Sutton Foster on auditioning, getting into character and singing for 8 shows a week

Sutton Foster, who is currently on tour doing a one-woman show (which I’m going to see!), was at Northwestern University recently for a talk with its theater students where she answered questions on all things musical theater.

On when she realized she wanted to be a performer:
“There wasn’t a singular ‘eureka’ moment when I decided to make performing my life. It was a gradual thing where I didn’t know what else I was going to do. Theater was the only thing I liked doing.”

On Auditioning:
“The biggest tip I can give for auditions is to be as prepared as you can be. Sing things that you feel really solid about, that you’ve rehearsed. Also just remember your individuality. When you walk in the room, bring who you are, and not what you think they want. What they want is you.”

On getting into character:
“First I look at a character and try to find something in it that I can relate to. And when I get a different character, I can explore parts of myself that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

For the benefit of the many aspiring singers in the audience, Foster spoke about her routines that helped maintain her vocal health, such as doing yoga, taking multivitamins and identifying what types of music she will and will not sing.

On singing in 8 shows a week:
“There are certain things that I can do once but can’t do eight nights a week. It’s important to know what you can and can’t do and set limits. I think you can put on a good show without doing vocal gymnastics.”

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Screenplay: The Town

Want the screenplay to The Town?

Sure you do!

Click here for the script

Director: Ben Affleck

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper

Andrew Garfield on playing the real-life Eduardo Saverin in ‘The Social Network’

Prior to 2 weeks ago, I had never seen Andrew Garfield in anything. Now, having seen his work in Never Let Me Go and The Social Network, I’m on the bandwagon. The guy is just plain great.

David Fincher thinks so as well. He told the LA Times that he had met with Garfield about playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (he was introduced to him by the director of Never Let Me Go, Mark Romanek).  “I met with him and thought, ‘He’s great, he’s obviously a very skilled actor and kind of an amazing presence. He has such incredible emotional access to his kind of core humanity that I was like, ‘Why would we waste an actor like this on the part of the guy [who seems like he has] Asperger’s? I’m trying to cast somebody who doesn’t have this access.’ And that’s Andrew’s greatest strength, that’s his real musculature,” Fincher said.

Fincher gave him the part of Eduardo Saverin and he is perfect in the role.

While preparing, Garfield didn’t meet the real-life Eduardo. “It didn’t feel imperative because Aaron Sorkin wrote this incredibly detailed and idiosyncratic script in which he managed to flesh out a bunch of real people in all of their facets, so it was all there on the page. But in terms of doing some kind of mimicry performance, it didn’t feel necessary or important,” he said.

“Jesse might have had a slightly different deal because people are more aware of Mark Zuckerberg’s physicality, his mannerisms. No one knows who Eduardo Saverin is, and I don’t either. Of course, the fact he’s a real-life human being, breathing on this Earth somewhere, creates a whole new dimension to my approach because you feel a greater sense of responsibility. But not that much greater because [for] any character you feel a sense of responsibility as if they were a real person.”

For the whole article, click here.

RIP Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in 1958′s The Defiant Ones, has died at 85.

Curtis starred in such classics as Spartacus, Sweet Smell of Success but is probably best known for his role in Billy Wilder‘s, Some Like it Hot.

Jamie Lee Curtis, his daughter said that her “father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages. He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed.”

For more, click here and here

Screenplay: Easy A

Want the screenplay for Easy A?

Sure you do!

Click here for the script

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm MacDowell, Aly Michalka, Stanley Tucci

Brian Dennehy gives some great advice about taking on a great theatrical role

Brian Dennehy was asked about Phillip Seymour Hoffman tackling the part of Willy Loman in the upcoming Death of a Salesman revival on Broadway in this morning’s New York Post.

Dennehy, who won a Tony for the role 10 years ago, said “I’m not going to give advice to Phil Hoffman. He’s a tremendous actor. He’s a little young for it, but what the hell? He has a deep understanding of pain, which the part calls for.”

Then he goes on to give some great advice for taking on an iconic role: “Everybody starts off doing a great part the same way. They wrestle with it. They wrestle, and they wrestle, and they wrestle. Sometimes the part wins, sometimes you win. But at some point you have to stop and relax and let the role unfold. That’s easy to say, but very hard to do. It took me six months before I got that way in ‘Salesman.’

For the full story, click here

Casting Director Spreadsheet and Mailing Labels Updated!

The casting director spreadsheets – a spreadsheet of whats currently casting in NYC and LA – and mailing labels are updated!

