Stuff & Taxes

This week I went to Chicago to see a friend of mine in the play “Ruined” at the Goodman Theater. Wow! What a great show, the acting was fantastic, especially my friend who was the lead, Saidah Ekulona. The show transfers to the Manhattan Theater Club in February and I highly recommend that if you are in NYC at the time, go see this. Congratulations to Saidah and the cast!

Back in LA, I am winding down for the holidays. I have been doing a lot of casting workshops and I am slowly getting closer to building a clientele of actors who come to me for audition coaching. I love working with actors, and as so much of what I do is finding talent, it is super-fulfilling to help an actor book a job and/or realize what it takes to be prepared for an audition. Also, in these times it doesn’t hurt to have additional income :0)

I have been contacted by Student Filmmaker Magazine for an interview on how I got to where I am, so look out for that to come out soon. When I think about how I got to where I am, the first thing I think about is that I am still trying to get there, because where I am is not where I want to be, not in a negative way, I just have so much more to do! So, maybe as my New Year’s resolution I should think of what my goals are, because I think it’s time to step up my game and visualize where I want to be – or maybe I have been living in L.A for too long and now officially sound like someone from Southern California!

I have met with a lot of producers and directors over the past few weeks and I have been reading a lot of scripts, so I expect the New Year to be busy. “After.Life” is all cast, and my assistant Mark was amazing. He took care of so many things and made my life easy. It is important to have an assitant like that because Mark allowed me to do what I am good at, finding talent. Thank you Mark!

As the year comes to a close it is also time for me to do my taxes. I hate this part of the year, it is so bittersweet. On one hand you have Christmas, family, presents and on the other hand I have a tax bill looming, getting my finances together and praying that I can file by April. Oh, the life of a freelancer!

 

A Natural Extension of Every Moment

Well, just when you thought you have heard everything, I got a phone call yesterday from the A.D on a film I cast saying that one of the actresses (85 years old) did not receive her script and was wondering when she was going to get the script?

Ummm…I am in L.A and you are the A.D. ON THE SET in New York, so why don’t you just give her a script?

Alas, that was not the end of the call: “Matt,” said the A.D slightly stressed out of his mind, “Matt, she needs to do the scene in the nude.”

Now, when casting, if there is nudity required, I will say very clearly in the breakdown and at the casting that nudity is required. In general many actors are okay with this if it is done in a way that makes sense in the script and is part of or is a necessary part of the action in the film. When I read the script, it did not say that the actress was naked, the script indicated that some skin would be showing, not a full naked body! Also, I had been casting with the director and not she or anyone in the production ever mentioned the nudity to me.

“Matt, what do you want me to say to her?” At this point I sort of had a sick smile on my face, wishing that I could be a fly on the wall when this A.D (who is great!) has to deliver the news to the 85-year-old actress that the director wants her to be nude in the scene. It did make me chuckle.

“Just tell her,” I said. There was a long pause. The kind of pause where the A.D was waiting for me to say, “Just kidding, I’ll tell her.” But I wasn’t going to touch this one with a 20-foot pole. I figured at some point over the next day, I would get an irate phone call from the agent, yelling at me, but I didn’t. To my surprise, the actress, apparently, while slightly mortified at first, decided that she would do it.

Kind of cool of her, I think…