Better to be typecast than not cast at all

age  of apocalypse was pretty gd cool.

Age of Ultron so far sucks balls.

they're also always being told exactly why they were rejected - because they're too old, too fat, too ugly, too brunette, etc.

That's only because it's easier than the truth.

The truth is 99.999% of "actors" are not at all.

Garret Dillahunt is an awesome actor who's hard to typecast. In "Deadwood" he played two different characters that were completely different from one another, and you wouldn't have realized right away if at all that the actor had been in the show as two different people.

I have a good friend who is an actor in Hollywood, and he's done pretty well until recently.   He's had some speaking parts in a few blockbuster movies, recurring roles on some TV shows, and done a ton of commercials.   Last time we talked he said "The movie actors are all doing TV now, the TV actors are all doing commercials, and the commercial guys are all out of work."

He's doing theatre these days.

skinink: Garret Dillahunt is an awesome actor who's hard to typecast. In "Deadwood" he played two different characters that were completely different from one another, and you wouldn't have realized right away if at all that the actor had been in the show as two different people.

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He also got to play three different characters in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the Comartie Terminator, the John Henry AI, and George Lazlo). Four if you count Lazlo as Beastwizard:



/He's also awesome as Burt on Raising Hope. He's a comedic genius.

skinink: Garret Dillahunt is an awesome actor who's hard to typecast. In "Deadwood" he played two different characters that were completely different from one another, and you wouldn't have realized right away if at all that the actor had been in the show as two different people.

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Actually had to stop watching the show at that point. It was too distracting.

Romero Report: Wannabe actors will pay for anything, and 95% of the whole system is a scam.

Many years ago (1988) I had my first job out of college at a small SAG franchised talent agency in NYC.  I hated it, and I can say without hesitation I was the worst and most ineffective talent agent in the history of the business.

A large acting studio (still in business) used to call me to ask me to come see their beginning acting class.  It was only because I was listed in The Ross Reports they wanted me, there was no other reason as I was a total nobody.  I refused, they persisted. I refused some more.  They said "we'll give you $200 bucks for 90 minutes".  I was making under $300 a week at the time.  So I went.

That 90 minutes was excruciating, with housewives and plumbers doing their monologues for me, then optimistically handing me their headshots and saying "I hope you liked it, I'd love you to represent me".  I felt like a con man and smiled back.  At the end of it the studio guy handed me $200 and said "We'd like you to come back twice a month for different classes."  They KNEW I was a useless nobody, who could do nothing for these people, but they used it to sell the classes :  "Guaranteed SAG agent readings".  Totally scummy.

I never went back, and quit soon after.  Actors still kinda make my skin crawl. But I have a lot of sympathy for them at the same time.  Maybe it's different now, but my advice to all wannabe actors:  keep your money in your pocket.  The people who matter don't want your money.

He was typed as a likely gang leader, drug dealer or police officer.

Gang leader, police officer. What's the difference?


kumanoki: Uhh..bon jore.

"because, man, you cannot pull off milkshake-swilling child molester"


That's odd. You'd think that most of them would be milkshake-swillers.

The Dynamite Monkey: Romero Report: Wannabe actors will pay for anything, and 95% of the whole system is a scam.

Which is pretty much how I think Scientology still does well despite being batshiat insane, since so many up-and-comers in Hollywood see it as a quick way to get in good with A-listers like Tom Cruise and Will Smith.

skinink: Garret Dillahunt is an awesome actor who's hard to typecast. In "Deadwood" he played two different characters that were completely different from one another, and you wouldn't have realized right away if at all that the actor had been in the show as two different people.

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When they first introduced the 2nd character, I thought it seemed out of place to do the old "tramp is just 'X' in disguise" trope.  After a few episodes I realized HBO was just saving money on actors.  It was kind of distracting, though, and I wish they hadn't.

Typecast you say, well if you need to end a show just let this guy know:

I always wondered when you saw a show or movie where they made fun of a fat or ugly person, how did they cast for that?

I mean, do they say flat out "Look, we're casting a character named Martha Dumptruck and everyone will mock the character for being fat.  We need fat ugly girls!"

"We're casting a fat guy named "Lardass" who will vomit on everyone and be ridiculed.  Looking for fat hillbilly types!"

What is the delicate tiptoe in the casting office for things like this?

Mad_Radhu: The Dynamite Monkey: Romero Report: Wannabe actors will pay for anything, and 95% of the whole system is a scam.

Which is pretty much how I think Scientology still does well despite being batshiat insane, since so many up-and-comers in Hollywood see it as a quick way to get in good with A-listers like Tom Cruise and Will Smith.

