If there is one thing that dominates Hollywood, that overshadows the art or the money or anything else, I would say that it's social rank. Everyone here is OBSESSED with their rank, but not their rank in relation to everyone else in the world, just in relation to the other people in Hollywood. We're going to be coming back to this theme over and over, but today I'll give you a specific example of how it plays out in relation to my movie:
There are three types of actors in Hollywood; "Audition", "Meeting Only" and "Offer Only." When you think of the casting process, you probably think that the producers and director sit in a room and the actors shuffle in, read their lines, maybe get some notes from the director, read again, and thats it. And that is pretty much how it works for most actors. But not all of them. The fancy ones get different treatment.
The actors who are currently hot, but don't quite have enough credits to be considered A-List, can list themselves as what's called "Meeting Only." This means that they won't come in and audition, but they will take a meeting with the director and the producer.
The super fancy actors, the A-List ones, are even higher in the pecking order. They are called "Offer Only." These are the guys who are so big, they won't even deign to meet with anyone. You just send the script with the offer, usually a pay or play offer with the money already in escrow, and they decide whether or not to take it.
In one way, I don't blame the guys who can get away with it. The auditioning process is awkward, emotionally trying, and potentially humiliating. I have a ton more respect for actors now that I have dealt with them and understand their art more. If I were an actor I would HATE auditioning and do anything to avoid it.
But at the same time--who the fuck do they think they are kidding? Look, obviously you don't need Jack Nicholson to come in and read, you know what he is going to do because he does the same thing in every movie--he plays Jack Nicholson. But the younger actors, or the less experienced ones, I feel like they are only missing out on opportunities by not at least taking a meeting, if not reading. Look, I am brand new to this process and am almost certainly speaking out of ignorance, but I cannot imagine casting someone to play SlingBlade or me without seeing them read the lines and play the character. I wonder how many of these actors are missing out because they won't just take that extra step. And all of it comes back to social rank. It's the only currency that anyone cares about in this town--how high you are in the Hollywood pecking order--and your audition status is a big indicator of that.
Since the actor and agent are the ones who determine whether or not an actor is Meeting Only or Offer Only, they can end up screwing themselves. If some small-time actor is Meeting Only, people will laugh at him. Literally, I've seen it happen. And under-listing yourself can actually help you sometimes. For example, last week we had a guy audition who has four major movie credits as a lead AND is the lead on a current TV show, which easily makes him bigger than almost anyone on our Meeting Only list. But he came in and auditioned like anyone else. This ended up working very much in his favor. If he was Meeting Only, I am not sure I'd have taken the meeting, because I didn't think he was right for this at all. Turns out I was completely wrong, and he is now at the top of our list for one of the roles. All because he auditioned.
That rant being said, as with everything in Hollywood, it's much more complicated than this--it's not always cut-and-dried who is Meeting Only or Offer Only.
The status of the actor changes based on whom the script is from or who the director is. I am a complete Hollywood unknown, so there are more Meeting Only's for me, whereas the same guys would gladly audition for a Clint Eastwood or a Peyton Reid.
And, the status can change depending on how much the actor wants to be on the project. One of the meetings we took today, the guy is almost always Offer Only, but he loved the script and wanted the role so much, he asked for a meeting to increase his chances of getting the role (and was really impressive).
Shit, the status of the actor can even change depending on who REPRESENTS him. For example, one of the Meeting Only actors I had never heard of, and from what I can tell he is Meeting Only because of his agent (a big time agent with a lot of weight).
The meetings are a very different process than auditioning. Almost like a date. It's a man date, I guess. The director and I sat with the guys at a coffee shop and talked about shit. Mostly about the movie, about their interpretations of the characters, how they'd want to play the roles, their ideas about the movie, etc, etc, but also about other shit. One of the guys talked about his problems with his girlfriend, another about how much he and his friends were like the guys in the movie, and the third talked about all kinds of shit. I was busting on him by the time we left, "Yo man, you need to pick up all the names you dropped back there" (but to his credit, he seemed like a really good guy, much cooler than I would have imagined from seeing him act and on TMZ and shit).
But even though it was nice to feel the actors out and see what kind of people they were, I much prefer the audition process. Don't get me wrong--they are all excellent actors, and even though the meetings went really well, I don't feel like I know much more than I did before about the only thing that really matters to me: How good they are for these specific roles.
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