Chicago Casting Update

I am in Chicago casting a $500,000 budget film. I arrived two weeks ago and it has been 14-hour days, every day and I am exhausted. I have no assistant and I have had to quickly learn the talent pool that I have to choose from in Chicago.

The film is “Polish Bar,” and while I would love to tell you who is in the cast, I am a bit superstitious and feel that if I put it in writing, the stars won’t show up or the deals won’t close. I want the actors in front of the camera filming, and then I will tell you.

Needless to say, I am very happy with the cast. Working on this job has been a labor of love. Scheduling the actors, flying them in from LA and NYC, making sure the deals are closed, coordinating all of the information, scheduling auditions (with no assistant – we can’t afford it), working out of the production office which is 20 minutes from the audition space, navigating the closed roads due to construction, taking the bus from my apartment to anywhere I need to go (no car rental – we can’t afford it), ordering in and eating Chinese 3 nights in a row (I feel ill), not shaving for 5 days and sleeping badly, but ultimately – and I truly mean this – ultimately loving the people I am working with and making the best film that we can make.

I have been working on this film since October, and seeing the Director’s eyes light up at the camera test because he was so excited about his actors, let’s me know that I am doing my job. I got a late night text last night from him, thanking me for my work and letting me know that he appreciated the work put into the film. It means a lot to me when someone does this, I don’t need a big pay day (although that would be nice) I think the respect and camaraderie has always been more valuable to me and when it works, it really can be an experience that bonds you to your director and hopefully keeps him coming back to you for more films.

I am booked on a 6:15am flight from O’Hare tomorrow. When I arrive, I have auditions for another film and then I will go home, pass out and sleep for 2 days…I can’t wait, but I will miss the gang and think of them a lot. Oh yeah, I forgot, I still have to cast a few of the roles, but they don’t start in week 1, so maybe I’ll be back…

Practice makes perfect…

This week I have had to do some more auditions for one of the roles in “Polish Bar.” The film starts shooting in Chicago on the 2nd and I need back-up ideas for one of the roles, just in case I don’t find someone in Chicago for it. The role is very specific. Here is the breakdown:

[SLOBODANKI KOWALSKI] Male, a 40-60 year old Polish immigrant, Slobodanki is a gay man who is the emcee/comedian at the strip club; he wears a bad toupee and just enough eyeliner and rouge not to offend the blue-collar crowd at the Polish Bar. He also is a general employee, moving liquor and cleaning up — but when he gets flirty with Tommy, he’s asking for a beating, and he gets one…SUPPORTING

Ideally I am looking for a Polish actor (with working papers) for this part. He has to sing and speak in Polish, but more importantly he has to feel like he could inhabit the Polish immigrant world of Chicago. He has to be flamboyant, charming and tragic all at the same time. The one actor I like, Carlos Leal (www.carlosl.com) who is not Polish but speaks five languages, gave an outstanding audition, unfortunately for me he booked a television series in Spain, so he is no longer available in March. I held auditions on Friday and there were maybe two contenders but neither of them had the creativity that Carlos put into his audition.

Out of the 10 actors who were booked in for the audition (I called in 25 actors), all of them came in telling me how difficult the material is and that they didn’t have enough time with the material. I booked these actors in for the casting last week. They all had the script and sides, how much time do they need? I know the sides are hard, but I also know that I had an actor do an amazing audition, nail the character and he never complained that the material was difficult.

This illustrates something that I tell actors all of the time: PRACTICE! When you think you have practiced enough, DO IT AGAIN! Do not come into a casting office complaining that you did not have time or that you are not prepared. How do you think that makes me think of you? Do I want to recommend an actor who did not prepare or makes excuses? I want you to come in do the best you can, be polite, thank us for the audition and seem like you are enjoying the experience. If you put me at ease, I will feel more compelled to find out more about you, even if the audition is not that great, if I see potential, I can ask you to come back with the notes I give to you. However, if I see disinterest or sense that you are not capable of sustaining a performance then most likely you will not be getting the role.

Also, in general, actors whose second language is English, must practice 100 times more than an English speaking actor. I have to know that a foreign speaker of English understands the material or else emotionally they will not read on screen.

The glamour of it all…

Last night I was a guest at a UCLA extension class on film production. I love talking about my job and I also enjoy educating potential Producers about what we Casting Directors do. I think when I break down what I do day-to-day, the reality of the difficulty of what it takes to make a film sets in and any glamour associated with what I do goes out the window. By the end of the class, a student came up to me and asked me, “What exactly is fun about your job?” What a question! I thought that I must have sounded miserable to the students, but then I realized that maybe I wasn’t expressing how much I love what I do, because, in truth, the day-to-day of making a film successfully can be very daunting and being aware of the potential roadblocks may be perceived as, for lack of a better term, negative.

So I am setting the record straight: MY JOB IS FUN AND ENJOYABLE and the best part of the job is seeing on-screen the hard work pay off.

Speaking of work, I have to finish casting “Polish Bar.” The film starts shooting March 2nd in Chicago. The Producer and the Director decided to caravan from L.A. to Chicago today (good luck to them) in order to have extra vehicles on the set, but also to bond…I feel bonded, so I opted for an airplane ticket.

One of our actresses fell out of the film, she didn’t want to shoot in Chicago, so this is a little bit of added stress to the situation because now the Producer wants to see actors in Chicago for this role. Which means more work for me. As the role is very important in the film the Director is understandably upset because he put a lot of time and effort in to getting the actress into the film and working with her for literally years. So I feel obligated to find an amazing replacement so that he feels like this is an opportunity and not a tragedy…I know it will all turn out o.k.