female confused about how women are treated by casting directors

The following is a letter written by one of my fellow cohorts who also worked on "Boardwalk Empire". The letter depicts the unfair treatment by casting and discrimination against Women in their late thirties working in this business:


A certain casting agency hired me for the new Martin Scorsesse project "Boardwalk Empire" for 3 days. They fitted me in a period costume, wanted my hair to be all one color,I had to be shorter than 5'5, and of white/European decent. They paid me SAG wages for the fitting, and I was under the impression I would be paid SAG wages for the days I was asked to work.

They then proceeded to pay me non-union for the day of work, and this was a long day (16 hours) and was a 500 dollar difference (bt. the Union & non-union actors). I complained to SAG, and they told me casting could do whatever they wanted, and that they had made a mistake and only kids would be waivered.

I thought that was ironic since I have a 5 year old, and am a single parent and need to pay a babysitter 10 dollars per hour when I work. This particular project centers around women in the work place, and women getting a respectable salary. I do not believe this is Martin Scorsese's fault, nor do I believe this is the production company's fault. But is the second time this casting agency has hired me for a particular look (white/European, short, all one hair color, 30's), given me SAG wages for the fitting and then not paid me SAG wages for a day of work.

Some of these casting directors seem to have lawless business practices. They seem to be prejudice against white women in their 30's. Certain people in the film industry have told me that white women in their 30's don't get waivers! Only pretty, young girls in their 20's.
I am an attractive reasonably young woman and would like to know what percentage of white women in their 30's are actually working on a daily basis on film and television projects in New York City like I do.

I am a member of Aftra. I understand that SAG does not have an open door policy like AFTRA does. I do not understand how women can continue to be discriminated against.
If anyone has any insight or complaints about casting agencies; or the random way waivers are given out please respond.

Julia S.East Village, New York City

Please feel free to comment in your support.

Back to One!

Boardwalk Empire Blues..An Open Letter to The production people at Boardwalk

Dear Boardwalk Empire Production,

I have worked many years doing background work. I have experienced the bad,the good, and the ugly side of working on film and TV productions. Lately I have seen the more of the "ugly" in this business as of late in terms of being used for minimum wage.

It has been my understanding that if you work hard enough, that you will at least get a chance to get into one of the most sought after unions, SAG (Screen Actors Guild). Getting into a union like this one not only gives you credibility, but makes you feel like you have accomplished something. It's a dream that people like you and me aim to achieve.

I am not saying that I am aiming to be the next Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman. What I am saying is I would like a little respect and some reward for my hard efforts in this business. Is that too much to ask?? Apparently it is and this was demonstrated on the set of "Boardwalk Empire". An HBO production with the pilot directed by the one and only, Martin Scorsese.

It was such an honor and privilege to work with Hollywood's finest directors, Martin Scorsese.The most ironic thing about this entire experience is perhaps the fact that the scene that I was in reflected upon the 1920's prohibition where Women were just given the privileges for the right to vote.

I was also involved in the Boardwalk scene itself. I have to admit that the scene itself was very impressive! It was a replica of the 1920's Atlantic city boardwalk. What was not that impressive was the catering and the fact that we worked on this set for 20 hours!

I understand that you need to get the shot completed as time is money. Though in this case I think that there should have been some kind of a raffle or a bump in pay for dealing with all those long hours. Just to show some appreciation for us background giving every little last bit of energy we have left.

Without background, you do not have a movie.


Sincerely,

Back to one.

Boardwalk Empire shoot in Brooklyn Directed by Martin Scorcesse

This is the long awaited, over a month ago, booking for this HBO production, Boardwalk Empire to be directed by Martin Scorsese. I figured our call times would be super early. so it was no surprise when I got the official call times from Casting that it would be for 5:30am. Though there was a courtesy bus pickup in Manhattan over by Church and Chambers street. So the only problem would be to get to downtown area by 5am to catch the bus. Well I missed the bus.

