Oh de Casting (and bloating)

Oh the dream of becoming a world class casting director slowly fades when it’s 5pm on a Friday and you want to tear your hair out (or what’s left of it) because, suddenly you get a phone call that the actor meetings you have scheduled for Saturday with the Director have to be pushed to Wednesday because the Director is flying to New York (and also, can I please schedule some meetings in NY - ummm it’s 5pm on a Friday) to meet with actors, which is great, but I thought that they were going on a Sunday, so now all of the calls that happened and email confirmations that went through had to be changed and explained and somehow (please God) re-arranged for Wednesday. While at the same time a friend of mine is just off the plane and looking to spend a great weekend with me in L.A and me being stressed out about work does not a great weekend make, so I have to compartmentalize: deal with the film and have fun with my friend. Not spin out about the appointments and have fun with my friend, which translates into eating at fabulous restaurants all weekend and being in denial that I am really stressed about the upcoming weeks meetings and auditions and actually have the actors I want to meet with the Director come in and read for him, for that actually to happen because, oh yeah, there are a bazillion Pilots casting at the same time and every one of the actors on my lists are going to be on Pilot casting lists which means unless an actor specifically does not want to do television, I am going to be doing a lot of re-arranging of my sessions and trying to figure out that one actor who doesn’t want to be in a Pilot but does want to be in a 3 million dollar budget indie-movie with no distribution and where the pay rate is probably well below their quote – GOOD TIMES!

Actually, it is all-good, and thinking about it now, it is rather fun. While at the time it may seem like a huge amount of work: the phone calls, the 70-100 emails per hour (not an exaggeration) the lists, setting up the sessions (4 actors every 15 minutes, because 20%-50% drop out for reschedules and pilot casting – it’s amazing how many actors wake up on the morning of their audition with a sore throat), uploading the auditions and editing them, it is all a good time. I do actually like doing it. It does cause me to stress eat, so going to the gym is even more important when I am busy, because nobody likes to look at “Fat Matt.” I haven’t managed to work out all week, so, a new plan, take care of me and everything will flow as it should be and yes I am talking about my mental health and my digestive system…