I GUESS I’M NOT GOING TO SUNDANCE THIS YEAR

This entry is going to have little to do with casting and a lot to do with being a decent human being. I try not to be political, but gosh-darnnit, those in the state of California who are opposed to equal rights for all are just forcing me into this.

I think that the “Yes” vote on Proposition 8 affected me more then I thought it would. There has been so much interweb traffic and posts and posts to posts and posts to links to posts on all of this and the support and outpouring from those who voted “No” and supported the rights of gay couples to get married has been beautiful, and truly, I thank people for their support.

It boggles me though, that in this day and age, as a society, we have not come to a point where we can be tolerant on issues of personal freedom and equality. Granted in the big scheme of things, “LIFE” is not an equal opportunity experience (all you need to do is turn on the television and ask, “why did they cast that actor?” – See I snuck some casting in :0) ) Life is tough enough, waking up everyday, working hard, struggling for my dream of success in love and life. Road bumps are all around us, but to not be allowed and stripped of a right fought and earned and deserved and, oh yeah, supposed to be inalienable, well taking that right away is, in a word: mean.

What can I do? I can give money to help the cause, march in protest rallies, but I am also going to go one step further and say, this year, I have to make a personal decision a decision not to travel to a State that has as part of their population that hates me so much that they would like to deny me my freedom to love and marry whomever I choose (and Steve, if your reading this, don’t worry, it would be you)…so, I will not be attending Sundance this year. I don’t want my dollars spent to benefit a state that has a majority of a population that donated to strip away my ability to marry. According to Wikipedia: “Utah is known for being one of the most religiously homogeneous states in the Union, with approximately 58 percent of its adult inhabitants claiming membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church or the LDS Church), which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.”
So, in my own way, I am making my own statement (missing some great skiing and films) but until this is sorted out, Utah can go suck it…

It’s time for this country to grow up, catch up and earn back its reputation as a voice of freedom and leader of Democracy in the free world. We are 90% there, after all we did elect Barack Obama, so let’s make a difference, make our voices heard and make things right. Let’s really start to make changes, let’s all try to be nice and compassionate and tolerant towards each other and hopefully I will be able to return to Utah, a nice compassionate Gay, tolerant of all and hopeful to a dream a dream that has the Federal Government recognize same-sex-marriage not just individual states, because doing taxes last year was a bitch…

After.Casting

I am back in L.A - I have a little NYC withdrawal. We still have a few roles to cast in “After.Life,” but the director has seen everyone and now she just has to pick out the rest of the day players. My assistant in NY has been great and so helpful, and overall the agents and managers in NY were amazing to work with, so helpful and really on top of the casting, which I appreciated. I am proud of the cast: Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Josh Charles & Shuler Hensley. We also have wonderfully talented day players and I am so excited about hiring them.

This is my third film that I have cast in NY and I am so lucky to have the ability to be a local hire, but also learning about more actors is an asset that gives me a competitive edge when trying to get a job. Yes, I have to interview for jobs just like actors and sometimes it feels like an audition, so I hope these experiences make me more attractive to producers and directors.

Now that I am back in L.A, I need to get another gig, not so easy right now because many of the films that are shooting before the new year already have a casting director, I know things will come up in the new year, but waiting for a few months for work to come in is stressful but all part of the deal when being freelance.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super-casting director-man (or, yup, I’m casting another film in 3 weeks)

In the film I am currently casting, I have many older actor roles to fill. All the roles are for SAG scale either daily rate ($759.00) or weekly ($2634.00). The main cast is great, and these roles are small but significant. I think the script is very well written and it seemed to me that we would have our choice of whom we would want in these roles. Wrong, so very wrong. It has been really hard to cast the film! The older actors that we would just offer the roles to without auditioning want money (so do I), and would rather not work for a day or a week. I am not talking big A-list or even B-list names, but actors who you would see on television who work steadily, they just couldn’t be bothered with only doing one or two scenes.

It’s different in every film; you never know how actors are going to react to roles and offers.

