CAST & TALENT

Serious issues still:

Justine Bateman describes her perspective against ratification of the agreement put to a vote by the SAG-AFTER membership.

Thanks to Art Hindle and especially Kathe Mazur for this one!

This behavior by the AMPTP is appauling... watch:

Thee months ago today, Fran Drescher made this impassioned speech declaring the SAG-AFTRA member's vote to strike against the Producers (their employers). Every word she said then remains true and even though the AMPTP has agreed to terms with the Writer's Union (WGA), they, as if planned, continue to play these strong armed games with the very people who are the basis of every product they sell.

The result if which is placing the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands at risk in every field that actually creates the products they make their mega millions from. And three months later, little has changed end no agreement is in sight!

Did you know? Jodie Foster Has Never Spoken To Anthony Hopkins!

Found this terrific primer on film acting by Michael Caine 📽️:

"The theatre is an operation with the scalpel, I think movie acting is an operation with the laser." Michael Caine teaches in this documentary the art of movie acting to five young actors, who perform scenes from "Alfie", "Deathtrap" and "Educating Rita". He talks about how to perform in close-ups and extreme close-ups. He warns about the continuity dangers of smoking cigarettes or fiddling with props. He talks about screen tests, special effects, men who are cavalier about your safety and speaking to someone who is off camera. "The movie camera is your best friend and most attentive lover," he says, "even though you invariably ignore her." (BBC 1987)

"Student" actors as seated from left to right: 1. Simon Cutter (e.g: Troilus & Cressida, The Wedding Party) 2. Ian Redford (e.g: Grange Hill, Coronation Street, Casualty) 3. Celia Imrie (e.g: Victoria Wood, Mama Mia, Exotic Marigold Hotel) 4. Mark Jefferis (e.g: Spitting Image, The Muppets) 5. Shirin Taylor (e.g: Coronation Street, Doctor Who) .

See also Michael Caine's Book on Acting: "Acting in Film: An Actor's Take on Movie Making" (Applause Theatre Book Publishers / 1. April 1990)

SAG's founders!

Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Rami Malek Among Actors Urging SAG-AFTRA Leaders to Take a Hard Line: ‘This Is Not a Moment to Meet in the Middle’

The "Actor's Fund" is now the "Entertainment Community Fund"

On the first Female Stuntperson, Helen Gibson:

A hilarious TEDtalk celebration of lifelong female friendship

75th anniversary of Paramount Pictures January 1987.
How many can you name (No peeking until you've tried once!)
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Front row: (sitting) Martha Raye, Dana Andrews, Liz Taylor, Frances Dee, Joel McCrea, Harry Dean Stanton, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Beals, Marlee Matlin, Danny de Vito

2nd row: Olivia de Havilland, Kevin Costner, Cornel Wilde, Don Ameche, DeForest Kelley, Tom Cruise, Charlton Heston, Penny Marshall, Bob Hope, Victor Mature, Elizabeth McGovern, Robert De Niro

3rd row: Andrew McCarthy, Henry Winkler, Anthony Perkins, Robert Stack, Mark Harmon, Faye Dunaway, Buddy Rogers, Gregory Peck, Debra Winger, Timothy Hutton

4th row: Jane Russell, Mike Connors, John Travolta, Janet Leigh, Charles Bronson, Ted Danson, Louis Gossett Jr, Ryan O'Neal, Rhonda Fleming, Leonard Nimoy

5th row: William Shatner, Peter Graves, Molly Ringwald, Dorothy Lamour, Olivia Newton-John, Cindy Williams, Matthew Broderick, Gene Hackman, Walter Matthau, Robin Williams

Top row: Ali MacGraw, Burt Lancaster, Scott Baio, Rhea Perlman, Bruce Dern, James Caan, Glenn Ford, Fred MacMurray, Shelley Long, Jimmy Stewart

Me too evolves:

29th Annual SAG-AFTRA Awards - In Memorium
We lost so many good ones last year 😢

Thanks to James Morrison for this one:

From Paul Peterson (The Donna Reed Show) on lifelong friend Tony Dow (Leave it to Beaver) after his passing

Progress is being made, but does it benefit everyone? You decide:

Great Vin Scully tribute from Cameraman Michael May on FB

Go boldly indeed, Uhura! - 💔 Nichelle Nichols

"ME? AUDITION?" - Shelley Winters
As the years wore on for actress Shelley Winters the parts offered became fewer, as they are for any actress over the age of 35 even today. The project would be a B movie titled "Bloody Mama" and she was requited to....ahem...."audition" for its casting director.

Never missing an opportunity to "act" she agreed to meet those in charge. She was asked to bring a headshot and her resume along. At her arrival Shelley laid a bag on a table, whereupon she pulled out her First Academy Award stating, "There's my headshot" and proceeded to pull out her second Oscar stating, "And that's my fuckin' resume !"

Hollywood urban legend? Who cares ??!! It is the stuff of legend and Shelley Winters had proven her iconic status in films and still deserved respect for her craft.

The story may have come from her casting in "Pete's Dragon" (1977) since "Mama" was released in 1971 and she most likely took the latter role just for the paycheck.

It would have been even better if she had taken the call herself and said, "Audition? Kiss my ass."

Something worth sharing from Actor, Kathe Mazur

Actors, as a group, get a bad rap. Mocking them is so easy. They’re the ones who love to “hug”, who break out into song at parties, who are “over-dramatic”. They’re the ones who get made fun of for working as waiters, even though basically every actor fawned over by the public today did, at some point, serve them their coffee or their wine spritzers, or painted their walls. The expressions “Never date an actor” and “Never date an actress” are time-worn and immediately understood by all. Actors are at once “Narcissists” and “over-affectionate”, “Divas” and “pathetic”. You don’t want your child to be one or marry one.

They are revered while they're famous, but pitiable when they're not.
But I would like to say that I feel grateful every single day of my life that I have had the great good fortune to be trained as an actor, to have been surrounded by actors, and to work with actors. What actors do in acting classes and training programs, for starters, is unlike anything else. In any half-decent acting class in the world, actors learn to Connect: to other people, to their material (from the most banal writing) to some of the most exquisite in the world), to their imaginations and instincts, to themselves.

They are critiqued publicly and have to adjust instantaneously. They learn at every turn to think on their feet. One of the best descriptions I ever read was by the psychiatrist Brian Bates who spent a year observing at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then wrote The Way of the Actor. He said this is the only profession that requires one to be simultaneously completely extroverted and completely introverted. This can be an occupational hazard, make them seem phony or “too much”, as well as highly sensitive and self-protective. And they are also, often, tremendously empathic, funny, insightful and welcoming.

Studying acting with good teachers is one of the greatest things anyone can do.

And actors are some of the most wonderful people I have ever known. We have a strange job. We are our own instrument; we are our own tools. We are always on display. We invite a lot of projection, and we open ourselves up to the world. It can bring out our insecurities. It is at best inconsistent and at worst heartbreaking, it pits us against each other and can pit us against ourselves. It offers no cover. But actors, for the most part, aren’t looking for cover. We didn’t get into this for cover. And every actor I know who went on to another profession has brought that sense of exploration and willingness to be exposed, that creativity, with them. They bring to it an extraordinary background that no one else has, and an ability to be open, connected, present, grateful, hardworking, open to criticism, endlessly creative, vulnerable, an ability to improvise, to collaborate, to read others, to CARE.

So, yeah, we get a bad rap. Much of it deserved. But oh, how grateful I am to walk among you, to be your colleague and your friend. To all the actors and former actors in my life, thank you for being on this walk together. You are a gift.

Kathe Mazur on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0563383/