Hi all! A couple of friends suggested I write a blog so they can follow the adventures of Willy's fledgling film career! To give you a bit of the background story, Willy first mentioned that he wanted to be an actor about a year ago. His description of the type of actor he thought he'd like to be was a cross between Owen Wilson and Jim Carrey. As many of you know, Willy has done theater for the past few summers with the Telluride Mudd Mystery Theater Troupe and has traveled with them to both India and Vietnam in an international theater exchange program. This past spring he announced that he'd like me to help him find an agent and that he wanted to try to get a part in a movie in the Detroit area. He then went to the New York Film Academy's Acting for Film Camp for three weeks early this summer.
Knowing nothing about the film industry or how to get an agent, I had a few photos taken of Willy when Jack went in for his senior portraits at Orser Studio in Lake Orion. While he was away at camp, I did some research on local talent agencies and submitted Willy's photos and meager resume to them. During my research, I also came across a company I was not familiar with called One Source Talent based in Troy. Within a couple of days, we got a call from One Source saying that they wanted to set up a meeting with Willy. I explained that he was away at camp for a couple more weeks but that we would arrange something when he returned. I was a little leary about this firm as I had never heard of them before but was familiar with other names in the area such as Productions Plus and the I Group. The established talent agencies in town said that we'd hear back in 6 weeks if they were interested in him but that there was very little work in our area for kids.
When Willy returned from camp, we went in to One Source. It was a group kind of setting when you came in with all sorts of people being looked at that day. They would then call them each back, take a few polaroids and if they liked you, would give you a return appt. card. My sneaking suspicion was that everyone got one of those cards, but I could be wrong. It made Willy feel special to be asked back, so I went along with it. On the second interview, they took a few more pictures and explained in more detail how they worked, said that they wanted to sign him and we filled out the paperwork, paid the web page set up fee and signed on for the monthly fee to be able to access casting calls. Mind you, casting call notices are public information, but the web page set up gives you a good place to organize your resume and post your photos. And from the web page, you can electronically submit yourself for auditions. They also recommended a photographer and collected the money up front for his services. Again, I'm feeling like I'm signing on for a scam, but was willing to take the chance for Willy's sake.
Willy then took this project into his own hands and over the next couple of weeks, stayed up late at night scouring the casting notices and submitting himself for anything that called for a teen age boy. Meanwhile, two months have passed and we never heard back from the other talent agencies. While Rick and I were moving Jack into U. of Miami, I got a voice mail from a casting director saying that she wanted Willy to come in for an audition later that day. Joe was staying at home with Willy since he hadn't started back at ND yet, so I called and woke he and Willy up early that Thursday morning and re-arranged their schedules for the day so Joe could drive him to the audition. After the audition, I asked Willy how it went and he said it went well. Since Willy always has a positive outlook on his own abilities, I took it with a grain of salt and was just happy that he'd had a chance to get some audition experience. The same day, my sister Julie had called and left me several voicemails saying that a friend of hers was going to take Willy's photo in to show her friend, JJ Abrams, who was casting for a movie in LA. Later that night, I got a call from JJ (although there is some confusion as to whether it was really him or one of his casting people) that same night saying they really liked Willy's look and could I send more pictures. All I had with me in Miami was my Iphone, so I called home and had Willy start emailing me photos from the home computer.
I sent the additional photos on Friday afternoon and 15 minutes later got an email asking if Willy could come to LA for an audition. Now my head is starting to spin a little trying to figure out the logistics of a trip to LA between Miami and the Film Fest in Telluride. In the meantime, I emailed Willy and said, just be happy you got your first audition. Actors can go on 50-100 auditions before they get their first job. Later that morning, Rick and I were flying back home from Miami and once I got to the airport, I saw that I had a voicemail from the first casting director and that Willy had gotten the job for the movie filming in Rochester Hills, MI. So much for my words of advice not to get his hopes up.
On Monday, Willy and I flew to LA and scheduled his audition for Wed. morning in Santa Monica. When we arrived in LA, Julie met us at the airport and told us that her same friend who had taken Willy's picture to Abrams, had also called her friend in NY who ran a talent management company and after seeing Willy's photos and resumes, she called an agent she knew at Innovative Artists in LA to set up an interview with Willy. So, on Tuesday, I had a conference call with the manager, Sue Liebman at Barking Dog Entertainment, and she was extremely helpful and offered to advise us as we walked through the process. That afternoon, Willy, Julie and I met with Brinda Bhatt from Innovative and after an hour, she said she would be thrilled and honored to sign Willy. I thanked her for her time and said we'd have to process all the information and would get back to her. Sue had also recommended an entertainment law firm in NY to handle Willy's contracts and I was becoming inundated with all of this new information and advice coming from several different directions. I obviously had a big learning curve to get up to speed on everything that was happening.
On Wed. morning, Willy went in for his audition with sides from "Little Manahttan" although the movie being cast for was "Super 8" with Abrams as director and Spielberg producing. They immediately gave him sides from the actual script and did his call back audition 30 minutes later. Jason James and April Weisberg were the casting directors assessing him and they said he'd done a good job and they'd review the video footage and get back to us. During his callback audition, Julie and I walked next door to Bad Robot to visit her friend, Jill, who had made all this happen and we got a tour of Abrams' production company and Jason brought Willy over there after the audition. Very cool offices and a special inside parking spot for Tom Cruise. Now the waiting begins. Sue was following up with the casting office and learned that they really liked Willy and were submitting he and 3 other boys to JJ for consideration for the part.
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