I am in NYC and have been here for 3 weeks. I love casting here, and more importantly I really love being involved with the production office rather then sitting in a separate casting office, getting information late or not at all because I have been forgotten (poor me). The director of this film was determined to be at all of the casting sessions. In fact, he said casting was very important to him. Well, things didn’t really work out the way he wanted. The problem was that the rest of the film’s needs (locations, camera tests, A-list actors groveling for attention, little thing…) got in the way and out of the 20 casting sessions I had, I only had the director with me 4 times. This means that the director is looking at auditions on-line and based on my recommendation and hiring the actor. Just the way I like it! To be honest, it is easier for me to do the casting, especially day-players on my own, I don’t need the director with me, I just need to understand creatively what the director is looking for and then I provide it (hopefully).

Again, this production had a very small budget for me, and I did what would normally take 8 to 10 weeks in 3 weeks, which was fun, annoying and exhausting, but hopefully it will be rewarding as well as this is now my 3rd film that I have cast in NYC and I hope to do more. I like being bi-coastal!

MY AMAZING JOB…

There are some amazing perks to this job. I get to meet and read with (audition) amazingly talented actors. I normally don’t write about actors specifically but I am inspired to tell you this story, because I auditioned an actress yesterday that reminded me of this story.

A few years ago I was hired to cast “Dark Shadows,” a television pilot for John Wells Productions. The director was P.J. Hogan. It was my first time ever casting a pilot, and to tell you the truth it scared the crap out of me. Pilot casting moves very quickly and you need information at your fingertips because a producer – and there are like ten of them – always want to know the “who, what, where…” of the casting status of any actor at any particular time. I was being hurled information at such a rate that eventually I just broke down and shut my office door, and cried. Ordering myself to get myself back together again, I pulled myself up and made it through a very tough casting process that resulted in a cast that I was proud of, but alas never made it to your television screens. Nearly three months of hard work resulted in nothing that the public would ever see, but I learned a lot. The irony is that all of the challenging hard work made me want to do it again, but I have not been given that opportunity…yet…

During the pilot casting, I got a phone call from an agent telling me that Fiona Shaw (http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0789716/) was in L.A and would like to be considered for one of the roles. I of course became very excited, because I love her work and having lived in London for ten years, actually knew who she was (not so much for the TV execs) and was super excited to have her come in and meet with P.J. Also, I really loved her performance as “Medea” which I saw in Edinburgh several years before this audition and I was so excited to get a chance to meet her.

Well, when I enthusiastically told my team that she was interested in a series regular role, you could have heard crickets chirping. There was no excitement oozing from within their pours because they didn’t really know whom I was talking about. I had to literally say, “Aunt Petunia Dursley in ‘Harry Potter’!” which was like so embarrassing (I don’t even like the ‘Harry Potter’ films) to me because I wanted to tell them what an amazing actress she was and her credits and accolades were truly world-class. But did they care? Umm, not really. All I got back was, “Will she read for us?”

Why? Why GOD? It’s firkin Fiona Shaw for F-k sakes! She could read the yellow pages and be more interesting then anyone - in general. But, she wanted to audition and so she came in and I introduced myself to her and the producers and she sat down and read with me. I managed to conjure up my years of acting training and was determined to give Ms. Shaw the reading and reader she was entitled to. I mean this was just a TV pilot, she would be fine, more then fine, I was the one freaking out on the inside, she won an Olivier for Best Actress, she can act, why was this happening to me?

Of course she was amazing. She nailed the role. I was like, “See, see you plebs?! Aren’t you embarrassed that you made Fiona Shaw read?!” But, I didn’t say what I was feeling, I let it go. I wished Fiona a good day, and got back to work, casting. Because, ultimately they didn’t go with her, they went with another lovely actress, not as interesting as Fiona Shaw, but a good, solid, proven entity when it comes to television pilot casting. I was sad, because I felt we had missed an opportunity. Maybe the show wouldn’t have been dropped if there were a casting choice that wasn’t “CAPTAIN OBVIOUS.” Maybe seeing quality, world-class acting, instead of what was expected, would have excited the audiences. I think I was right, because like I have mentioned the pilot never went past being a pilot.