Now I didn't miss the bus because I couldn't get up in the morning. In my still "Zombie-like" state, I got up and dragged myself out the door to the 4am subway, worst subway time. You have your regular rats during the day, but for some reason the 4am rats are extra special and hungry.

They are not afraid of you and will come right up to your bag if you even have a crumb left over from yesterday's cookie. These 4am rats are not dumb, they never waste their time with vegans knowing they are all skin and bones and either had one of those gross tasteless nature bars or organic bird seeds in their bag.

Yet as I am always on the defensive and prepared, I have my "whacking tool", and spray to get rid of these nasty demons. Little did I know at the time how the Rats would be such an integral focus on set later on that day.

Normally I wait for the train at that time for maybe 20 minutes tops before you see the lights shining through the dark tunnel. Thought 20 minutes went by. Then another 20 minutes. Then it was coming up to 1 hour. The clock was ticking and I kept looking at the time display. It was after 5am when the announcement came on saying that the trains are delayed due to flooding from the storm overnight.

I was thinking "great, this is just my luck"! I mean how many days prior have been storm free and the trains were running fine!" Figures the ONLY day that I have to get up for 4am, the subways have a huge delay. So this was the start of an already long day to come.

Finally the train comes, and I have to figure out a "plan B" to get there as the bus would leave by the time the "E" train would make it to the world trade area. I'm on the train at 46th stop and it is not moving. At least I'm on the train, I pondered. Ten minutes elapsed and on to Steinway street stop. There out of sheer coincidence, my friend Laura who just happens to be going to the same set as myself, sees me and joins me in this despair.

We were both in the same dilemma and figured the best route would be going to Time Square and catching the "Q" train to Church avenue in Brooklyn. The train came in about 5 minutes and since it was an express train, it only went to two stops in Manhattan and then over the bridge to Brooklyn. While over the bridge, I called up my friend to notify the PA that we would be self reporting now.

We made it to Church avenue and walked 4 blocks down and started seeing the film and crew trucks and walked to the church where holding was. We got there and signed in. There were not too many people there yet as the bus which we were supposed to get on, did not arrive yet.

I got my voucher and then headed to krafty. The catering company for this was TomKats. Not exactly the best catering for film and TV in my experience. It was the usual array with trays of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage wheels, lox, and freshly squeezed juice station. Brought a couple of plates back to holding to share with other as the non-union breakfast was crap. A couple of stale bagels and coffee cakes with NO coffee!

On to the next joyous part of the day which I was dreading..the costume. There was already a huge line-up outside where the wardrobe truck was parked. Already over 3o of us standing outside of the truck waiting to get our costumes. Meanwhile, the overcast, brooding skies were promising more showers for the remainder of the day.

And Rain it did. Down , down and down came the rains....

It truly was a mess. Getting the costumes, then going into holding for another line-up to get hair and make-up done. All of that took about 4 hours until we were brought to set. With the booming thunder and lighting and buckets of rain. It was raining so hard it felt like you were in a car wash. Yet the SHOW MUST GO ON!

The PA shouts out the announcement to get to set. Walking down the streets and huddling with the umbrellas, we made it to set. We get there and of course they are still not ready to place us. So many of us are still waiting outside in the rains. Well I took the initiative and walked in with the SAG group and placed my self in the scene.

The scene was a "Temperance" Town Hall meeting. The meeting was led by an very conservative Woman. We all gathered as concerned Women in a coalition against liquor and the evil Men who drink liquor. In fact there was a sign up on the stage that said "Lips that touch Liquor Shall NOT touch ours!" The Woman gets up on the podium and begins reciting a poem about the evils of Liquor. It went something like this : "Liar, thief Vicious brute! Snake by day and sleeps with prostitutes....Demon rum...Liquor, thy name is delirium!!!!!!" I don't have the entire poem word for word, though you get the point.

