HOLLYWOOD ACTOR PREP by Dana Kaminski

Whole Lotta Alice Videos Going On…

Johnny Depp Interview 1993 ‘Gilbert Grape’

Actors have a different view of acting roles, often; than those who cast, and those who are looking for someone for an acting part.

Often, novice actors have a notion that professional acting will be a wonderland where all different kinds of roles await.

On the other side, for those who do the casting, the perspective is converse. They are always hoping that they will find someone who will exactly and absolutely fit the part, and I’ve heard them say that finding that certain, specific, someone can be very difficult.

For actors, that’s harsh, and hard to comprehend. Surely, actors can play anyone, can’t they? Isn’t that acting?

As far as the nuts-and-bolts of casting go; the ones who cast, for the most part, do so according to the casting philosophy.  In this video, Quentin Tarantino talks about casting actors, providing really good insight into the philosophy of ‘the other side’.

Marlon Brando, While Acting, And In Real Life Apparently Was:

“

Brando–Incorrigibly Candid

Even 30 years ago, long before tabloid TV and TMZ were a gleam in anyone’s eyes, Brando had a shrewd grasp of how celebrity journalism operated. As he tells Grobel: “I was very slow in realizing that money was the principle motivation in any interview. Not necessarily directly, but indirectly. We’re money-bound people and everything we do has to do with money, more or less. I am a commodity sitting here. You’re making money, your publisher’s making money, and I suppose, in some way, I’m making money. If money were not involved, you wouldn’t be sitting here asking me questions, because you wouldn’t be getting paid for it…. I’m paying a debt, so to speak. People look for the money questions, the money answers, and they wait for a little flex of gelt in the conversation.”

When Grobel argues that the public has a genuine interest in movie stars, Brando retorts: “You know perfectly well that you don’t interview out-of-work movie stars and people who can’t get a job. I just happen to be lucky and have had a couple of hits and some controversial pictures, but I was down the tubes not long ago.”

Grobel: “And no one’s wanted to interview you then?”

Brando: “You can see it on the faces of the air hostesses’ expressions, you can see it when you rent a car, you can see it when you walk into a restaurant. If you’ve made a hit movie, then you get the full thirty-two-teeth display in some places, and

…if you’ve faded, they say, ‘Are you still making movies?’

”

-From LA Times Blog: The Big Picture

Please share. Thank you.

Best,

Dana

As Lead Actor In Brothers :: Tobey Maguire Plays A Different Type Of Role

Did Spiderman type him as stuck in young guy roles?

Or is that just the perception?

In this video from David Poland’s blog (DP30), Maguire answers questions about acting, taking risks as an actor, and type-casting.

He also talks about how and why he chooses roles. (Brothers had some political reasons.)

Tobey Maguire’s latest, Brothers, may show up at the Oscars, in some way. Here’s a heads up , just in case.

I, Dana, Absolutely  Know That Acting Is An Art Form

…And that we, actors, are artists.

Here’s some of our finest male actors, that had stellar performances this year.

• Nicolas Cage
• Stanley Tucci
• Colin Firth
• Peter Sarsgaard
• Morgan Freeman

They debate whether acting is an art or a craft. Or what else? (I don’t know, because I am steadfast, and arrogantly positive that acting is an art form.)

THR

What do you think?  I would really love to hear your opinion about this.

Happy New Year To You!

Best,

Dana

Please don’t neglect to sign up to attend my Professional Actor Workshop (PRO ACTOR) !  It starts just after the first of the year. That new year starts tomorrow. Tomorrow. Stop putting off your career. Make that change right now. Click this link to send me a request for info.

The Golden Globes Nomination List:: Printable :: Actors, Actresses, Directors, Scores, Best Film, Best Television Show, Animation…

That’s just about all the award categories there are, at the 67th Golden Globe Awards; which, this year, will be on January 17th.

Grouped by category, here are the 2010 Golden Globe Nominees.

(Yes, 2010. Kinda cool, huh?)