I won’t say who the actress was who inspired me to think about this, because I am currently casting a wonderful feature film and I hope that the actress who did come in to read for the director gets the part, but if she doesn’t, I will let you know, in a year or two.

By the way, it is often true that the more talented the actor, the classier they are. They have no fear about auditioning, because they usually come in if they know they are right for the role and probably 8 out of 10 times they would book that role. It’s usually the agents and managers who posture and try to get their clients a direct offer without auditioning, which is all part of the process of casting, understandable and why I love it so much. What I learned from all of this is that aside from the gazillion other things I have to do in a day, part of my job is to make sure that the producers and directors are educated on who actors are that are being presented to them. If they don’t know them, then how can I expect them to be as excited about an actor as I am when the actor comes in to audition?

LIAR!!!

A few weeks ago an agent called me and asked me to consider her client for a lead role in a film I am casting. I really liked the actor and was excited at the prospect of him being in the film. I spoke to the director and producer about this actor and they were not enthusiastic about the idea. Not unusual, and not unexpected as there were other more name-y choices being pitched to us, but not a horrible “safety” (to use a college application term) choice.

A few weeks had passed since the initial discussion I had with the agent and the agent called me back to see if there was any interest. After further emails with the director and producer, it became clear that an offer was going to go out to a younger choice then the agent’s client. The agent asked me specifically if the producer or director liked his client, so I asked my team. The director said that he was not a fan and the producer was not really interested.

I called the agent the following day to say that it looks like they are going to a younger actor and I told him who that actor was. He then said to me that he now thinks that the producer is a liar. I asked the agent, “Why do you say that?” He said that he called the producer the day before and pitched his client. The producer told him to send over a reel and he would see what he thinks. The agent felt that the producer was lying to him because the producer knew while he was talking to him that he was going to make an offer to the younger actor.

So, I ask you? Do you think the producer is lying to the agent? I don’t see it that way. I can see that the agent was frustrated that the producer didn’t give him all of the information, but a liar? A producer has to keep all of their options open while casting. To cut off the potential of an actor before an actual offer goes out to another actor and risk putting a negative feeling in the project to a representative of an actor could sabotage any chance of an actor getting into a film. Therefore what the producer was doing was ethical to me because all he was asking for was reel, in order to keep the potential of the actor’s availability and interest. Once an offer goes out then that information can be disseminated, because effectively everyone in the industry finds out about offers anyway. But until an offer is out it is my job and the producer’s job is to keep all casting balls in the air.

I was kind of shocked that the agent called him a liar to me. I tried to put the situation into perspective, but the agent would hear nothing of it. Calling someone a liar should be saved for serious situations. It is not a nice allegation.

Not five minutes after calling me to tell me my producer is a liar, the agent called me back and pitched another client. This is an odd business…

Some advice from me about Agents & Acting…

A question that actors ask me all of the time is, “What agencies or agents do you think are the best in L.A,” or “What makes a good agent/manager?”

Wow! What a question! I have had to come up with an answer for this question because it comes up all of the time when I am teaching a workshop. So, here it goes:

The answer is very complicated. The answer is, it doesn’t matter what I think or who I think are the best agents for actors, because it is really about how well your agents performs and represents you, the actor. Because actors don’t see their agents or managers in day-to-day life they probably don’t understand the inner workings of how they operate.

Agents and managers come in all different shapes and sizes. You have your companies that represent hundreds if not thousands of clients with literally 30-200 agents in those companies all scrambling for information, a big pay day, etc… Within these agencies you have internal company politics. Fly-on-the-wall stuff, that affects choices and decisions agents make in deciding what information they bring to their clients. If you are an actor with a few credits but are considered, “hot” or an “up-and-comer” by an agent at one of these agencies, make sure that you understand that this means you have a finite amount of time to use that leverage to meet everyone in town that you can meet in order to book work. Once you book work, you are an asset to the company and more agents or managers within that company will see that and because of the structure of the company and how companies cover films (by Studio, Casting Director, Producer, etc…) your name will pop up more and more within internal talent meetings and pitches to casting or executives, because you will be considered hot, trendy, new, whatever…Saying this, big is not always better and many times, actors success comes from smaller, boutique agents and managers who put the time in and develop their clients by finding projects to build their career.