She finishes up her speech and we applaud uproariously in agreement of her campaign to stop the "evil" alcohol and corruption of Atlantic City. Then we end the applause and she quickly introduces treasurer of this foundation and money powerhouse of Atlantic City, Nucky Johnson who is played by Steve Buscemi.

We all adore him because he the funding behind all of this and comes across as a gentleman who respects Women and Women's causes. Meanwhile he is a crook and being very deceptive. To win over the Women he starts going into this story about heartache and cold winters without any food for his family and of his absent Father who drank too much. He finishes his story and we all begin applauding and cheering him on as if he is our savior for this cause.

The speech was great and entertaining for the first couple of times, though he did it over and over and over again. Martin Scorsese would come out from the back room and talk to Steve and say "That was great Steve, let's do it again!"

It must have been exhausting for the actors, but even the background were dying. I was in one of the first five rows and I had on that heavy wool coat on. On top of it the coat was disintegrating and every time I would applaud, particles of the fur on the coat were coming loose and fluffing into my mouth and all over the place scattering the particles of fur. I was gagging every time and trying not to sneeze through out "That Speech"

To add to the misery, there was no air in that church as they had to shut down all venting systems to avoid any sound. Sitting there may sound like it was easy, but it was getting difficult. Our butts were getting sore, the costumes were totally uncomfortable and we all began fading and falling asleep down to our laps

It was really bad. Finally there was a break and I saw Steve Buscemi outside. You could tell he was really sick of "That Speech" and just wanted the day to end as bad as we did. Shortly after, Lunch was called. I was looking forward to it and was expecting a good lunch as it was an HBO production with Marty directing it.

Well I was wrong..Should have known with TomKats as the catering company, it wouldn't be that good. Sure enough it was an awful meal. There was only one salad bowl with wilted leaves and a pitcher of ranch dressing and no other selection. I though maybe there would be better selection down the table. Not so much. There were only 2 trays one with spaghetti and meatballs and the other was some vegetarian slop.

My dog gets better spaghetti and meatballs sauce than that! Yuck. Even the cakes/deserts were horrible.They had these "Quick Bake" do it your self frosting which crumbled as soon as you picked it up. It's the kind of cakes your 8 year old makes for a school bake sale. It was absolute garbage. First time ever on that set that I actually threw out the food!

Soon after the unsatisfying meal, the bullhorn/PA comes out to get back to one. So we head back to set. It's the same thing all over again where the "Temperance Woman" comes up first on the podium and delivers her speech.

Back to Steve Buscemi, and he begins his Speech though this time he improvs it and changes the words a bit to instead of "beating them with a stick", he goes on saying.."and then I took a brick and smashed the brains out of the them!" Much needed laughter.

Stay tuned to HBO and the release of "Boardwalk Empire" coming soon for what "That Speech was all about! "That Speech was brilliant and Steve Buscemi delivered it magnificently! Though I am not allowed to reveal it in it's entirety as I am under some contract, though I'm not sure what it is.

You see I am still non-union and I only got paid minimum wage to sit in that hall with a corset for 17 hours. Part of my internal organs have been bruised permanently as a result, yet I can't sue as I'm still a non-union nobody. I also can't post entirely my experience on this set. So much for freedom of speech.

The irony of this all is that the scene depicts Women during the Temperance movement where they just got the right to vote. Yet here we here in the year 2009, and not much has changed.

It seems to me that in this country "other" ethnic groups have more privileges and get paid

more if they speak of their grievances and scream out that they have been prejudiced against.

I apologize for this venting session as I had to re-do my blog as some people were not happy with my original piece. The point is that we should have been paid Union wages for our efforts. Enough said..moving along...

..... Back to sitting and sweating and itching until no body could take it anymore and we were wrapped! Finally back to the wardrobe truck to get out of the costumes. In fact I was stripping out of the costume and unzipping as I was walking towards the truck.

Back to get our voucher signed. Back to Church Avenue. Back on the Q train.

