ATTENTION ACTORS: EVER WONDER WHY YOU ARE SITTING AT HOME NOT WORKING? READ THIS…

This is a real email correspondence between a manager who represents some wonderful actors and myself - the casting director. Names are changed to protect the annoying, stupid & innocent.

Here is what you should know: the film starts shooting in two-and-a-half months, it is financed at 500k, but may go to 800k-900k. First time director/writer, multi-feature, experienced, successful, producer, producing. Script is a very well written, coming-of-age story that is attracting interest from talent.

Dear Matt,

It just dawned on me. How much does “Modified Low Budget Pay”? Ann has 2 series under her belt and is about to get another one and Arthur just wrapped “BIG MOVIE THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET” and the lead in the sequel to “ANOTHER BIG MOVIE SEQUEL THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET” for substantial money. I just realized that unless their roles can wrap in less than 3 weeks I don’t think “TOP FIVE AGENCY IN LA” will want to tie up Ann and Arthur out of town for what low budget films pay. Does your production have more money for actors like these who are breaking out? I realize that your picture doesn’t have that big a budget but do they have any more for an actor with these circumstances? I am so sorry I didn’t think this through before I submitted these two. If not, I just a moment ago resubmitted a couple of really terrific lesser know actors for this film including Arthur’s roommate, Joe, a great young actor for the role of “Bob the Stripper” (made up the name) for whom Arthur often will take a cut in pay for his friend to have a role in something he otherwise wouldn’t do. Please check out Joe and the other’s demos on Breakdowns. Then let me know if I should still send Ann on Wednesday. If the money is horribly low, she and Arthur could still do it if their roles could wrap in a couple of weeks so they wouldn’t be out of commission for too long. Please let me know.

I wrote back:

Scale. should shoot out in 3 weeks or less for the role of “Lila.”

A “well known actress (with a body of work that spits on your clients)” is negotiating for the role of “Pam” the adult lead. She will get the money if she does it. Everyone else is scale. Money is 900 something per week – “Lila” should shoot in under 3 weeks and the role of “Parker” shoots out in under 5.

Manager wrote back:
Thank you, Matt. Full regular scale?

Or, the special lower rate from SAG for Modified Low Budget?

Day Performer $ 268
Daily Stunt Performer 268
Weekly Performer (5 day week) 933

And how long would Arthur’s role shoot? Please forgive me. These two are terrific actors whom I think are real contenders and I am just trying to second-guess what their agents will say to me.

Thank you, Matt.

I wrote back:
933 i think they will do a six day weeks but they are still considering 5 day weeks as well. I think Arthur’s role is 5 weeks.

What I wanted to say:

Dear Manager,

money is 900 something per week - I think they should read the script and know what the money is while reading it. These are great roles! The production team knows what they are doing. It is definitely a festival circuit film. It is sad (to me ) that agents or managers would prevent actors from potentially really cool jobs just because of money and that young actors (with no public profile, by the way) are not given the opportunity to decide for themselves if they want to audition or not. I understand that “BIG MOVIE THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET” is going to be big but who knows, it could also not open that well and then where would Arthur be? Ann is a great actress, agreed, but not a name in any way. She has been on a television series that received great reviews but also got canceled in season one because no one watched the show! And while I realize that her other television show was a huge success on “FAMOUS CHILDREN’S TELEVISION NETWORK,” the general public would not know who she was and if I asked someone on Wilshire Boulevard, “do you know who Ann is?” or for that matter, the same goes for Arthur, I would say less then 1% of respondents would recognize their names.
I would rather hear that your client is passing on material, not a lecture about how fabulous they are or blame agents ignorance on projects for not “allowing” them to consider a script-which, I know may actually be the case. When I think of all of the trouble I had casting “Rocket Science” and “Mean Creek” and I look at what those films did for those young talented actors, I look back and remember all of the potential actors that should have auditioned for me but didn’t because of the money, certainly working for scale didn’t ruin the careers of the actors cast in those films - on the contrary these films helped them, they (the actors and their representatives) had the good sense to let the talent read the script and make the decisions together. They read the scripts and decided if they like the material or not. Not letting actors read a script because of what an agent may or may not think of the film and letting me know that this is the case is - annoying. Like I said, I would rather not know that this is the case, please tell me that your client is “respectfully passing on material or the project.” I can respect and deal with that.

BUT, I didn’t write this email, because at the end of the day, the right actor will come in because he or she wants to and if an actor doesn’t come in because their agent or manager didn’t send them the script, I have to assume that if I forced the issue and put pressure on the actor to come in and the director liked him, then the negotiation would be more hellish then usual and in the end put a bad taste in the mouth of the producer and director when dealing with the actor in the future. So, I go with the Great Casting Universe on this one and trust the Casting Gods that all will fall into place as it should be and that my film will get cast with not only who should be in it, but who wants to be in it. That is the formula for great work and harmony on set.

I was finished with this blog but then a couple of hours later I received this email from the manager:

Dear Matthew,

I don’t think “TOP 5 AGENCY IN LA” will take him (Arthur) out of circulation for that long. His price has gone way up since he was cast in “BIG MOVIE THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET” and “ANOTHER BIG MOVIE SEQUEL THAT HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED YET”. So, I guess we’ll need to cancel him. 3 consecutive weeks could work for Ann but I doubt if they would take her out this far in advance when she is up for so many other things that would be a priority to them for her to do. Please understand that I like to work these things out for my clients who would work for nothing if “TOP 5 AGENCY IN LA” would let them. They just want to work but sometimes I can’t fight city hall, if you know what I mean. I can almost always swing it for a relatively short, get in and out in a week or so role but tying him up for 5 weeks at scale is another story. I could swing 3 weeks for both of them if shooting began next week and they were free, which does happen but this is too long a commitment to make this far in advance. I hope you forgive me for not thinking this through more carefully before I submitted for this. I don’t think there is another actress in the business right now that can touch Ann. However, I have several other up and comers who are hot on her heels and not yet in her price range who would be happy to work for scale and stay in a tent. I have submitted them to you last night on the breakdowns. Please check them out. You know I have a great eye. Rebeca has been shooting “TELEVISION SERIES THAT NOBODY WATCHES” all last week and is up for the lead in a series. Different than Ann but still will blow you away too. She is booked on Monday but could come another day.

Thanks for listening.

I wrote back: “Ok.”

I am now exhausted from reading this. Why can’t she just say, “They respectfully pass?” Attention actors: When you are sitting at home, wondering why you are not working, maybe, just maybe your manager or agent is obsessing about how fabulous you are (which you may certainly be) and not giving you the opportunity to decide for yourself if you want to explore the mere possibility of auditioning or even just meeting with the director on a film. There are a lot of financed independent feature films in production and this means that there are plenty of scripts for you to be reading while you are not auditioning for studio films that are in limbo because there may or may not be an actor’s strike.

By the way, I love Ann & Arthur. But, seriously, they do not warrant this much of my time. Managers and agents (producers or casting directors for that matter) show their true colors is when they pontificate and say too much (oi, am I?); they let the “cat-out-of-the-bag” sort-of-speak, by which I mean that talking too much shows how much they do not really understand about what they are doing. My advice: short, complete sentences that start with “please” and end with “thank you” are the way to go…