Producer turns Actor: It’s all who you know

Zvi Howard Rosenman, producer of such films as Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Family Man,  had never acted before but now he’s acting opposite Sean Penn in the upcoming film, “Milk.”

How did he get the part? He looked like the guy. Oh, and he knew Francine Maisler - the casting director. “When they were trying to cast David Goodstein (founder of The Advocate), Francine said to Gus (Van Sant), ‘We need someone who looks like Howard Rosenman, who talks like him and who has his size.’ I think all Gus said was, ‘Well, can he act?’ Francine called me and asked if I had any experience and I told her that I’d done ‘My Fair Lady’ when I was 14 at a Hebrew student camp.”

“My next words to Francine were, ‘So, who am I up against?’ ” The competition was stiff–Van Sant had already seen the likes of Richard Schiff and Tom Hulce. Rosenman was nervous about having to audition, but he says that his best friend, the Endeavor agent Brian Swardstrom, persuaded him this was too important an opportunity to pass up. “So I did two takes with Francine, she looked at the tape and said, ‘I’m recommending you to Gus.’ And I got the part.”

Someday this will happen to all of us. We just have to be best friends with Francine Maisler.

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