Friday, April 09, 2004
movietalk.
i spent yesterday afternoon in a casting director's office, being a reader for an independent film. i watched a dozen or so agented actors file in, do their little scenes, file out, and then get talked about. all actors should do this. it's illuminating.
i know it was just one day of casting for one movie, but i saw five black actors come in to play toughs, streetwalkers, madams and drug addicts. i get tired of the smallish range of characters commonly available to women, but this put it in perspective. much more depressing. i could tell how bad each of the actors wanted the part, too. if they had any feelings about their race restricting them to reading for the blowjob-offering drug addict, they kept them inside. also, the two guys with italian last names read only for vito, the bodyguard thug.
the ingenue? blonde.
also, the director (who wrote the screenplay) kept insisting that all of the small principle roles we were auditioning that day required a truly masterful actor. "each of these is a small aria," he said more than once. "we must have someone inimitable." he said that word so much i wanted to ask him if he really knew what it meant, ala mandy patinkin in the princess bride. also i wanted to say, guy, every writer/director wants to believe his script MUST be peopled by genius artists, and no one wants sucky actors. you think you're the only one? plus, the screenplay was sort of . . . commercial. not shitty, but not the kind of thing that requires genius. it was sort of like john grisham saying he needed no less than simon russell beale to lead his next movie.
and even so, the people he wanted to call back were not exactly inimitable. in fact, i did a fairly good impression of a couple of them in the bar afterwards, while sipped some beer with the monkey.
but i'm going back next week. the nice casting director told me she'd try to scare up an audition for me (for *something*) for helping me out, so i'monna keep helping.
i know it was just one day of casting for one movie, but i saw five black actors come in to play toughs, streetwalkers, madams and drug addicts. i get tired of the smallish range of characters commonly available to women, but this put it in perspective. much more depressing. i could tell how bad each of the actors wanted the part, too. if they had any feelings about their race restricting them to reading for the blowjob-offering drug addict, they kept them inside. also, the two guys with italian last names read only for vito, the bodyguard thug.
the ingenue? blonde.
also, the director (who wrote the screenplay) kept insisting that all of the small principle roles we were auditioning that day required a truly masterful actor. "each of these is a small aria," he said more than once. "we must have someone inimitable." he said that word so much i wanted to ask him if he really knew what it meant, ala mandy patinkin in the princess bride. also i wanted to say, guy, every writer/director wants to believe his script MUST be peopled by genius artists, and no one wants sucky actors. you think you're the only one? plus, the screenplay was sort of . . . commercial. not shitty, but not the kind of thing that requires genius. it was sort of like john grisham saying he needed no less than simon russell beale to lead his next movie.
and even so, the people he wanted to call back were not exactly inimitable. in fact, i did a fairly good impression of a couple of them in the bar afterwards, while sipped some beer with the monkey.
but i'm going back next week. the nice casting director told me she'd try to scare up an audition for me (for *something*) for helping me out, so i'monna keep helping.