Another reason why they do well is that they never farking let you go. I was at the Festival of Books at USC last year, and my boyfriend made the mistake of chatting up people at the L. Ron Hubbard Booth. They was NO mention of Scientology anywhere, but we knew enough to know that they were secretly trying to recruit people. He mostly wanted to check out the e-meter and see how much of a farking scam they were. The nice Hispanic girl gave him the e-meter, spouted crap about how his readings were "off" and tried to persuade him to "take advantage of their services". She was chatting him up for 20 farking minutes!! It was funny at first, seeing the bf making arguments at how the e-meter readings were stupid "It clearly reads on body temperature" etc. But the girl would NOT FARKING STOP! Every argument he brought up she would counter with more BS that sounded so official that a layman would take it to heart. I finally had to literally drag him away from the biatch and even then she was calling after us to "reconsider". I saw some other poor sods at the booth who were there for much longer and were much too polite to tell the scientology people to fark themselves and to leave. They eventually were let away inside the tent where I'm sure they were signed up for the religion and forced to buy the books that were displayed at the booth.

/Fark Scientology.

eas81: Typecast you say, well if you need to end a show just let this guy know:

And 8 years later.....

Couldn't this be done for free on a website?

Wear a collar for your audition and you can look EXACTLY like a popcorn wafer eating child molester.

   

buntz: I always wondered when you saw a show or movie where they made fun of a fat or ugly person, how did they cast for that?

I mean, do they say flat out "Look, we're casting a character named Martha Dumptruck and everyone will mock the character for being fat.  We need fat ugly girls!"

"We're casting a fat guy named "Lardass" who will vomit on everyone and be ridiculed.  Looking for fat hillbilly types!"

What is the delicate tiptoe in the casting office for things like this?

I'm thinking about moving to LA to pursue acting work so this thread is relevant to my interests. Going to have to find a type, I guess.

On a side note, a friend from high school has been married to his wife for 17 years and only found out this week she was in the David Lee Roth California Girls video. He's so excited.

Is it the Brad Dourif School of Acting?  That dude made a career(and a few notable awards and nominations) off playing guys like that.

Jeez, you know, I'm sorry, we're looking for more of a Junior-Mints-eating child molester. NEXT!

miss diminutive: What's going to happen to all these people when CGI becomes so cheap and realistic that Hollywood decides to replace extras with computer animated figures?

Only extras? What's going to happen when they can render the whole cast?

This might come as a shock. Aspiring actors fall for all kinds of scams - especially when they're insecure, gullible, poorly networked and not very good at acting. You know...like most aspiring actors.

brigid_fitch: A friend of mine has been doing extra work for about 6 years or so.  She started out doing Star Wars & Star Trek fan films, got the acting bug, and has been schlepping from one set to another since.  She's done fairly regular work on Elementary lately and is in Staten Island all next week shooting a movie.  But she's never gotten a speaking part and is always waaaaay in the background.

She fired her last agent at her husband's urging, even though the agent was the one that hooked her up w/Elementary (where she's on-set at least 2-3x a week).  Her husband was upset because the agent told them the only reason my friend gets gigs at all is because the agent books her as "vaguely ethnic".  (She's Italian but w/the right makeup can look Latina or even Native American.)  He didn't want her typecast.

He's a stage-husband, living vicariously through her.  Fancies himself an actor because he's done community theater.  My argument (much like Nuclear Optimism 's) is better to be typecast than not at all.  After she's done w/the movie next week, she's got nothing on the horizon.  When she was with her former agent, she always had at least a month's worth of work booked.

This is kind of stupid since finding ANY ethnic looking people to use as extras is hard and they are always in demand. A lot of places stuff is shot in are pretty white places, and to make them look like other places, they need ethnic extras. This is especially obvious with stuff shot in Canada that they are pretending is America.

So people in Hollywood make snap judgements about people based on a single glance?  But I pictured life there as so much different than base, prosaic reality.

Mad_Radhu:



O_o

Dat sporran.

miss diminutive: What's going to happen to all these people when CGI becomes so cheap and realistic that Hollywood decides to replace extras with computer animated figures?

*imagines Jar-Jar in Game of Thrones*

The Government will provide.

bhcompy:
Is it the Brad Dourif School of Acting?  That dude made a career(and a few notable awards and nominations) off playing guys like that.

Watching Brad Dourif ham it up as the creepiest guy on set is a genuine pleasure.  Like a fine wine, but with stringy hair, bulging eyes and wiggins-inducing hand gestures.  The man is a farking artist.