Back to one!

Fitting for Martin Scorcesse's new HBO production

I was on the set of the Samsung Commercial when I got the call to get booked for this. The Samsung shoot was one of those miserable sets where it's pouring rain, it's an exterior and yet they want you to run around in business suits, drop your umbrella, do crosses and pretend that it's not raining.


Out of the blue I get a call from Grant Wilfley Casting, one of the biggest casting houses in New York. The message said to call up and see if I could come for a fitting for the new "Martin Scorsese" HBO production, "Boardwalk Empire". She asked me if I could make it to Brooklyn the following day and what time slot I would like to go.

I told the girl at "Grant" that I would like to take the afternoon call time for the fitting. My time was for 3pm to get to York St, which is the first stop into Brooklyn on the "F" train.

I get there to the subway stop with ten minutes to spare. I got outside and spotted another background person..you can always tell who is background. It's that certain background look of being puzzled, dragging a suitcase, and looking around aimlessly for a van.

So I approached this young lady, who obviously was going the same way I was. I introduce myself and within a couple of minutes, the van pulls around the corner. The driver pops his head out of the window and aks "Boardwalk?" We were like "Yes!" Quickly we hopped into the van.

The driver of the van clearly had a long, exhausting day of transporting people back and forth from the subway to the warehouse location. As we got on, this Woman that I know was talking his ear off and you could tell the driver wanted to throw her off the van a few miles back.

After a few twists and turns around the Brooklyn Navy Yards area, we get to this shipping and receiving dock. There was NO way I would have been able to find this location. We get up to the loading area, up to the freight elevator to the 8th floor. This elevator was one of these old ones where you had to grab this belt and pull down the doors yourself, then press and hold a button down. So glad I wasn't in that elevator alone.

The door opens up to this warehouse and racks and racks of wardrobe for this movies. I get to the front desk to sign and get my voucher. Next step this gay guy approaches me and tells me to take off my bulky sweater so he could take measurements. So I stand there with my arms stretched out and he gets out his measuring tape.

He measures my waist, hips, girth, bust and everything in between. There were over 4o measurements taken! Then it was off to the dressing room to get fitted. The part I really dread. I get to the dressing room and the guy tells me to disrobe and get down to my pantyhose and bra only.

Moments later, a Woman comes in and starts examining me and my measurement chart, then dashes out to get a costume. She comes back with a camisole and a corset!!! She tells me to take my sports bra off. I did this with much hesitation and figure well she is a Woman and this guy here is gay. So off came the bra and on with the camisole. That was actually easy in comparison to the next step. Getting that corset on!

First they had a medium for me and they pulled, stretched, it out and barely got the clasps on. I was dying. I couldn't breathe. I told them this wasn't going to work, so they brought another one in a large size. This one too barely fit around me. The gay guy had his knee up against my back to pull this thing and secure it on me. I was like "Wow, it must have really sucked to be a Woman in the 1920's!" Also I didn't know they didn't wear bras and just let the boobs flop around like that!

Once they got that on me, the rest of the costume piece together nicely, save for this skirt. This skirt was really awkward as it did not have a zipper on the side or in the back. The zipper was this strange 3/4 on the side past the hip. It took wardrobe a while to figure this one out. After I got the skirt on, they gave me a shirt, a sweater, boots, and a long heavy itchy fur coat!

It was something else. I felt like I was transported to the 1920's. It was a treat to be in such a museum piece, but even standing there for the time I was there, I already couldn't breathe and the coat was irritating me. I don't know how any of us will handle the day of the shoot wearing this for 17 hours. It will be an interesting day for sure.

So I got undressed, back into "2009 clothes" , got signed out and headed back to the elevator and heading back to Queens.

Back to One!

Addendum :At the time when I got the call I felt privileged and lucky that I got this call. Finally I get cast for being pale and Irish lookin. Though after going through this fitting, I'm not sure this set will be that much fun.