Check them out here

Mad Men’s Cara Buono on Faye Miller: “I never knew it was going to be more than a few episodes”

Cara Buono started her run as ‘Dr. Faye Miller’ on Mad Men originally thinking she would work for 2 weeks. A dozen episodes later, she’s now Don Draper’s love interest and part of an integral story-line.

She did an interview with AMC about how she got the part, her role and more!

Q: Don revealed his true identity to Faye! Did you have any idea the scripts were leading up to that?

A: I basically never knew anything that was coming down the pike. It’s always been fun and interesting to hypothesize about it all, but I can never predict it. From a story perspective, I just thought Anna dies, so now Faye’s the only one who knows his secret. Betty knows, but she’s rejected him. Pete Campbell knows, but that’s sort of a different category. Now Faye knows his true identity and she accepts him and loves him. I thought it was a natural progression in their relationship. Because it is a real relationship, he trusts her.

Q: How surprised were you when you found out Faye was going to be one of Don’s love interests?

A: I was very surprised. I just thought that they would be two workplace contemporaries who would have a repartee on that level. And I think because she sized him up so quickly at the beginning, saying “you’ll be married in a year and you’re a certain type,” [I thought] that she would know what he’s all about and would never go there.

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Rob McClure: “I didn’t start really working a lot until I stopped striving to be the actors I admired and started to just embrace me”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:39 — 12.9MB)

If you’re anywhere near San Diego, I highly recommend going to see the new musical, Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Written by Tony Award winner Thomas Meehan (Hairspray, The Producers, Annie) with music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis, it follows Chaplin’s life from his early days in London, his rise to be the greatest film star in the world and his downfall from scandal.

The show is fantastic and one reasons for that is its star, Rob McClure. He plays Chaplin and from the moment he walks on stage to the minute the show is over, you will have witnessed something special. I seriously cannot say enough good things about his performance.

I talked to Rob about the show, his research, how he got his equity card and a whole lot more! (And be sure to check out his incredible advice to actors!)

For the full interview, click onto the audio link above or download from iTunes.

How did you get the part?

Rob: About 3 months ago my agent called and said they were doing a Charlie Chaplin musical. And believe it or not maybe about a year ago I mentioned to my wife, “You know, I would love to play Charlie Chaplin one day…” – and I started to think, “Maybe one day if I get the time I’ll write one.” Little did I know that Tom Meehan, like Tony Award winning Tom Meehan was already on it [LAUGHTER] and he and Chris Curtis had written it this amazing show.

So my agent called me and they scheduled an audition and I went in and I had about 3 callbacks. I was doing a show in Boston at the time so I was taking the train down every Monday on my day off to go to these callbacks. And the final callback was probably about 5 o’clock on a Monday and they said, “Well, what time do you need to get back to Boston the next day?” I said, “Well I should probably be on a train around noon” and they said, “Ok, well come back tomorrow at 10” – and I live in Philadelphia so I was going, “Okay! [LAUGHTER] This is going to be a little crazy” And then they said, “And have a minute long Chaplinesque thing ready.”

So I’m like, “Oh great, it’s 5 o’clock on Monday and by 10 o’clock tomorrow morning come up with a minute of…genius, essentially.” [LAUGHTER] So, I went home and was up till 3 o’clock in the morning with my wife trying to come up with something and finally we came up with something for Flight of the Bumblebee. I brought in the music for Flight of the Bumblebee and a fly swatter and it was basically me versus an invisible bee. [LAUGHTER] And that was sort of the final audition before they offered me the part.

But I felt a…I felt a strange connection with Chaplin for a long time. My great-aunt Marion always used to tell me growing up that I looked like Chaplin and she was sort of the only person around me that would reference him a lot. So she used to tell me growing up that I look a lot like him. So I’m in this audition process, I’ve gone to 2 callbacks, and my aunt Tressa – her daughter, my great-aunt Marion passed away maybe about a year ago – my aunt Tressa, her daughter calls me and says, “We were going through your aunt Marion’s storage stuff and she painted a 5 foot portrait of Charlie Chaplin – do you want it, cause I know she always used to tell you that you look like Charlie Chaplin” and I said, “You’re not going to believe where I’ve been all week…” And 2 days later I got the part and she gave me the picture.

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Indie Actors on acting, fights on set and more

The Hollywood Reporter got Oren Pelli, Catherine Keener, Werner Herzog, Melissa Leo, Sam Rockwell and Darren Aronofsky together to talk about acting, fights on set and the most dangerous moments they’ve had while working.

Videos 1 & 2 are the best. Video 1 has Catherine Keener talking about working with Spike Jonez while video 2 has Melissa Leo talking about her experience working with Tommy Lee Jones (it wasn’t pleasant).

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