A good agent or manager, makes phone calls, pitches, hustles, is  always on the phone and is insisting that you see their client. This may sound like captain obvious, but in my experience many agencies just submit their clients and hope that they get a phone call. The theory here is that you submit a large amount of talent and surly one or two of those clients will get called in for an audition or offered the job. This is the lazy way of agenting and yes, there is a pattern that I have noticed with certain agents who do this.

Personally, I like talking to the agent or manager who is passionate about a client. It let’s me know that they are willing to put themselves on the line and vouch for their talent. This lets me discover their taste in actors and also makes me think of them when I really need help.

For example, the lead actress in a film I am casting has just dropped out. A new actress needs to be on set by Monday. Who do you think I am going to call? The agent or manager that hardly ever calls me, or the agent/manager who bugs me all of the time about their clients and wants me to hire their clients. In a “casting emergency” I need a responsive person on the other end of the phone that I can trust to help me.

So, it boils down to trust. Who do I trust, and who trusts me? Those are the agents that I like to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

If you are getting auditions, it’s probably because your representative is making an effort to get you those auditions. If you find yourself sitting at home or working  (not working on a set acting :0( ), sadly this is probably because your agent is not on top of things for you, while they may be on top of things for someone else that they represent. I will say this though, if this is the case, you have to do something about it. You cannot and should never wait around for auditions. You should be in classes, dropping by your reps office, taking a casting workshop with a CD you want to meet, targeting casting directors, marketing yourself (there a books on this) and being proactive. If you do this you are hustling and that energy is attractive and will help you in the long-run. I know, I have seen it work.

I hope this helps, because I can’t and won’t give out names, but let’s just say, you would probably not be that surprised that some of the most successful agents/managers are so-called for a reason. They work hard and overtime. They care about their clients and the also have good taste.

P.S. I want to make a differentiation between getting auditions and being well represented and booking a job. These are two different things. One does not lead to the other.

Onward and Forward

This is a busy week for me. My office still looks like a bomb went off in it because I have not had time to put everything in it’s place and cast 3 films with no assistant.

I guess I am bit of a control freak, I like doing the entire job myself, but also if you have a great assistant it does free you up to do more. I wish productions would understand that asking for an assistant (not an intern), but someone paid and good at what they do, can make a great deal of difference to the production.

So, I am working 24/7 trying to accomplish what everyone is asking of me. Ummm…it’s sort of working out.

This week I got to teach a workshop at Lesly Kahn’s studio. It was great. The actors were so good and energetic and lovely to work with. I really appreciated their attention to detail and knowledge about the craft of acting. I like going to acting studios and sitting in on classes, especially in LA where so many actors train all of the time, it is important to understand where they are coming from and what their teacher is saying to them, because it make me a better communicator with the actors. It also gives actors a chance to get to know me and who I am so that there is less of a mystery to their process.

I had some disappointment this week as well, a director whom I worked with and pretty much gave him a stellar cast for his multi-award winning feature, basically dumped me for a higher profile casting director for his next feature and he didn’t have the balls to call me and say he was going to do it. He let his producer do it and considering that I was helping him with ideas on this film and he didn’t even call me makes me think one of two things: 1) He never really liked me in the first place or (2) He is a jerk. The nice part about this story is that a fellow colleague whose work I respect, called me up and said that she interviewed with him because one of the producers asked him to and when she went in she said, “You should use Matt on this film.” She called me to say how horrible she felt that I didn’t get the job and knew that the director didn’t feel loyal to me and how that must have hurt. Well it did hurt me. This is the truth. I thought we had a relationship where he could talk to me about anything. I have been in this situation before with other directors, but never has a director not called me personally to tell me he wasn’t going to use me after asking me to help him in the first place. It’s just bad manners.

