IT’S NOT ALL GREEK TO ME

On a current breakdown I wrote: “Film will be shot entirely in Macedonian. Only submit if you can speak Macedonian.” I was not expecting a lot of responses. In fact I kind of knew I would only have a few choices and I sort of know that if you speak Serbian or Croatian, you can probably get buy on Macedonian. My neighbor was a famous German actress from the former Yugoslavia, so I got on the DL about the Slavic States and the various languages and dialects in the region. So I was expecting a few Serbian/Croatian language speakers to chime in.

However, and, I need help with this, and I am speaking to you – the Actors who are out there who read this blog – why would you submit to a Casting Director for a role that you cannot possibly ever play? Do you think I am asking for a Macedonian speaker just because I think it will be fun and, “oh exciting” I get to sit up to 3am scrolling through submissions on Actors Access of actors who hardly speak English let alone a second language! Yes, I am pissed off about this. I got no sleep last night, because I do, do my due diligence and go through every submission, which means sorting through hundreds of resumes to make sure that I am not missing the fact that someone who obviously grew up on the corn fields of Iowa, somehow, may, speak Macedonian fluently! Actually, there is one actor in Chicago (as close to a corn field from LA as I can get) who speaks Macedonian.

I go to workshops, I know some of you know me which means that I don’t understand why in the world if you speak FRENCH FLUENTLY you would even think about submitting for a role that I have a specific request out for. It is annoying and not helpful to the casting process and especially if I recognize you from classes that you take with me, I am wondering, “what are you thinking?”

Actors in general say to themselves, “I can do anything, I am an actor,” I get that, my point is, at what point do you respectfully not submit to a Casting Director when it is very clear in the breakdown that you will not in ANY WAY be able to perform the duties that are required. When you submit electronically via Actors Access or Now Casting, take on the responsibility that you truly think that you can play a role. Speaking Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, Spanish (Mexican), French, Arabic, German, Hebrew and Tagalog are not, I repeat, not the same thing as speaking Macedonian…