::

::

::

Best Motion Picture – Drama
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
“Up in the Air”
“Avatar”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Emily Blunt, “The Young Victoria”
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Tobey Maguire, “Brothers”

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
“The Hangover”
“It’s Complicated”
“Julie & Julia”
“Nine”
“(500) Days of Summer”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Sandra Bullock, “The Proposal”
Marion Cotillard, “Nine”
Meryl Streep, “It’s Complicated”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
Julia Roberts, “Duplicity”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Nine”
Robert Downey Jr., “Sherlock Holmes”
Michael Stuhlbarg, “A Serious Man”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “(500) Days of Summer”
Matt Damon, “The Informant!”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Julianne Moore, “A Single Man”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”

Best Animated Feature Film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“Up”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Baaria”
“Broken Embraces”
“A Prophet”
“The White Ribbon”
“The Maid”

Best Director – Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Clint Eastwood, “Invictus”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9″
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Nancy Meyers, “It’s Complicated”
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
Michael Giacchino, “Up”
Marvin Hamlisch, “The Informant!”
James Horner, “Avatar”
Abel Korzeniowski “A Single Man”
Carter Burwell and Karen O, “Where the Wild Things Are”

Best Original Song — Motion Picture
“I See You,” “Avatar”
“The Weary Kind,” “Crazy Heart”
“Cinema Italiano,” “Nine”
“I Want to Come Home,” “Everybody’s Fine”
“Winter,” “Brothers”

Best Television Series – Drama
“Dexter”
“Mad Men”
“House M.D.”
“True Blood”
“Big Love”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama
Glenn Close, “Damages”
January Jones, “Mad Men”
Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”
Anna Paquin, “True Blood”
Kyra Sedgewick, “The Closer”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
Simon Baker, “The Mentalist”
Michael C. Hall, “Dexter”
Jon Hamm, “Mad Men”
Hugh Laurie, “House M.D.”
Bill Paxton, “Big Love”

Best Television Series – Comedy
“30 Rock”
“Entourage”
“Glee”
“The Office”
“Modern Family”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical
Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
Steve Carell, “The Office”
David Duchovny, “Californication”
Thomas Jane, “Hung”
Matthew Morrison, “Glee”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical
Toni Collette, “United States of Tara”
Courteney Cox, “Cougar Town”
Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie”
Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Lea Michele, “Glee”

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
“Georgia O’Keefe”
“Grey Gardens”
“Into the Storm”
“Little Dorrit”
“Taking Chance”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Joan Allen, “Georgia O’Keefe”
Drew Barrymore, “Grey Gardens”
Jessica Lange, “Grey Gardens”
Anna Paquin, “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler”
Sigourney Weaver, “Prayers for Bobby”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kevin Bacon, “Taking Chance”
Kenneth Branagh, “Wallander: One Step Behind”
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “Endgame”
Brendan Gleeson, “Into the Storm”
Jeremy Irons, “Georgia O’Keefe”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jane Adams, “Hung”
Rose Byrne, “Damages”
Jane Lynch, “Glee”
Janet McTeer, “Into the Storm”
Chloe Sevigny, “Big Love”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Michael Emerson, “Lost”
Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother”
William Hurt, “Damages”
John Lithgow, “Dexter”
Jeremy Piven, “Entourage”

Something funny about this year…and you know I’m not big on gossip.  But, not only is it unusual to have a director nominee who is a woman, but this particular women is up against a particular man. Kathryn Bigelow is up against James Cameron.  Who also happens to be her ex-husband. They’re divorced.

Look, the Foreign Press and this ceremony is the kind of famous, funky event that could only happen here in Hollywood.

The fact that there are two directors who were once married, and are now divorced, and in contention for the same award, is not that big of a Hollywood deal either. Divorce is Hollywood’s middle name. Here, it’s not uncommon for one of the divorced couple to leave with the whole prize, either. So if one of them wins the award (out of the five directors competing), it won’t shock anybody.

What is shocking, is the fact that one of these lauded divorcees in the director category, is a woman. That is unusual for Hollywood.

(And, that, in 2010, is nothing but uncool…)

The Golden Globes, however, aren’t uncool… People poke fun, but I like them.

Last year, I posted the history of the Golden Globes. If I can put the link up, I will. Otherwise, I’ll fill you in as we get closer to January, and closer to awards time.

But bookmark this page or print it out now, so when the time comes, you are ready. Have a party, maybe, give everyone a print out. Choose the winners beforehand, and see who comes out the best.

Wait a minute, that’s my awards party plan.  You do as you wish, whatever you want. But it’s here, the list of noms, if you want ‘em.

