So one of the things I am slowly starting to realize is that even though so many of the actors you see in all the major movies suck (e.g., Keanu Reeves, Paul Walker, Jessica Alba--though she is hot as shit), there are a TON of great actors in Hollywood that never get attention or major roles, and it's complete bullshit.
I won't even try to sell you on our leads as falling into this category--they're going to be household names once this movie comes out--because I have a much better example, a woman who has been constantly working for years and is playing a major supporting role on my movie. In fact, I am sitting right here as I type this, watching her kill it on every take and steal all her scenes:
I can't tell you anything at all about what her role is, or why is she is stealing her scenes because that would give stuff about the plot away. You want to see her character fresh, trust me, and when you do, you are going to LOVE her. I have read this script 1000 times and am tired of the jokes I've heard them so much, yet she is making me laugh all over again with her take on them.
She is such an amazing professional too. Nice, pleasant, and completely on point. You give her a note once and she nails it forever. And once she understood that this was a creative, collaborative set and that her input would be respected, she took the role and expanded it and made it even better than what Nils and I wrote. We gave her the framework, but a large part of the humor is coming from her additions.
That's one of the supreme ironies of Hollywood--a lot of times, character actors are better at acting than leads. How could this be? Because character actors don't have major name recognition to the general public, they only get work if they are actually good at acting. A "star" like Keanu Reeves gets work based on his ability to inspire people to pay for a ticket to the movie. He doesn't have to be good, as long as he puts asses in the seats.
Obviously the issue is much more complex than this, and my thoughts on this are not fully formed. I'm still new to Hollywood and there is still a lot for me to learn. But what I do know is that in the audition process for this movie, we saw a TON of really really good actors who don't get lead roles, and it has nothing to do with their ability.
The lesson: Don't judge an actor based on the fact that they haven't ever been a lead. There are many stars out there, just waiting for the right role to display their abilities.
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