Exclusive Interview with Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine and Mat Hoffman

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:00 — 9.0MB)

BMX legend Mat Hoffman is the subject of the ESPN‘s new 30 for 30 documentary, The Birth Of Big Air. It premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City to a huge crowd, and why not, the film is great!

It’s about the original BMX superstar Hoffman, his rise to cult stardom and how he kept the sport alive during its dog days.

While I was at Tribeca, I sat down and talked with the director Jeff Tremaine, producer Johnny Knoxville and Matt Hoffman himself.

Now, you’re probably thinking. Why is he interviewing people about a documentary? You’re right and I usually don’t do that… but I loved the film, Matt Hoffman deserves his time in the spotlight… and I wanted to meet Johnny Knoxville. So there.

So when did you guys first hear about Mat, and how did he come onto your radar?

Jeff Tremaine: I wanna say Mat first came on my radar when he came onto everyone’s radar, through the magazine Freestylin’. Everyone saw that little picture that rode BMX at the time. I met Mat in 1987 when he did his first tour Skyway. I lived in Rockville, Maryland. And every summer all the bike teams would come through Maryland. Rockville had one of the biggest bike shops on the East Coast. They would do all these big demos and get all the pro teams to come through. And so Mat came through when he was I wanna say 14, maybe 15. To me, it was obvious right from the minute you saw him that he was riding at a different level, at another level than everyone else you saw. And then I followed him ever since.

So how did you guys get involved in this?

Jeff: Mat and I talked in 2005 and we decided let’s make this into a documentary. Mark [Lewman] had written the biography about Mat, and in 2006 we went and interviewed Evil Knievel. Mat made us aware that Evil was really sick and it needed to get done. We got that interview done and that sort of got the ball rolling. We did a bunch of interviews. It was something that was always on the back-burner, but was just limping along until this opportunity to do it for ESPN came along.

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A “Lost” Audition?

This post was originally written for talktvworld.com. If you’re looking for a comprehensive website that covers all things television, check this site out!

Whenever my phone rings and I see that its my agent, I immediately go through two emotions, I’m happy (I’ve booked something or have an audition) or I think I’ve done something wrong. Oddly enough, I get the same feeling when my parents call me. Yes, I know I may need therapy.

In this case though, it was good news. I had an audition with a great casting director; April Webster Casting. This has got to be one of the biggest casting offices around. They cast Lost and nearly all of JJ Abrams projects. To do a good job at this audition would mean that I could get on their radar.

The audition was for the TNT show, Dark Blue. The part wasn’t huge but I still worked on it like it was. I wasn’t going to screw-up this opportunity. Even if I end up not being right for the part, I’m going in there to make them a fan of my work.

That next afternoon, I drove to Burbank; going over the scenes the whole time. I walked into the office, signed in and immediately saw a taped piece of paper with “LOST Auditions: Sign In Here” emblazoned on it.
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Broadway Review: Fences

Let me just get this out of the way – Denzel Washington was outstanding. The very minute he walks onstage, he fills the theater with his presence and you just sit back and enjoy the ride he’s about to take you on.

Fences opened last night at Broadway’s Cort Theater for a limited run through July 11^th and judging from the packed, enthusiastic audience I saw it with, this will be a hard show to get tickets to.

It stars Washington as Troy Maxson, a 53-year-old sanitation worker who once had aspirations of a career in baseball. Married to the devoted Rose (Viola Davis), their back and forth talk, mostly with sexual undertones make for a seemingly happy marriage. Mid way through the first act, his best friend, Bono (Stephen McKinely Henderson), begins to hint at some definite character flaws in Troy that come up in the second act; some shocking, some not.

The show was great and as I said before, Denzel (I’ll call him by his first name, sure) was incredible. The only problem I had – and I’m not sure you can even call it a problem – was the Denzel was so fantastic that he made everyone else look just good. Do you know what I mean? He raised the bar so high that everyone was trying to get to the same level that he was on. Sometimes they were there and sometimes they weren’t.

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The 5 P’s To A Productive Agent Relationship

Guest Post by The Savvy Actor.
Founders Jodie Bentley and Kevin Urban have taken their combined 20+ years of experience in acting, marketing, branding, and sales, to create the first and only guide that puts every career tool the actor needs in one place. Their mission is to empower actors to think like small business owners by creating and implementing an effective business plan, branding their unique product, and developing marketing strategies that get them noticed and in the door; ultimately merging career and life into one of abundance and success. They want actors to become successful, savvy business people, empowered with the skills necessary to compete in the biz today.

This is an excerpt from The Savvy Actor Career Manual

The Secret to an Ideal Relationship with Your Agent

At some point an actor will inevitably begin their search to get an agent. Many actors look at the agent relationship as the be?all and end?all. Really, that’s when the work begins, but on a different level.

When an actor gets an agent, we often find that one of two things happen:

1. They’re at a loss as to how to proceed.

2. They rely too much on the agent, and stop their own self?promotion.

Both of these can hurt the agent relationship.

At the Savvy Actor we have created the Five P’s to a Productive Agent Relationship to help you unlock the secret to building the ideal relationship with your agent.

1. Proper Setup of Relationship

The first step, mainly with legit representation, is making sure they agree with what you sell. This is why packaging and aligning your brand is so important. If you have done all your branding homework and know where you fit in the industry, and they agree, then the relationship will thrive.

In beginning any business relationship, setting up proper communication is vital. Do they prefer email, phone, or dropping by? If there is a project you’re right for, how should you communicate that? These are important questions to answer because if you establish the communication style upfront you never have to second?guess or worry when contacting them. When you do contact your agent, it must be for a reason – not just to check in.