Actresses Jodie Foster, Shirley MacLaine, and Sigourney Weaver, all won a Golden Globe…

It was a wierd, three-way win, in 1989.

They were all in the same acting category.

Best,

Dana

Please take care to share. Thanks, karmically.

Makes Me Wanna Move, Be A New York Actor Again.

The Labyrinth Theater is doing a fundraiser on December 7th, 2009, in New York. It’s called Celebrity Charades 7.  Here’s their video promos, check out these actors and how creative and enticing this whole gig is.

Damn, makes me remember the good stuff.

New York was always known to be the place that spawned the best actors. The most seriously, good, actors. The most artistically-grounded actors. There used to be a certain snobbery; doing movies, television, anything commercial, was almost considered to be selling-out. The idea of ‘movie star‘ was offensive to some hardcore New York Actors.  ‘Acting’, and ‘celebrity’, they were considered worlds apart.

BTW, here’s Labyrinth’s list of confirmed actors, so far, who will be onstage:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Krasinski, Billy Crudup,

Christopher Meloni, Jesse L. Martin,

Sam Rockwell, Julia Roberts,  Shannon Elizabeth,

Padma Lakshmi, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Julia Stiles,

Justin Theroux, Yul Vázquez, Kristen Wiig,

David Zayas, John Ortiz, Cynthia Rowley,

Bob Balaban, Bobby Cannavale, Tom Colicchio…

New York Acting Community, That Was Then…

I never liked snobbery, but I did like differentiation.  New York had a real reverence for the depth of acting, and the artform.  And those actors that had that same approach to their craft, lived in New York.

That approach never made it, somehow, across the country to California. Not before then, and, not after so many of the New York theater venues dried up, due to real estate inflation. Much of that acting sensibility did leave Manhattan, dissipating with the passage of time. With trends, and materialism.  The rise of celebrity, paparazzi, gossip, contributed too. And then, the movie studios were bought up by giant conglomerates…

Watching These Videos, I Missed My N.Y. 4th Floor Walk-Up

I missed Cafe Central. I missed the noise, the dirt, the subways to auditions. I missed a real community of actors, and discussions about craft and plays over drinks with other actors, of all different New York success levels. Alongside visiting actors from California, who would fly in to get a dose of the real thing; before heading back to LA so they could, once again, endure the necessary machine of The Industry.

Although there really aren’t many affordable living spaces, for actors, in Manhattan anymore, or any artists for that matter; I hear many of them did relocate, to Brooklyn. I hope so.

It was magical to be an actor then.  Different. Maintained an age-old reverence for acting, and standards.

Best-

Dana

Please share, as it’s the fee here, at Hollywood Actor Prep…Karmic thanks, back to you.

Support actors and the art of acting, please.

I Recorded Richard Lewis, With His Permission       …Of Course

This was at a special benefit organized by daughters of well-known comedians, to benefit a home for women in recovery, called “The Lenny Bruce Home”. Most of the audience were people who came to see the strong line-up of performers; which were Bobby Slayton, Dom Irrera, Paul Mooney, and of course, Richard Lewis. There were groups of friends of the comics in the audience as well.

I am posting this video today, for a few reasons. One, it’s Friday, and I like to put something funny up on Fridays, when I can. The second reason is that I am planning to write some posts about comedy acting, since the networks have a lot of comedy shows in development, ready to produce.  Comedy is not easy, as you must know. It’s a whole added-on layer, when you act. To say the very, very least.  Most acting teachers don’t know how to be funny, and act.  Almost none of them can be funny at all. If they are, they may not know how to translate that into teaching students; or they may be teaching a load of horse stink, if they do.

There’s some very wonderfully developed, dramatic acting techniques out there; and I urge every actor to choose one, and learn it well. There’s a reason that Stanislavsky and others after, developed such serious techniques. That’s great, because for any young actor,  it’s easy to find ways to be a better dramatic actor.  It does take commitment, but it is do-able.

Not so, for comedy.

