The Rest of the Story Part 2
Walaka had asked me last week if I'd worked with any celebrities, and, frankly, I had blanked them out of my mind. But over the week a bunch of names came to me. Remember I said I wouldn't name-drop? Well, now that memory's returned, here comes some deep-dish name-dropping!
Ann Wilson of Heart proved to be a funny, funny lady and had the best "whiskey laugh" I'd ever heard. Tom Skerritt is quiet--even humble in an unassuming way. Tim Daly is flinty and very professional, while Mykelti Williamson couldn't be a sweeter human being, and one hell of a talent. The late Harold Gould was a consummate professional, during breaks of the session he'd glance at a script to learn his lines from "I'm Not Rappaport," which premiered at the Seattle Rep. Locally, Stan Boreson is a warm raconteur, as was the late Ivar Haglund--he seemed happiest sitting in the lobby spinning stories for "us kids."
I got to work with a lot of the "Northern Exposure" cast when they were filming in the Northwest. John Corbett was a happy knockabout guy who was clearly enjoying his fame. While he was picking through his script, he saw the "Rocketeer" poster I had on the wall. "I was runner-up for that," he said wistfully. "Billy Campbell got it." Well, look how it all turned out, I said. He smiled, then turned serious again. "Billy did a good job." Darren Burrows was exactly like his character, Ed, on the show, unbelieveably polite (he insisted on calling me "sir"), and expressed amazement that someone wanted him to voice a commercial. So did Peg Phillips, a wonderfully down-to-Earth woman who came to acting and fame late in life. "What do they want me to sound like?" she boomed in her raspy gramma's voice. "They just want you to sound like you!" The lookof bewildered disbelief was priceless. Barry Corbin sauntered in with a ten gallon hat and a drawl the size of Texas. I'd seen him act in things without a trace of accent, so I thought it was pretty phoney-baloney. He got into the voice booth with a commercial that was overwritten--the first take was 45 seconds when it should have been 30. Corbin insisted on a second take before any copy was cut, and he did it in 28 seconds, without sacrificing any nuance or inflection--Corbin is that good an actor, and the Texas drawl is pure Barry. But he's so good he can lose any trace of it at a whim.
Yaphet Kotto did much the same thing with a 60 second spot--insisting on a second take for something that was clearly too long. But he did it, as rushed as it was. I hit the talkback, laughing "You just wanted to see if it was possible!" And Kotto's grin lit up the room.
One of the nicest guys was James Doohan. He came in to do a commercial announcing a theme park. "Hi, this is James Doohan--'Scotty' on 'Star Trek'" read the copy and the first couple of takes Doohan read it naturally, hit all the marks, did a great job. But there was silence on the end of the line (we were talking to the client by phone-link) "That's great, Jimmy" came the producer's voice. "But...could ya do it as 'Scotty?'" Doohan looked at me through the booth window. "But...it says 'James Doohan" on the copy and the 'Scotty' accent isn't really..." "Yeah, yeah,we know. Could ya do it anyway? It's more familiar!" Doohan looked at me through the glass again. He was deciding. "Okay!" he said. "Let's do a take!" This time with the familar faux-burr of the Enterprise engineer. I've always admire him for that.
Story 2
In my studio career, I've done lots of auditions. Lots and lots. We've had whole days where folks came in to read a part, or we'd ask agents to bring folks in we'd never seen before to see who was out there, and if they had some possibilities.
There was an open-call for the part of a kid for a video game company, and we were pretty shy of "young adult" voices, so we held an open casting. People would come in, take a look at the script, and then I'd record them for one or two "takes," say "Thanks! That was great!" (whether it was or not) and go on to the next one. Then, we'd take all the recordings and put them into a nice little collection and ship them out to the producer/director/writer who would do the casting. Sometimes, they'd ask for our recommendations. They'd at least inquire if there were any possibilities. This particular writer/producer/director (we'll call him "Bob") was also an actor, so we could talk about specific qualities that we were looking at in detail. In other words, we could "fine-tune" the search.
The day of the audition, actor after actor showed up to have their voice recorded so that Bob could hear what they might do with the material, and as with every audition they ran the gamut from possible to horrible. By two in the afternoon, there wasn't anybody I thought was any good. Oh, there were a couple we could "get by" with, but on the whole it was one of the worst casting sessions I'd ever had. I'd even go so far as to try and direct these people into a performance to little success. In fact, I'd just finished the worst audition of the day when a guy showed up--a late addition to the schedule. He was about six feet, carried a back-pack, it was obvious he came in right off the street. He apologized for seeming unprepared, said he'd just graduated from Cornish and his agent thought he should do some auditions. I said, "Great! Whatever!" And put him into the booth. Then I gave him the standard instructions I gave all the auditioners about the part and what the producers might be looking for.
Right off the bat, he was good, with an intensity and a commitment that nobody else gave to the role. Plus, his timing was terrific, making the most of lines that had only a bit of humor to them. And--this was amazing--he had a sense of subtext, like the character actually had a life before he started talking, and it informed what he was saying now. Very rare, and that put him head and tails above all the rest of the auditioners. In fact, when Bob asked me if there were any I'd recommend, I said "Just one." That guy. "In fact, I wouldn't consider anybody else." "He's that good?" "He's THAT good."
So, Bob hired him. He thought he might be a bit old for the part, but he said, "He knows how to make himself sound younger, so we'll see." He said he was very easy to direct, and did things in a very subtle way, He was very happy with the performance, and the project was completed.
But it was rejected by the game company. "He's too old!" they said in their infinite wisdom. "We want someone 14 to 15. He sounds 18, youngest." So, Bob had to recast and do it again, which was too bad. But, the client is always right in these things. So, this guy who was so good ended up getting replaced in the project.
But everything turned out all right in the end. This guy got paid for the part, and went on to do other things.
And the client got what they wanted, which was to get someone who skewed a little younger. I'm sure they've forgotten the incident, and that they rejected this guy. But if they tried to get him today, they couldn't touch him.
His name: Brendan Fraser.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000409/
http://www.brendanfraser.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Fraser
No comments:
Post a Comment