But onward and forward. That is not where I am today. Today is about the films I am on and the work I am doing. Today is all about auditioning 9 to 12 year olds…God Help Me…

INCA CASTING

I’m back from my two-week, amazing, re-energizing vacation to Peru and Bolivia. I cannot recommend highly enough the importance of visiting this sacred and amazing land full of ancient energy and fabulous people and food! I ate – a lot.

So here I sit a new refreshed me. A lot has happened to me over the past few weeks. I have split with my casting partner and moved into the other office next to hers, which some would say could be awkward, but moving is a pain and I liked the office, so it makes sense to me. I think we can remain friends and that is the most important thing, when these things happen.

As predicted, all of the films I am working on are still in the same place they were when I left. The funny thing is that the film that was hardest to cast, and is still not cast, is now less of a drama for me because the producer had to pick up where I left off. Before I left, I was being accused of being negative because I told the producer my opinions on whether I thought they would be able to secure talent they wanted or not. If it was bad news, to them, I was negative. I’m just the messenger, don’t shoot me! I gave my opinions and educated guesses because that is all I’ve got to go on; experience. If the producer doesn’t want that or want to listen to me, fine, but don’t call me negative, I’m on your team and trying to get the film cast!

Well, two weeks away completely changed the tune of this producer and although I know she would never admit in a hundred thousand zillion years that maybe, just maybe, I was being more helpful then negative, I could tell that after a lot of calling around to the same agents and managers that I talk to daily, she finally caught on to the reality of the situation and was in fact, a little deflated.

But, they have a great cast coming together and when the final shot happens on the last day of shooting, I expect them to say, “Wow, what a great cast, Matt was right!” At least I hope they say that!

I learned that the Inca’s language does not use future or past tense. If you are walking somewhere you walk there, you do not think about walking or have walked, you are just doing, being, going, you are in the present. Maybe, that is what it takes to be successful at casting. Be in the moment, don’t worry about the past or what could be, what you are presented with is your answer, what you are given is your gift of an amazing cast as it is presented to you.

I’m leaving on a jet plane…

Today I received a call from my casting director friend in London. She recommended me for a film and the producer was in LA today. Not ten minuets later I got a call from the Producer inviting me to lunch. I explained to him that I hadn’t read the script, but was happy to meet. I get to their hotel, I am in jeans and a crappy shirt, and I am thinking, “Let’s go to Jerry’s Deli!” I am very low maintenance and I know that there is something for everyone at Jerry’s. Nope, not today, today it was off to The Ivy.

Now when I say, “I looked like crap,” I really mean it. I wasn’t planning on having a meeting or trying to impress anyone today. In fact, all I can think about is my upcoming vacation to Peru and Bolivia. I guess this is a good time to mention that there will be no blogging for the next two weeks, as I will be one with the Incas.

 Anyway, we get to The Ivy, I order my $25 dollar chopped salad, and sit and get to know my hosts. They were absolutely lovely and so eager to get their production going and were also planning on announcing the cast at the American Film Market (AFM) in L.A, in November. I explained what I do and how I do it, and they were experienced and knew the score. They had all the basics taken care of: Production Lawyer, a Publicist for AFM, a stand/office at AFM, planning a party for the film at AFM, meaning, of course, they need a cast by AFM in November.

Not such an easy task, but not impossible. The film will be shot in Egypt, at a new studio and the cast includes children. Hence, the casting in London and L.A. I think the thought is that British actors will be more open to the idea of traveling to Egypt, but I think this is a great opportunity for a young actor: an adventure!

Well, hopefully they liked me enough to want to hire me and I had confidence that they knew what they were doing based on the recommendation from my friend in London and their work history. They were not first-timers and seemed to know and understand the genre of film they were making as well as the realities of securing a top-notch cast.

I will be prepared to look a little less disheveled next time they want to go to lunch!

