Is This a Scam?

The mainstay of their business is selling instruction courses. Whether you have the appearance or aptitude would not be as much of a concern to them as whether you can be convinced to enroll and have the money to pay for it. They operate hundreds of these "schools" and I'd be very surprised if more than 2% of their grads go on to successful modeling or acting careers.

Carl Reiner once made a very funny, autobiographical movie depicting one of these schools in which he was a gullible student actor. It was called "Enter Laughing." Apart from all its zany antics, it contained a lot of truth about the nature of schools like this. Definitely worth watching if you can find it.

if they ask for money up front then probably yes