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Kyle Gallner, star of the new “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, talks about his new film “Cherry”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:40 — 9.4MB)

Kyle Gallner is busy!

Not only is he starring in the new film Cherry but he’s got 4 films already finished – one of them is the new version of A Nightmare On Elm Street.

You’ve probably seen him in Jennifer’s Body or as the young Flash in Smallville, CSI:NY or even Veronica Mars.

I interviewed Kyle at SXSW for, Cherry. Its is about a college student named Aaron, Kyle’s character. He gets involved with an older woman who’s gone back to school to straighten her life out. Things start to get complicated when Aaron meets the woman’s  daughter, Beth (Brittany Robertson) who starts to fall for him.

Kyle is great in the film and I can’t wait to see him in his upcoming films. We talk about how he got his start in Philadelphia, his first big job and working with some great actors.

Tell me about your character in Cherry.

My character in Cherry is loosely based off of our director, Jeff Fine. He’s a kid who’s basically had his mom control him his entire life. She kept him down. He’s a cool kid, but he never had a chance to grow into that. In college, when he starts experiencing all this stuff he’s never experienced before, like interactions with girls and parties and everything, he starts to come into his own. Then he’s thrown into some pretty extraordinary circumstances where he has to put up or shut up. You watch Aaron grow throughout the movie and become the kid he was supposed to be growing up but never had the opportunity to.

You’ve been in so many cool things. Where are you from and where did you get started?

Originally from right outside Philadelphia. I got started when my sister went to a performance arts camp because she was a dancer. This woman hooked us up with this lady in Pennsylvania and said, ‘You should just go audition.’ I just followed her there and she asked me if I’d like to audition and I read a Smuckers commercial. And she asked me if I wanted to act. And I said “Alright. Why not?”

Who knew Smuckers would be so good.

Yeah.  I had no previous inclination, nothing that had made me want to do it before. I didn’t have an agent and I went on an audition at an agency. I had no idea what I was doing. They asked me if I wanted representation. It was kind of a snowball effect from there. I slowly started falling in love with it. By the time I was 17, I thought “Shit, I have to go to college … No I don’t! I know exactly what I want to do.” So I just moved out to LA and started really going for it.

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Screenplay: “Kick-Ass”

Want the screenplay to Kick-Ass?

Sure you do!

Click here to download the script

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Aaron Johnson
Director: Matthew Vaughn

Thanks to My PDF Scripts

Open Call: Want to be in a Todd Philips/Warner Brothers movie?

The producer and director of The Hangover are casting unknown actors for their new Warner Brothers film.

You must be over 18, be able to play 18 and be a U.S. Resident.

Submissions are free and must be received by May 16th!

Click here to submit!

Life Unexpected‘s Brittany Robertson on her new film, Cherry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:19 — 8.5MB)

If you’re a fan of the CW show, Life Unexpected, then you already know Brittany Robertson.

I interviewed her at SXSW for her new film, Cherry. The film is about a college student named Aaron. He gets involved with an older woman who has gone back to school to straighten her life out. Things start to get complicated when he meets the woman’s daughter, Beth, who begins to  develop feelings for him.

Brittany plays Beth and she is perfect in the role. She’s a terrific actress who is definitely doing things right. Check out the interview where she talks about how she got her start, her love of acting and how she goes to her acting coach 4 times a week. Yes, 4 times! How many actors do you know who can honestly say that?

As always, listening to the interview is always better!

Daily Actor: Tell me about your character in Cherry.

Brittany Robertson: My character Beth; she’s a 14-year-old, inappropriate young woman who’s very misunderstood as the movie so pleasantly says. She comes across Aaron Milton (Kyle Gallner) and finds an affinity for him, and becomes attached to him. I think that’s where you get to see her softer side. She has this wall up because of her experiences with her mother and people coming in and out of their lives. I think he brings her into a softer side and you get to see the real 14-year-old whose just chillin’ up in there. She’s a sweet, vulnerable 14-year-old who’s just had a bit of a rough life.

You’ve been in so many great projects already. Where are you from and how did you get started?

I’m from South Carolina originally, a Southern chic. I got started when I did a convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina with an agent who’s in South Carolina. She brought agents from New York and LA down to see us and observe our acting. I did a monologue and a commercial, and the agents from LA were like, ‘You should come out and we’ll represent you.’ I was like “Okay, cool. Sweet.” So, then I moved out there when I was fourteen for pilot season. And I actually meet this kid (Kyle) here during that time.

Did you stay at that Oakwood apartments?

Yup, that’s where I met him. So I did that and I moved out there permanently when I was 16.

What was your first big thing when you got out there?

For an actor, booking a pilot for a TV show is so hard, but it’s a big. It’s a big deal. I did two back to back; neither of them got picked up. But it was still a big deal for me nonetheless. And then I did a film called Dan In Real Life for Disney, and I think that was probably my biggest thing that I did, the biggest opportunity for me. Working with the great actors in that movie was such a standout.

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Send Your Stuff: “Hot In Cleveland”

Greenstein/Daniel Casting has just picked up a new pilot, Hot In Cleveland.

1/2 sitcom for TV Land starring Wendie Malick and Betty White.

Greenstein/Daniel Casting
6671 Sunset Blvd. #1527
Los Angeles, CA 90028

The Cast of HBO’s “How To Make It” talk about how they made it

The cast of HBO‘s How To Make It talk about their early struggles as young actors.

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