There’s reasons for that too, that it hasn’t been developed.  One of those reasons is what I told you about acting teachers already.  The others could fill up at least a whole other article… I mention it only because I urge all students to be careful, when they hear a teacher claim to be able to teach comedy.  Or when a dramatic acting teacher does so, when a student brings into class,  a funny scene. It’s very easy to be taught some very wrong stuff, about comedy acting. That’s all I want to say: beware. It’s much better to have an acting teacher who knows their dramatic craft and how to teach it, very well; and doesn’t know comedy at all. Than one who claims to know both and is really not a master of either, as a teacher; or worse, teaches you some bad skills. You really do need to first, be a good actor, period.  That is, to later be great, at comedy acting.

Not for stand-up, however. To do stand-up, you need to be born funny.

And then you need lots and lots of experience onstage, for which you need serious chutzpah to be able to endure.  That is how stand-up acts are developed, and even stand-up ‘brands’; as well as good solid comic writing skills, comedy performing skills, and simple but-not-so-simple comic timing.

I can teach comedy; but I only do so with those who already have a great solid, acting technique in place, already.  I also regard my ability to teach comedy acting too valuable to simply give it away, online. Sorry. But, I do have lots of basics to share about comedy acting that isn’t master class level or refined skills, but can be very beneficial.

Another reason that I posted this is:  this video is Richard Lewis, onstage, in process.  It’s not a memorized act, line-by-line, topic-by-topic with usual segues (seg-ways: it’s  how a comedian bridges one topic to another). You can hear how he specifically chose material for this particular audience; he’s forgetting stuff, he’s adding to earlier stuff topics, later on… Especially, I want to point out how loose he is. Onstage, he’s at home. He’s been doing this for years, and it shows. He’s also amongst peers, and that may be contributing.

The obvious is, that Richard Lewis has an ease that you wouldn’t see in a younger, fresher comic.  The stage is familiar turf to him. As is writing his material, and performing it. He’s got a long history of results, positive ones. He’s used to getting laughs, used to being a professional comedian. Used to performing, used to being the funny guy, and being in the spotlight.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition, Richard Lewis’s ease onstage, alongside his comic ‘brand’. (You know how I dislike that word, when actors are taught to sell their artistry as if it’s a kind of soap, but in Richard Lewis’s case,  in the world of comedy, it’s a valid term.) His ‘brand’ is neurotic, worried, obsessive, keyed-up. And, for 30 years, his brand has been ‘funny’.

I’d love to hear your feedback after watching this.  Comments are open, just click down at the bottom of this post, where the smaller words, called ‘tags’, are.

In the next post I’ll tell you about Richard Lewis’s special, and brand-suited, acting preparation before he jumps onto the stage.

Enjoy,

;~Dana

[This video should probably not be recommended to kids. ]

Please pay the Hollywood Actor Prep fee, which is to share with at least one other person. Thanks for supporting actors, and for spreading funny around.

SAG Indie Was Created So That SAG Actors Can Work In Low-Budget Movies

And…So Independent Films Can Use Professional Actors.

Remember Melissa Leo’s acting nomination, at last year’s Oscars?  Frozen River was a SAG Indie film.  I’ve seen her in at least 3 indies, this year.  Big acting roles, and smaller ones.

Here’s a video with Tom Bower, an actor who has been active in SAG for years. I filmed him at the end of an event at AFI. Tom helped create SAG Indie, at SAG; and shares all about it.

Indie Filmmakers Can Download The SAG Contracts From SAG Indie’s Website

SAG tailored SAG Indie, specifically, to the needs and ease-of-utilization; for low-budget, novice, or smaller films.

SAG even has incentives for low-budget films that use SAG Indie contracts. They also have incentives when for casting diversified talent.

Here’s the website address to the SAG Indie site. http://www.sagindie.com.  Here is a direct link to their PDF contracts page which includes contracts for short films, ultra low-budget, modified low-budget,  low-budget, theatrical and film agreement, and the SAG Basic Agreement. There are monthly informational meetings, as well, to teach filmmakers, and actors, how to utilize the contracts.

It seems like a great thing.  If anyone has experiential information, or an opinion on SAG Indie, I welcome it.  Let me know…

Best,

;~Dana

This may be a useful post for actors and filmmakers that you know. Please remember that the “fee” is to pay this forward…That is, to share .Thank you very much.

Not  only did he get the job by way of some good old-fashioned auditioning; but he took a risk and did something creative, unexpected, and obviously different than the voice looked like it should  be, at first glance.

Very very cool.

