Literally Chewing The Scenery
There’s an awesome casting company in New York who uses me a lot. They get me more work than the biggest two casting companies combined. Last month, I was booked by them to play a Park Pedestrian in a movie. It was a nice spring day, and I was getting paid to walk around the park and eat free hotdogs. Nice work if you can get it.
Of course, the big casting companies have blacklisted me, so it’s been hard for me to get it. Again, it is nice work if you can get it.
That day was another example of the hair department having fun with my wigs. Hair stylists like to play with my long, fake, blonde hair. I arrived to play “Park Pedestrian” but ending up as “Lady With Rapunzel Braid Walking Through Park After Escaping A Witch’s Tower.”
Just look at this gorgeous braid! Look at it!
This was one of those film shoots where nothing terribly dramatic happened; the main characters of the movie walked through a park, so there had to be a hundred extras milling around in the background. It took a few hours to film a scene where the two characters meet, then pass by a farmers market, and sit down on a park bench to deliver their lines.
I was amused by how the crew had brought in their own park benches, so that they could be placed in the perfect spot for the scene. The crew also built an authentic farmers market which was so realistic that they had to place signs on the tables reading “It’s a movie set!” and “Not for sale!”
At the end of the day, the cast and crew were allowed to actually take the food from the fake market set. There was fresh sourdough bread, apples, scones, beeswax soap, all up for grabs. As I helped myself to a couple of scones, I realized that I was literally chewing the scenery.
A few days later, I was contacted by another small casting company, this is one that managed to get me work even during the SAG strike last summer. They’ve booked me twice in the last eight months. That’s twice as much work as the biggest casting company in town, Capital Casting.
This was another simple job, a party scene filmed in New Jersey, late at night. Our call time was eight o’clock at night, and we filmed until after midnight. Or rather, the principle cast was filming all that time. Me and the other extras were only needed for the last shot of the night. In showbiz terms, the last shot of the day is called the “Martini Shot.” Ironically, this scene took place at a cocktail party, and I was holding a fake martini.
It only took fifteen minutes. A handsome movie star exits the party, and the people at the party are reflected in a glass door as he slides it open. I was placed prominently in the shot; they wanted bright costumes so that we would be more noticeable in the reflection, and I was wearing a bright red skirt.
If you’ve been reading this blog closely, you probably noticed that I’ve been getting more work than usual lately. A LOT more. In 2022 and 2023, I was averaging about one day of work a month. This April alone I had four days of work, and I was booked for a shoot on May 1st too. In March, a company that hasn’t worked with me in over six years booked me for something too.
This could be a massive coincidence. But…
But, I filed blacklisting charges against three casting agencies at the end of 2023. It takes a few months for the charges to go through the system, so the official documents went out last month.
Within days of the legal documents going out, I got an email request from “Waldorf Casting” who asked if I was available for that day of work as a pedestrian on May 1st.
This puts the casting companies in a tricky position; if they don’t get me any work, it proves my claim of blacklisting. But, if they abruptly start getting me work, that proves they can easily get me a booking any time they want.
All four of these companies actually claimed that they aren’t responsible for casting decisions, yet every single one of them has proven they can book me within hours when the NYC Commission on Human Rights is after them.
Waldorf, in particular has only booked me twice in the last year, the previous time happened half an hour after I complained to Disney’s diversity department.
For the record, Disney is still working with Waldorf Casting a year later, and doesn’t have any problem with Waldorf’s discrimination, or blacklisting. Disney also continues to work with “Capital Casting” too. At This point, Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Amazon Video, and the rest of them are fully aware that the casting companies are engaging in discrimination.
And they don’t care. I directly filed discrimination charges with the “Equity & Inclusion” departments of several major movie studios. Both Disney and Warner Bros have investigated themselves and determined that they have done nothing wrong. Case closed
I think the legal term for all this is “Aiding and Abetting” the casting companies, but I’m not a lawyer. And I’ve never even played a lawyer on TV. Because these casting companies refuse to book me as one.