It is one of the hardest unions to join. Every paid British professional actor should be a member of this union. The reason for placing 'paid' on this is that an unpaid professional (an unpaid actor/crew member in professional production) is different from a paid professional. To further complicate things, you may also be an paid amateur (i.e. involved in a profit-share). Thus, British Equity is the British counterpart of both the American Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.