MY AMAZING JOB…

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?

LIAR!!!

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…

Some advice from me about Agents & Acting…

A question that actors ask me all of the time is, “What agencies or agents do you think are the best in L.A,” or “What makes a good agent/manager?”

Wow! What a question! I have had to come up with an answer for this question because it comes up all of the time when I am teaching a workshop. So, here it goes:

The answer is very complicated. The answer is, it doesn’t matter what I think or who I think are the best agents for actors, because it is really about how well your agents performs and represents you, the actor. Because actors don’t see their agents or managers in day-to-day life they probably don’t understand the inner workings of how they operate.

Agents and managers come in all different shapes and sizes. You have your companies that represent hundreds if not thousands of clients with literally 30-200 agents in those companies all scrambling for information, a big pay day, etc… Within these agencies you have internal company politics. Fly-on-the-wall stuff, that affects choices and decisions agents make in deciding what information they bring to their clients. If you are an actor with a few credits but are considered, “hot” or an “up-and-comer” by an agent at one of these agencies, make sure that you understand that this means you have a finite amount of time to use that leverage to meet everyone in town that you can meet in order to book work. Once you book work, you are an asset to the company and more agents or managers within that company will see that and because of the structure of the company and how companies cover films (by Studio, Casting Director, Producer, etc…) your name will pop up more and more within internal talent meetings and pitches to casting or executives, because you will be considered hot, trendy, new, whatever…Saying this, big is not always better and many times, actors success comes from smaller, boutique agents and managers who put the time in and develop their clients by finding projects to build their career.

A good agent or manager, makes phone calls, pitches, hustles, is  always on the phone and is insisting that you see their client. This may sound like captain obvious, but in my experience many agencies just submit their clients and hope that they get a phone call. The theory here is that you submit a large amount of talent and surly one or two of those clients will get called in for an audition or offered the job. This is the lazy way of agenting and yes, there is a pattern that I have noticed with certain agents who do this.

Personally, I like talking to the agent or manager who is passionate about a client. It let’s me know that they are willing to put themselves on the line and vouch for their talent. This lets me discover their taste in actors and also makes me think of them when I really need help.

For example, the lead actress in a film I am casting has just dropped out. A new actress needs to be on set by Monday. Who do you think I am going to call? The agent or manager that hardly ever calls me, or the agent/manager who bugs me all of the time about their clients and wants me to hire their clients. In a “casting emergency” I need a responsive person on the other end of the phone that I can trust to help me.

So, it boils down to trust. Who do I trust, and who trusts me? Those are the agents that I like to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

If you are getting auditions, it’s probably because your representative is making an effort to get you those auditions. If you find yourself sitting at home or working  (not working on a set acting :0( ), sadly this is probably because your agent is not on top of things for you, while they may be on top of things for someone else that they represent. I will say this though, if this is the case, you have to do something about it. You cannot and should never wait around for auditions. You should be in classes, dropping by your reps office, taking a casting workshop with a CD you want to meet, targeting casting directors, marketing yourself (there a books on this) and being proactive. If you do this you are hustling and that energy is attractive and will help you in the long-run. I know, I have seen it work.

I hope this helps, because I can’t and won’t give out names, but let’s just say, you would probably not be that surprised that some of the most successful agents/managers are so-called for a reason. They work hard and overtime. They care about their clients and the also have good taste.

P.S. I want to make a differentiation between getting auditions and being well represented and booking a job. These are two different things. One does not lead to the other.

Onward and Forward

This is a busy week for me. My office still looks like a bomb went off in it because I have not had time to put everything in it’s place and cast 3 films with no assistant.

I guess I am bit of a control freak, I like doing the entire job myself, but also if you have a great assistant it does free you up to do more. I wish productions would understand that asking for an assistant (not an intern), but someone paid and good at what they do, can make a great deal of difference to the production.

So, I am working 24/7 trying to accomplish what everyone is asking of me. Ummm…it’s sort of working out.

This week I got to teach a workshop at Lesly Kahn’s studio. It was great. The actors were so good and energetic and lovely to work with. I really appreciated their attention to detail and knowledge about the craft of acting. I like going to acting studios and sitting in on classes, especially in LA where so many actors train all of the time, it is important to understand where they are coming from and what their teacher is saying to them, because it make me a better communicator with the actors. It also gives actors a chance to get to know me and who I am so that there is less of a mystery to their process.

I had some disappointment this week as well, a director whom I worked with and pretty much gave him a stellar cast for his multi-award winning feature, basically dumped me for a higher profile casting director for his next feature and he didn’t have the balls to call me and say he was going to do it. He let his producer do it and considering that I was helping him with ideas on this film and he didn’t even call me makes me think one of two things: 1) He never really liked me in the first place or (2) He is a jerk. The nice part about this story is that a fellow colleague whose work I respect, called me up and said that she interviewed with him because one of the producers asked him to and when she went in she said, “You should use Matt on this film.” She called me to say how horrible she felt that I didn’t get the job and knew that the director didn’t feel loyal to me and how that must have hurt. Well it did hurt me. This is the truth. I thought we had a relationship where he could talk to me about anything. I have been in this situation before with other directors, but never has a director not called me personally to tell me he wasn’t going to use me after asking me to help him in the first place. It’s just bad manners.

But onward and forward. That is not where I am today. Today is about the films I am on and the work I am doing. Today is all about auditioning 9 to 12 year olds…God Help Me…