‘I handle people’s careers. There is a lot of hand holding.’

Lois Ringe was having a crisis. It was 1 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon and a casting director had just called in dire need of an Iowa farm couple to do a pizza commercial by 5 p.m.--in Los Angeles. After some quick thinking, Ringe responded as she always does: “No problem.” As a manager of actors and actresses, and the owner of Agency 2, San Diego’s newest theatrical agency, Ringe’s life is a constant stream of crises and bizarre requests. She recalls the time she was asked for actors who resemble their pets for a dog food commercial. The 43-year-old woman worked for seven years at William Morris in Los Angeles, and owned another agency for 15 years in Minneapolis. When Ringe came to San Diego 10 years ago with her producer-director husband, she dropped out of the managing business to learn the ropes of being a producer, and didn’t return to managing until last year. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed Ringe at her office, and Barbara Martin photographed her.

I was an actress in Los Angeles. My mother was an actress many, many years ago, and, when she married my father, she always felt like she had given up her career. So when I was born, she decided that her daughter was going to be an actress. I went to a studio in Los Angeles and hated every minute of it. I was horrible. I was a tomboy. They’d tell me not to do something, “Don’t skin your legs,” “Don’t scratch your face,” and I’d do it anyway. I felt like I was always being pushed into it.

But I loved the actors and actresses. They were wonderful, interesting people, and they have so much enthusiasm about what it is they do. There is something about people in this business that’s very contagious. And I caught it.

When I was 18, I had to spend a year as what we called an assistant casting person in a large agency. I spent 7 1/2 years, including my year assisting, at William Morris. I liked it a lot, and that’s where I got my first taste for managing. So, when I moved back to Minneapolis, there was only one thing I knew I wanted to do, and that was to represent people.

I was an agent in Minneapolis and Chicago for 15 years. The Midwest is a large headquarters for industry, and I did casting for General Mills, Minnesota Mining, Pillsbury, Target, Spiegel. And they would all come out here or Los Angeles during the winter to do outdoor shoots. When I moved out here, they would call me and say, “We know you’re out there. We know you’re not an agent, but will you cast for us?”

About a year and a half ago, a client of mine from St. Louis called and said he was casting for a Miller Lite beer spot, and he said he wanted me to get five or six guys who never had acted before, and all they needed to do was stand in front of a neighborhood bar, drink beer and have a good time. Terry (her husband) and I used to be located downtown in a building owned by a man who had a large family. So I looked at his sons because they ranged in age from 25 to 32 years, and I sent five of his kids out to the shoot. Each one of them got the job, and each one of them made about $60,000 apiece (because it went national)--for one commercial. The family made a fortune. I got a hundred bucks and a free lunch. As a manager, my legal commission is 10%. I could have taken 10% of $60,000 five times. All of a sudden, a light bulb went off in my head and I said, what am I doing?

A manager is basically the same thing as an agent. I handle people’s careers. There is a lot of hand holding. When we get people in here, we look at them and try to be as truthful as possible. Because we work on 10%, there is no point in telling a person, “Hey, you can make it as a big star,” if the feeling isn’t there. We know what is going to sell.

In this business, every call is different. It’s so much fun to use your imagination and be able to cast people according to how you see them.

I think people deserve to get a manager who is interested in their careers, not somebody who sloughs them off. There are so many rejections in this business. I feel like I’m a mother to all these people. I say, “Hey, that’s OK. Let’s do it differently next time, but you’ve learned something from this job that you didn’t get. I’ll try and protect you as much as I can.”