received another aggressive email where he was very upset and threatened to make the report on this site as he did. As an agency, we cannot force our talent to take a job, whether it is paid or "free", as we informed Mr. Hayden. Furthermore, there was no written agreement for Alyssa to perform. We also received a large number of harassing and extremely aggressive emails from him in a short period of time. We informed Mr. Hayden that we would be reporting this to our attorney and to the Texas Attorney General. We recommend that anyone that responds to Craig's List acting roles due complete and diligent checks on the person prior to any personal contact as this can be extremely dangerous as evidenced by this episode.
Our actress responded as well below:
Well may I first start off by saying I find it incredibly ridiculous that I am even having to post a rebuttal to the rantings of an obviously disturbed individual. Although I don't much see the point in having anything else to do with Mr. Taylor Hayden, I do find it necessary to attempt to clear my, as well as my agencies name. I also strongly believe it is necessary to warn other actors and entertainers the dangers of Craigslist as well as this man. So without further ado let me start with how the events actually occurred.
I have ,on occasion, found acting jobs through Craigslist as well as other internet sites. I have heard some pretty insane stories, but never encountered a situation or person like this. I responded to a posting looking for actors for two films. I said in a very formal email that I was possibly ,note the word possibly, interested in his listing. I enclosed a few professional headshots as well as my resume. We then proceeded to email back and forth concerning the projects. I informed him I was uneasy about doing a project where I hadn't seen a script and that I would run it by my agency and let him know. I was polite and said I hope everything works out and look forward to working together.
After discussing it with my agency and them discussing it with him I still had an uneasy feeling. Call it nerves or intuition but I was not completely comfortable. As a result I decided to do research on this Taylor Hayden individual. Let me direct you to my findings.http://starsearchcasting.com/forums/topic/211952-taylor-hayden-scam-alert-fake-filmmaker-see-rip-off-reports-website-online/ as well as
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=taylor+hayden+scam&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Now I am not an unreasonable person. I saw the date of the posting as well as considered that people in general are rash and emotional individuals. There are those ,such as the man in question, who are a tad over dramatic as well as, well let's just say it, incredibly insane. So I considered the possibility these were false statements and should be disregarded. However, I could not shake the fact that my gut was telling me to decline the offer. I then proceeded to alert my agency and Mr Hayden that I was sorry but I had decided not to be apart of his productions and wished him luck on his future endeavors. I even kindly apologized if I had wasted his time. He then sent a reply that said it was no problem and he had 12 other actresses submit within the last hour. So, having said everything I needed to I thought the situation was well handled and over. I was very very mistaken.
I then started to receive emails from him that contained threats, and very unprofessional behavior, as did my agency. He accused us of taking money, as well as having it in writing that I had confirmed the job. He also threatened to post horrible reviews and ruin our names via the internet. Now this went on until roughly 9pm. Let me start off by saying, he informed me initially this was not a paying job. I have done jobs that didn't pay because I either A liked the script, or B was hoping to add something to my resume. I also never said I committed to the job and neither did my agency. I said I hoped to work together which in no way is an agreement of any kind. I also keep a very thorough record of my dealings with people in my industry, so copies of the emails are saved. The pure fact that all of his accusations are completely false, make his argument non valid.
I have three films under my belt, as well as other professional paying gigs. I have never in my life had a complaint written or told to anyone. You obviously can't say the same about this "man". The fact that he has handled the situation in such a manner further proves the bad reviewers point. I find it amazing that my agency and I are being put in a position we even have to waste our time on defending ourselves against a proven unprofessional erratic person. I'm not sure how he handles other people but I am willing to bet this won't be the last time someone has to deal with his ,forgive the word, bullshit.
Clearly this rebuttal has not been written by an inexperienced child, or an undereducated hot headed person. I am not sure what good it will do but I do hope that if I can not clear mine or my agencies name, that I at least help someone else who ever thinks about working with this man. It is very easy to type something and make threats on the internet. It is quite another thing to be held accountable for the lies and deformation of character. I would think about that Mr. Hayden before you decide to utter another word about either I, or Unistar Talent.Taylor Hayden Scam Alert - Fake Filmmaker - See "rip Off Reports" Website Onlinestarsearchcasting.comAttention to all yound ACTORS, MODELS, and ENTERTAINERS!!! I actually found this man named Taylor Hayden on this site Star Search Casting...