Not just cool because he did that. Exceptionally cool of them to give him the job.  Seth Green created the voice for this character. This voice wasn’t in Seth MacFarlane’s head, when he wrote Chris. That’s unusual.

It’s also an abnormal amount of Seths.

Please share this forward. Thank you.

Erma Bombeck was a newspaper columnist.

I read this near the beginning of my career.

Something about acting, choosing to pursue it, wholly, after the love and passion of it chooses you well before…

It seems to be just about as fully alive as anyone can feel. Can be.

Here’s Erma Bombeck’s lifefull, and wistful reminder. To live fully.
In every area.

It really does go faster than you can imagine, or foresee.

So if you are waiting to start your acting career until you get the perfect picture, or lose 10 pounds, etc. Start now instead.

Acting; or whatever you want, that will mean fully living for you…

Here’s what she wrote:

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER by Erma Bombeck

Life is too short to let it pass you by. We only have one shot at this and then it’s gone.

Best,
:~Dana

Please put this on your Facebook page, if you enjoyed it,

And do ReTweet!…Thanks very much!

(For reminding me of this by posting it recently, a hat tip to bitrebels.com.)

Stripped Down :: One Actor’s Experience

Some actors say that having craft liberates them. Other actors use sensory or vocal exercises. Some actors use props, or various styles of preparation.

Some actors let the makeup or the costume inform the way they let their characters flow.

British actor, Steven Butler, is liberated by the lack of costume.

In London’s West End, he acts naked.

He is naked.

In front of an audience. Each and every performance.

Read what it is like, for this actor:

“There’s Nothing Like Winning An Acting Part…To Get You Down To The Gym…

By Steven Butler, The Guardian

“

When my agent called on April Fools’ Day to ask if I’d like to audition for a nude musical comedy, I could only assume he was joking. After several weeks of standing starkers on stage, six nights a week, in front of up to 140 people at a time, it seems I’ve had the last laugh.

I’d never been naked on stage before and, like most people, the thought of volunteering for that universal nightmare of full-frontal nudity before a jeering audience scared the bejesus out of me. But I’m an actor, and we’re nothing if not an ambitious lot, so with the help of a gym membership and some hair removal cream, I found myself at an audition at the King’s Head having my singing, dancing – and jiggly bits – judged for Naked Boys Singing!

Despite a stomach knotted with nerves, I was pleasantly surprised to find I rather enjoyed it. Who knew one’s inner exhibitionist could be coaxed out so quickly? Apart from a particularly awkward moment when the panel wanted to chat and I couldn’t decide where to put my hands, it was all very easy. A week later, I was offered the job. (A day after that, I moved into the gym and began an affair with rice crackers and beansprouts).

The sight of seven flaccid penises taking part in a naked cancan isn’t something you can ever really get used to but if it’s odd for us, I figure it must be even more bizarre for the audience. And yet, the moment before we ripped our towels off for the first time, all my neuroses were put under the spotlight: “Am I too fat? Too thin? Is my member the wrong size, shape or colour?”

Eight weeks and a West End transfer later, it’s hard to remember what I was so nervous about. We’ve had every audience reaction from raucous cheers and laughter to bemused gasps and – my personal favourite – total silence, apart from a woman in the front row giving us an extended “Ewww”. One man even stripped off and gave us a naked standing ovation. (Note: this is not a requirement if you enjoy the show. Clapping will suffice.)

Something brilliant happens in that split second before you let it all hang out. It’s not so much that you scale the “What will the audience think?” wall – you simply abandon all hope of ever getting over it because it’s way too high and there’s barbed wire across the top. Instead, you relax in the knowledge that there’s nothing in the world you can do about your body anxieties, so you just get on with it.

Full-on nudity isn’t something audiences will encounter very often in the theatre. As a result, through a sort of osmosis, they seem to absorb much of the performer’s discomfort. Instead of us, it’s them worrying: “Am I looking too closely? What if they catch me sneaking a peek southwards? Am I enjoying this a little too much?”

Ultimately, I’ve found the boundaries blur between the performer and the audience when nudity is thrown in the mix. At the very least, the show becomes more intimate – afterwards, people approach us like old friends. It’s disconcerting when you don’t know each another at all and they’ve ogled all aspects of your anatomy. Even so, there’s a truth to the cliche peddled about nudity: it is liberating. And even pretty enjoyable.