As I prepare to leave at the end of the week, of course the proverbial casting shit is hitting the casting fan. All of a sudden my producers are panicking and stressed out. I tell them two weeks is nothing and sometime, I know this for a fact, sometimes, casting has a way of working itself out when you do nothing. Simply, wait and see what the results are going to be. On all of the films I am currently casting (3 of them) offers are out, negotiations are happening and more interest on the projects is being generated because, although the budgets range from 800k to 2 million, agents are starting to finally read the scripts and see that the films are actually good and have potential. This is why I recommend more time to cast, because it takes time for things to get done, and once an agent decides they like a script, they will be there championing it at their talent meetings.

So, this is what I am hoping happens while I am on holiday; momentum builds, agents call my producers excited about the scripts, actors get attached and I come back to excited producers who are thrilled with the talent they have secured for their films.

Quick, if you are near some wood, knock on it three times…

Actually, it’s “Casting Director”

This is from Nikki Finke’s blog, she was discussing the Screen Actors Guild’s warning to “agents, managers, casting agents, and producers regarding restrictions on campaign contributions.” Apparently there must be some concern by SAG that new candidates are getting outside help, which is, according to them, illegal.

Any-who, not really pertaining to the actual blog, my colleague Laura Adler, who does terrific work, made a comment pertaining to the use of the term “casting agent.” She wrote: “Casting agents??? Seriously? We at the CSA have come to expect this gross misuse of terminology from the media, but coming from those within our industry? It is beyond aggravating!

Casting DIRECTORS. We are called Casting DIRECTORS. There is no such thing as a casting agent. There are agents who rep the talent and there are casting DIRECTORS who cast their clients. Period. Why is this so difficult for people to comprehend?

Please people. I don’t need the aggravation. Please try and call us by our correct title, ok? Thanks.”

There was a response to Laura’s entry from an anonymous actor (I kept it in it’s original form):

“laura, you need to get a grip. even the term “casting director” is a misnomer. In all fairness, the only thing “casting directors” direct is their assistants to get them another cup of coffee. It’s well known that casting “directors” don’t have the power to say “yes” to anything. Only the power to say “no.” It’s the director and producers who cast the film after the “casting director” has set up the appointments. You may be aggravated about “casting directors” being called “casting agents”, but most actors have been aggravated about “casting directors” being called “casting directors” for YEARS. but they set up appointments really, really well.”

Ok, well, without bitching (I promised not to bitch to a friend of mine, in my next blog) I will now refer you to an interview I gave to the “movie whore” (love the name) in his blog about what I do and what casting is all about: (http://themoviewhore.com/2008/07/matt-lessall-the-casting-director-is-in/)

I hope that the above link to my interview helps you understand that we are more then just appointment makers. Believe me if that was all I did (which, truthfully, it is a big part of the job) producers would not need our services. When I was recently hired to do “Labor Pains,” the producer had never used a casting director before. Many of the films she worked on had smaller casts. I know, at the end of the day, she was satisfied (she told me so), but also she felt that having a teammate in the trenches of casting, freed her to concentrate on other departments needs. Casting Directors have to be thought of as department heads on a film. Just like you have the 1^st AD, Locations, Wardrobe, Set Design, etc… All of these jobs are vitally important to a successful film. On “Rocket Science,” I was in the trenches, in Baltimore, in the production office and I saw clearly for the first time, how important it was to integrate and communicate between department heads. Casting informs many if not most of the decisions coming down the pipeline; it informs budget, wardrobe sizes, locations, travel time, craft services, drivers, etc… If there is no cast there is no film…period.

So to the actor (I am assuming that the person responding to Laura was an actor) who wrote that we just set up appointments, I hope you read this and think differently of what we do.

First and foremost, Casting Directors love actors. We are their advocates. But in the real world, we work for “the man” our boss; the producer, and we have to bridge the gap between the producers needs, the directors wishes and the actors’ talents. I would call that, in itself, a huge job, one that is learned and nuanced over several year of internships, becoming an assistant, an associate and finally, A CASTING DIRECTOR.

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