HAVING A SECRET CLEARANCE CAN GET YOU ACTING WORK

Normally people don’t think of acting and secret clearances. Actually, there are a lot of jobs, especially industrial/educational/corporate films that require actors to have some level of a clearance. Especially, if you are living on the East Coast, there are many actors who are hired to work for government agencies. It is not easy to get a clearance.

An actor can only receive a security clearance if he or she needs to have access to classified materials. Or, if they need to work on the property of buildings that requires people to have a clearance.

The agency will really want to hire that talent because it costs thousands of dollars to get the clearance. It takes quite a bit of time and there is an extensive background check. The agency will want to check your:

1. Financial situation (this is to make sure you are not in debt – which could give you more
reason to sell important information

2. Make sure your job and education history are as accurate as you say

3. Neighbors and friends might be contacted to make sure you are an honest and trustworthy
person

4. Legal history will be carefully checked to see if you have been arrested

5. Military, tax records and travel history will be carefully viewed. If you have traveled to certain
countries, you will be required to explain why you took those trips.

6. Relatives will also be checked out

This process can take up to a minimum of 6 months.

There are three levels for clearances

A. Top Secret
B. Secret
C. Confidential

Once one has been granted a clearance, it is updated regularly, and a full investigation will take place every seven years.

If you are ever asked to have some type of clearance for a job, jump at this great opportunity. I needed to get a Confidential Clearance for a project. Let me just say, it was really incredible, and it felt great to be doing something that I knew was really helping my country.