Chapter 3: Casting, professionalism and… some backstage stories
At the beginning of any journey, whereas you are an experienced on what you’re proposed to do or not, there’s load of uncertainty and unpredictability.
As I was just starting the project, everything was possible, specially not good surprises on the way. The moment I shared in the group that we would need help with things like digital marketing, production, edition and so on, things started to become different.
We had two actors out of the project. Both said they wouldn’t able to make it, as they had a busy life, with their jobs and personal stuff.
Then I talked with Valeria (Rizzato): "ok, we all have personal questions to do, and they are our priorities in our lives, we need to survive, pay the bills etc, but… we need to do what is needed to do! I mean, if we want to take our artistic careers seriously, we have to find time to develop it".
At this time, I was starting to be part of a Brazilian group called Integral Artist Community (Portuguese: Comunidade do Artista Integral, see how similar are these Latin originally words!) and one point that our mentor, Marcela, said is that we need to see our jobs, as artists, not like the other ones.
If we choose to be artists, professional ones, that want to make a living from that, we need to understand that our journey is quite different from the other ones.
In other words, we need to be entrepreneurs of ourselves, otherwise, the chances we live by our artistic careers would be close to zero, as we’d depend on selections, auditions, other people hire us (and for unknown, this is even harder, we all know that).
This way, we kept the track and tried to figure out how to solve this. Even the characters were created specially for these actors, things like that can happen at any production, and now I understand why other scriptwriters advise to not create a character for an actor (or exclusively for a specific one).
Thankfully, the new faces were right on the road, closer than anything and with a special touch: a spontaneous touch of comedy on their acting.
Anavi Ruiz, Spanish, I met during an Extra job in Ireland, when we exchange contacts and kept talk in the posterity. Marcello Fidelis (picture), Brazilian, I met during a stand up gig also in Dublin: my first and, so far, unique stand up comedy in English (or, at least, a trial). He was on the audience and did a good job on the stage.
I invited both and they were really open-minded to be part of the project.
Recently, I heard from an experienced producer, writer and actor, that the key to invite people for your artistic project (despite no budgeted) is to show professionalism. Today (10-08-21), as I was listening to the Stearable podcast at Spotify, I got even more confident about how reasonable is this.
Instead of just invite them to be part, I sent them the series bible. At that time, I had a document telling the AGID objective. Every series has one.
They read it and see that, even if they were investing their time with no money evolved, they were part of a serious project, not just an idea in the air. As they said YES, we booked a meeting and the process kept the track.
After a few days, Anavi told me she was, unfortunately, unable to be part of it, as her parents were seriously ill and she had to stay closer to give support.
Note: I have to say that this project really changed myself not only professionally, but mainly personally. I don’t remember loads of experiences in my life where I had enough courage to command a group.
When the process started seriously, I had to be a leader. I had the ideas on my mind and everyone needed to be clear about them. I researche and this series would be my project for the master. There were no options. I had to move on.
So I just said to her: "Ana, really sorry about your situation, I totally understand; just think a little bit more about your decision. We won’t take loads of hours of your life. We can handle it easily, no pressure".
I started to look for another actress to Jane’s role.
A few days later, she texted me asking to be part again.
She still on the project and her performance, as Jane, is outstanding. She is naturally funny, expressive and flexible to hear directions. A talented, intellectual and professional artist. The egocentric and feeling hurt Jane is on good hands.
Jane’s character is directly an inspiration from Robert Aldrich’s 1962 classic “What ever happened to Baby Jane”, which shows a falling actress who fights to not accept her career ending.
Jane's character not only aims to be an aesthetics inspiration from the film and its respective psycho-biddy genre, but herself has a very own voice: she claims about film industry prejudice against mature actors.
In A Good Man Is Dead, Jane, in the past, lived her golden years in theatre and low-budget films, but her egocentric personality took her to be evolved with controversial stories in the backstage of the productions she was evolved.
She met the photographer Winston Lumiere still on his earlier professional years. Not experienced, he took loads of pictures of her with almost no payment. In exchange, she introduced him to other people.
Because of this, she claims she was “responsible” for his rise in the artistic world and that he left her after his take off (she talks this during her monologue in the “zero” episode / pilot).
Years later, to survive, Jane has to work as an Extra. Her connection with “Dorian” (my character) starts when she meets him in a cheap restaurant in Dublin, where both live.
Dorian (I’ll talk about him in other chapter) works as waiter and sings jingles for almost each client who pops up to have a meal on his place. He creates old-fashioned-styled songs for people with a little or any patience to listen, as they are hungry. One of this is Jane, that eats on his restaurant only because of the prices.
Jane also is connected to Oscar, a transmale model (deserves a special chapter). She falls in love with him and, just like Winston, introduces him in her social circle. He rises in his career and they break off as soon as he gets notoriety. The story repeats and she complains about his narcissistic personality all the time (as if herself wouldn’t be a narcissus one).
Jane is naturally funny and a complex character. Whoever I showed the 1st season trailer, people were really delighted by Ana’s performance. Jane/Ana is a promising character with a huge potential to get laughs from audience (even I’m thinking to reserve her some dramatic moments, in a way to give her a balance on the comedic tone).
When I thought that finally we could begin, we had one more rock on the road. The actress who would perform Laura, the mysterious, noir-styled politician, was totally mute on the group. She rarely said one word on the whatsapp. For myself, she took days to answer and I had to insist constantly to have her response.
At that time, the monologues were already shared between all the components. Time was going by and I didn’t want it to take longer than necessary.
So I was talking directly with each one, giving them support on their questions, actively. This actress silence took me to have a little word with her and say a see you soon.
I told her she could be part on the project in another moment (as we have one more female character to be part in the last season). She didn’t say anything, as usually. Goodbye, little princess.
Laura’s role was now looking for another woman. It had to be an actress with some sex-appeal, as the reference for Laura was born from the noir crime films.
In my mind, one more friend: Monique Angeli. Brazilian, I met her during an acting workshop placed in a Dublin’s bar underground (The Dublin Actors Workshop).
A few months later, we were sharing an apartment with other mates, between Brazilians and Mexicans (my entrance on this house is a film itself. I need write personal memories urgently).
Though Monique had a not long formation on acting, she was naturally funny, sarcastic, like if with a spontaneous theatrical mood/personality. That was the most important.
I offered the role. Nervous and Anxiously, she agreed, and a few days after, she promptly record Laura’s monologue, in a very good shape. And she is still with the group and loving the crazy surprises we’re creating for the story and her character.
After Ana, Monique and Marcello’s integration, we could carry on.
And in the next chapter I’ll talk about the adventure of not only be an actor and writer, but the experience of being a director. The actors needed someone to help them to explore the nuances and internal characteristics of the persons they were acting.
The role to do this was up to me (but Valeria Rizzato helped me substantially on this goal, and she deserves a special chapter as well, with her “Weirdo Wendy” and her participation on all the steps of A Good Man Is Dead”).
AND, OF COURSE: TO BE CONTINUED
(let's keep this vintage charming sentence).