“

Obviously, from the photo, you can see that there are other actors in this play who are also naked onstage. The brave actor on the left is David Lucas, and on the right is Nathan Taylor.  The author of this piece is in the middle. The play is called “Naked Boys Singing.”

As you can see, they are not boys.

(I can only imagine what kind of visitor will find this post, by way of search engines!)

best,

=~Dana

Is this typecasting, or simply what casting directors call a ‘good fit’?

Sesame Street recently announced that they are planning to do a Muppets ‘Mad Men’ parody.

At Jezebel, the writer, Hortense played casting director, and assigned each Muppet a role on ‘Mad Men’, replacing the show’s real actors…

“

Let’s break it down, shall we? Prairie Dawn as Peggy Olson: Like Peggy, Prairie Dawn is a writer who, often enough, is the only female Muppet in a world filled with males. And nobody can argue that she’s already got the hairdo down pat.

Lefty the Salesman as Don Draper: Lefty the Salesman wasn’t much of a salesman, but perhaps his attempts at selling shady merchandise to the folks of Sesame Street will help him prepare for the role of Don Draper. If nothing else, he looks good in a fedora.

Clementine as Betty Draper: Clementine’s boyfriend, Forgetful Jones, often neglects her due to his poor memory. Perhaps she could channel some of that frustration into playing the oft-neglected Betty Draper?

Cookie Monster as Roger Sterling: Roger Sterling always wants to have his cake and eat it, too. Related: Cookie Monster will happily play any role that can even remotely be linked to the consumption of pastries.

Bert and Ernie as Ken Cosgrove and Paul Kinsey: Though Bert and Ernie are best friends, they know what it’s like to not always see eye to eye. Will they be able to pull off the tension and jealousy that arises at times between co-workers Kinsey and Cosgrove? Of course they will, people. Bert’s uni-brow alone can bring the drama when necessary.

Telly Monster as Freddy Rumsen: Telly, like Freddy, is always a mess and can never seem to keep it together. They’re a sad-faced match made in Heaven.

Lady Two as Joan Holloway: A former girlfriend of Count Von Count, Lady Two clearly knows how to vamp it up, and her sassy dress and bright red hair are perfect for the part.

Elmo as Pete Campbell: Elmo is younger than most of his cast mates, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to grab the spotlight at every opportunity. Oh, he may seem cute, but he can’t be trusted. Elmo’s already succeeded in getting his own show-within-a-show on Sesame Street. Surely he understands Pete’s desire to get to the top.

″

”

All Actors From The Cast Of  ’Mad Men’ Will Be Back On..

…Next season…According to the AMC website.

That is, of the usual human cast that you are so familiar with.

Season 3 begins at 10 PM, Sunday, August 16, 2009.

Like people, the ‘Mad Men’ series regular actors have two names….they aren’t marionettes or puppets, or even CGI.

And they don’t play superheroes, just real characters.

The Real Cast Of Actors Are:

• Jon Hamm

• John Slattery

• Vincent Kartheiser

• January Jones

• Christina Hendricks

• Elisabeth Moss

• Michael Gladis

• Aaron Staton

• Rich Sommer

• Bryan Batt

• Robert Morse

• Mark Moses

• Joel Murray

• Colin Hanks

• Alison Brie

• Anne Dudek

• Maggie Siff

• Rosemary DeWitt

• Darby Stanchfield

• Peyton List

• Melinda McGraw

You Think The Muppets Have Agents??

If they do, they sure are doing a bang up job of leveraging their talents.

I’ve covered them twice, now, this year…

Have you seen this Ricky Gervais and Elmo video, here, on Hollywood Actor Prep?

Would you kindly tell your actor friends about this blog? Post it on your Facebook page?

Thank  you.

