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November 20, 2008

This entry is going to have little to do with casting and a lot to do with being a decent human being. I try not to be political, but gosh-darnnit, those in the state of California who are opposed to equal rights for all are just forcing me into this.

I think that the “Yes” vote on Proposition 8 affected me more then I thought it would. There has been so much interweb traffic and posts and posts to posts and posts to links to posts on all of this and the support and outpouring from those who voted “No” and supported the rights of gay couples to get married has been beautiful, and truly, I thank people for their support.

It boggles me though, that in this day and age, as a society, we have not come to a point where we can be tolerant on issues of personal freedom and equality. Granted in the big scheme of things, “LIFE” is not an equal opportunity experience (all you need to do is turn on the television and ask, “why did they cast that actor?” – See I snuck some casting in :0) ) Life is tough enough, waking up everyday, working hard, struggling for my dream of success in love and life. Road bumps are all around us, but to not be allowed and stripped of a right fought and earned and deserved and, oh yeah, supposed to be inalienable, well taking that right away is, in a word: mean.

What can I do? I can give money to help the cause, march in protest rallies, but I am also going to go one step further and say, this year, I have to make a personal decision a decision not to travel to a State that has as part of their population that hates me so much that they would like to deny me my freedom to love and marry whomever I choose (and Steve, if your reading this, don’t worry, it would be you)…so, I will not be attending Sundance this year. I don’t want my dollars spent to benefit a state that has a majority of a population that donated to strip away my ability to marry. According to Wikipedia: “Utah is known for being one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union, with approximately 58 percent of its adult inhabitants claiming membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church or the LDS Church), which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.”
So, in my own way, I am making my own statement (missing some great skiing and films) but until this is sorted out, Utah can go suck it…

It’s time for this country to grow up, catch up and earn back its reputation as a voice of freedom and leader of Democracy in the free world. We are 90% there, after all we did elect Barack Obama, so let’s make a difference, make our voices heard and make things right. Let’s really start to make changes, let’s all try to be nice and compassionate and tolerant towards each other and hopefully I will be able to return to Utah, a nice compassionate Gay, tolerant of all and hopeful to a dream a dream that has the Federal Government recognize same-sex-marriage not just individual states, because doing taxes last year was a bitch…

November 12, 2008

I am back in L.A - I have a little NYC withdrawal. We still have a few roles to cast in “After.Life,” but the director has seen everyone and now she just has to pick out the rest of the day players. My assistant in NY has been great and so helpful, and overall the agents and managers in NY were amazing to work with, so helpful and really on top of the casting, which I appreciated. I am proud of the cast: Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Josh Charles & Shuler Hensley. We also have wonderfully talented day players and I am so excited about hiring them.

This is my third film that I have cast in NY and I am so lucky to have the ability to be a local hire, but also learning about more actors is an asset that gives me a competitive edge when trying to get a job. Yes, I have to interview for jobs just like actors and sometimes it feels like an audition, so I hope these experiences make me more attractive to producers and directors.

Now that I am back in L.A, I need to get another gig, not so easy right now because many of the films that are shooting before the new year already have a casting director, I know things will come up in the new year, but waiting for a few months for work to come in is stressful but all part of the deal when being freelance.

November 7, 2008

In the film I am currently casting, I have many older actor roles to fill. All the roles are for SAG scale either daily rate ($759.00) or weekly ($2634.00). The main cast is great, and these roles are small but significant. I think the script is very well written and it seemed to me that we would have our choice of whom we would want in these roles. Wrong, so very wrong. It has been really hard to cast the film! The older actors that we would just offer the roles to without auditioning want money (so do I), and would rather not work for a day or a week. I am not talking big A-list or even B-list names, but actors who you would see on television who work steadily, they just couldn’t be bothered with only doing one or two scenes.

It’s different in every film; you never know how actors are going to react to roles and offers.

I am in NYC and have been here for 3 weeks. I love casting here, and more importantly I really love being involved with the production office rather then sitting in a separate casting office, getting information late or not at all because I have been forgotten (poor me). The director of this film was determined to be at all of the casting sessions. In fact, he said casting was very important to him. Well, things didn’t really work out the way he wanted. The problem was that the rest of the film’s needs (locations, camera tests, A-list actors groveling for attention, little thing…) got in the way and out of the 20 casting sessions I had, I only had the director with me 4 times. This means that the director is looking at auditions on-line and based on my recommendation and hiring the actor. Just the way I like it! To be honest, it is easier for me to do the casting, especially day-players on my own, I don’t need the director with me, I just need to understand creatively what the director is looking for and then I provide it (hopefully).

Again, this production had a very small budget for me, and I did what would normally take 8 to 10 weeks in 3 weeks, which was fun, annoying and exhausting, but hopefully it will be rewarding as well as this is now my 3rd film that I have cast in NYC and I hope to do more. I like being bi-coastal!

October 26, 2008

There are some amazing perks to this job. I get to meet and read with (audition) amazingly talented actors. I normally don’t write about actors specifically but I am inspired to tell you this story, because I auditioned an actress yesterday that reminded me of this story.

