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…