Best,

;~Dana

—Unlike In Any Other Profession

“Is success in any other profession as dazzling, as deeply satisfying, as it is in the theatre? I cannot pretend to know, but I doubt it. There are other professions where the rewards are as great or greater than those the theatre offers, there are professions where the fruits of success are as immediate, and still others where the pursuit of a more admirable goal undoubtedly brings a nobler sense of fulfillment. But I wonder if success in any of them tastes as sweet. Again, I am inclined to doubt it. There is an intensity, an extravagance, an abundant and unequivocal gratification to the vanity and the ego that can be satisfied more richly and more fully by success in the theatre than in any other calling. Like everything else about the theatre, its success is emphatic and immoderate. Perhaps what makes it so marvelously satisfying is that it is a success that is anything but lonely–everyone seems to share in it, friends and strangers alike–and a first success in the theatre is the most intoxicating and beguiling time imaginable. No success afterward surpasses it.”
Moss Hart, Act One

Moss Hart was a prolific, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, and theatre director.

Hat tip to ArtsJournal.com…

This was in the LA Times, but I am reprinting it for you. Auspicious for actors? Good news for those that aren’t stars? Perhaps.

Instead of igniting the box office, this season’s star-studded flicks have dramatically underperformed. Hollywood’s most lucrative films mostly have been those with no-name actors.

By Claudia Eller

The stars are not twinkling bright this summer.

Hollywood’s movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren’t winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood’s A-list talent.

The studios stocked this summer’s release schedule with so-called star vehicles, including “Land of the Lost” with Will Ferrell, “Year One” featuring Jack Black, the comedy “Imagine That” with Eddie Murphy, and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123.” But rather than igniting ticket sales, the star-studded movies have dramatically underperformed.

The brightest stars of the lucrative popcorn season — which typically accounts for about 40% of annual ticket sales — instead have turned out to be mostly movies with no-name actors — or no actors at all on screen.

And, [one of ] the highest-grossing summer movie so far? Walt Disney’s Co.’s “Up,” the Pixar-animated movie starring the voice of . . . Ed Asner.
The studios, which for years have banked on richly paid stars to open their movies, are now witnessing a new reality: even the most reliable actors can be trumped by what Hollywood executives like to call “high concepts” (a bachelor party gone awry), movies based on brand-name products (Hasbro’s Transformers toys), and reinvented franchises (not your father’s “Star Trek”).

“I think we’re seeing a transformation in what the value of the star system represents,” said Marc Shmuger, chairman of Universal Pictures, which will take a significant loss on Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost,” which cost $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market and distribute. There’s also an “incredible hunger among audiences for something new and different,” he said.

Even before a major movie hits the big screen, Twitter users and bloggers are weighing in — which can help or hinder a studio opening a movie.

“The world has changed, throwing conventional wisdom out the window,” said former studio marketing executive Peter Sealey. “The star-power opening is fading in importance and the marketing and releasing of movies is going into new territory where the masses are molding the opinion of a movie. People no longer say, ‘It’s a Tom Cruise movie, let’s go see it!’ With social networking, you know everything about a movie before it comes out.”

Doug Belgrad, production president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose studio is behind “Year One” and “Pelham,” said stars alone no longer can compete against the draw of franchise movies and sequels like “Transformers” and “Harry Potter” that come with a high degree of public awareness.

“Movie stars in the right films provide a certain amount of value from a marketing point of view,” he said. “But there is no star power that you can throw at a movie that gives you the kind of brand awareness you get from pre-sold titles.”

This summer’s woes come at a time when studios are already battling the climbing cost of making and marketing movies as well as a decline in DVD sales, which have long supported the economics of the film business.

Of course, the right star in the right movie can still lure large audiences, as evidenced by 20th Century Fox’s Ben Stiller sequel “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” in which Hugh Jackman helped attract female moviegoers.

“The Proposal,” Disney’s romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, had a strong opening less than two weeks ago at more than $33 million and will be profitable since it cost only about $40 million.

“There’s something to be said for chemistry between actors, and you don’t need to be a star to have chemistry,” said Oren Aviv, Disney’s production president, suggesting that is exactly what the casts of “Proposal,” “Star Trek” and “Hangover” all have in common — “combined with an idea that people connect with.”

But for the most part, audiences aren’t connecting with the stars this summer. Although it may be too early to know whether the weak reception will prompt the studios to rely less heavily on high-cost actors in big-budget movies as a linchpin of their summer strategy, some executives acknowledge they are reevaluating old nostrums.

“The star system was created from movies in the past,” said Universal’s Shmuger. “And clearly, we have to look forward and be aware of the shifts around us. We’re seeing the supremacy of a great idea and concept well told in a fresh way — of course that will inform our thinking.”

Best

Dana

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