Cast insurance: what if your lead actor or director can't work?
Cast insurance pays a production’s extra costs when a covered actor or director can’t work because of injury, sickness, death or a family bereavement. It isn’t sold on its own: at MovieInsure it’s added to a Short-Term, DICE/Annual or Production Portfolio policy.
What is cast insurance?
It’s often called cast extra expense. It doesn’t pay the actor’s medical bills. It pays the production for the money it loses when filming stops or changes because an essential person is out: crew kept on payroll, gear and locations held longer, rescheduling and reshoots.
That loss is usually far bigger than the person’s fee. Dozens of crew, rented equipment and booked locations are all scheduled around a handful of people.
What does cast insurance cover?
Depending on the policy, that can include:
- Extra days of crew wages while you wait
- Extra days of equipment rentals and location fees
- Rescheduling the shoot
- Reshooting scenes that were already filmed
What’s covered depends on the policy wording, limits and deductible, so go through the details with a broker. Sickness is only covered if you choose the with-sickness option.
Who should be covered?
Ask one question: whose absence would stop this shoot? For most films that’s the leads and the director. You name the covered people when you apply. Limits can be set as a share of the production cost, with blanket options from 25% to 100% of gross production cost.
If your financing or distribution deal depends on a particular star or director staying attached, tell the broker early. Losing that person can be a much bigger problem than a few lost days.
Do covered actors need a medical exam?
Ask early anyway. If the insurer does want medical information for someone, you want to know weeks before the first shoot day, not the night before.
Is cast insurance the same as workers' comp?
If an actor is hurt on set, workers’ compensation may pay their medical treatment and benefits under the law. The production is still left with the bill for idle crew, held gear and rescheduled days. That’s the part cast insurance is built for. Most productions need both, alongside general liability, equipment and hired auto coverage.
How much does it cost, and can I buy it on its own?
At MovieInsure, cast insurance is added to one of three production programs: Short-Term (a single project), DICE/Annual (a company’s full slate for the year) or Production Portfolio (larger, longer-schedule productions). The price depends on the budget, the people covered and whether you add sickness.
When should I arrange cast insurance?
Have these ready when you ask for a quote:
- Gross production cost (your budget)
- Principal photography dates and locations
- The actors and director you want covered, and their roles
- Whether you want sickness coverage
- Which production program you’re buying, or a note that you need help choosing
What does a cast claim look like?
Picture a feature halfway through principal photography. The lead gets seriously ill and can’t work for ten days. The producer moves other scenes forward, runs out of material without the lead and has to shut down. Crew, gear and locations are still booked. When the actor returns, filming restarts and some locations have to be rebooked. Those extra costs are the kind of loss cast insurance is designed to cover, subject to the policy terms.
Smaller productions feel this most. A tight independent budget often has too little contingency to absorb even a week’s delay.
MovieInsure adds cast coverage to your production policy
Ready for a quote?
- Request a production insurance quote: cast coverage is added to your production policy
- What production insurance covers: the rest of the policy around cast