A few years ago I was hired to cast “Dark Shadows,” a television pilot for John Wells Productions. The director was P.J. Hogan. It was my first time ever casting a pilot, and to tell you the truth it scared the crap out of me. Pilot casting moves very quickly and you need information at your fingertips because a producer – and there are like ten of them – always want to know the “who, what, where…” of the casting status of any actor at any particular time. I was being hurled information at such a rate that eventually I just broke down and shut my office door, and cried. Ordering myself to get myself back together again, I pulled myself up and made it through a very tough casting process that resulted in a cast that I was proud of, but alas never made it to your television screens. Nearly three months of hard work resulted in nothing that the public would ever see, but I learned a lot. The irony is that all of the challenging hard work made me want to do it again, but I have not been given that opportunity…yet…

During the pilot casting, I got a phone call from an agent telling me that Fiona Shaw (http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0789716/) was in L.A and would like to be considered for one of the roles. I of course became very excited, because I love her work and having lived in London for ten years, actually knew who she was (not so much for the TV execs) and was super excited to have her come in and meet with P.J. Also, I really loved her performance as “Medea” which I saw in Edinburgh several years before this audition and I was so excited to get a chance to meet her.

Well, when I enthusiastically told my team that she was interested in a series regular role, you could have heard crickets chirping. There was no excitement oozing from within their pours because they didn’t really know whom I was talking about. I had to literally say, “Aunt Petunia Dursley in ‘Harry Potter’!” which was like so embarrassing (I don’t even like the ‘Harry Potter’ films) to me because I wanted to tell them what an amazing actress she was and her credits and accolades were truly world-class. But did they care? Umm, not really. All I got back was, “Will she read for us?”

Why? Why GOD? It’s firkin Fiona Shaw for F-k sakes! She could read the yellow pages and be more interesting then anyone - in general. But, she wanted to audition and so she came in and I introduced myself to her and the producers and she sat down and read with me. I managed to conjure up my years of acting training and was determined to give Ms. Shaw the reading and reader she was entitled to. I mean this was just a TV pilot, she would be fine, more then fine, I was the one freaking out on the inside, she won an Olivier for Best Actress, she can act, why was this happening to me?

Of course she was amazing. She nailed the role. I was like, “See, see you plebs?! Aren’t you embarrassed that you made Fiona Shaw read?!” But, I didn’t say what I was feeling, I let it go. I wished Fiona a good day, and got back to work, casting. Because, ultimately they didn’t go with her, they went with another lovely actress, not as interesting as Fiona Shaw, but a good, solid, proven entity when it comes to television pilot casting. I was sad, because I felt we had missed an opportunity. Maybe the show wouldn’t have been dropped if there were a casting choice that wasn’t “CAPTAIN OBVIOUS.” Maybe seeing quality, world-class acting, instead of what was expected, would have excited the audiences. I think I was right, because like I have mentioned the pilot never went past being a pilot.

I won’t say who the actress was who inspired me to think about this, because I am currently casting a wonderful feature film and I hope that the actress who did come in to read for the director gets the part, but if she doesn’t, I will let you know, in a year or two.

By the way, it is often true that the more talented the actor, the classier they are. They have no fear about auditioning, because they usually come in if they know they are right for the role and probably 8 out of 10 times they would book that role. It’s usually the agents and managers who posture and try to get their clients a direct offer without auditioning, which is all part of the process of casting, understandable and why I love it so much. What I learned from all of this is that aside from the gazillion other things I have to do in a day, part of my job is to make sure that the producers and directors are educated on who actors are that are being presented to them. If they don’t know them, then how can I expect them to be as excited about an actor as I am when the actor comes in to audition?

October 16, 2008

A few weeks ago an agent called me and asked me to consider her client for a lead role in a film I am casting. I really liked the actor and was excited at the prospect of him being in the film. I spoke to the director and producer about this actor and they were not enthusiastic about the idea. Not unusual, and not unexpected as there were other more name-y choices being pitched to us, but not a horrible “safety” (to use a college application term) choice.

A few weeks had passed since the initial discussion I had with the agent and the agent called me back to see if there was any interest. After further emails with the director and producer, it became clear that an offer was going to go out to a younger choice then the agent’s client. The agent asked me specifically if the producer or director liked his client, so I asked my team. The director said that he was not a fan and the producer was not really interested.

I called the agent the following day to say that it looks like they are going to a younger actor and I told him who that actor was. He then said to me that he now thinks that the producer is a liar. I asked the agent, “Why do you say that?” He said that he called the producer the day before and pitched his client. The producer told him to send over a reel and he would see what he thinks. The agent felt that the producer was lying to him because the producer knew while he was talking to him that he was going to make an offer to the younger actor.

So, I ask you? Do you think the producer is lying to the agent? I don’t see it that way. I can see that the agent was frustrated that the producer didn’t give him all of the information, but a liar? A producer has to keep all of their options open while casting. To cut off the potential of an actor before an actual offer goes out to another actor and risk putting a negative feeling in the project to a representative of an actor could sabotage any chance of an actor getting into a film. Therefore what the producer was doing was ethical to me because all he was asking for was reel, in order to keep the potential of the actor’s availability and interest. Once an offer goes out then that information can be disseminated, because effectively everyone in the industry finds out about offers anyway. But until an offer is out it is my job and the producer’s job is to keep all casting balls in the air.

I was kind of shocked that the agent called him a liar to me. I tried to put the situation into perspective, but the agent would hear nothing of it. Calling someone a liar should be saved for serious situations. It is not a nice allegation.

Not five minutes after calling me to tell me my producer is a liar, the agent called me back and pitched another client. This is an odd business…