The Ego has Landed
Date: 07.12.2018 | Posted by Phillip Tolley |
Many actors are known for their ego's and indeed you need to believe in yourself and to an extent 'big yourself up' to get on in the business.
However displays of ego can alienate the cast actors from the supporting artists around them. While some cast actors are happy to say good morning to the supporting actors other ignore them or worse are rude to them.
Despite recent press Johnny Depp is one actor who is happy to talk to supporting actors and Jeff Goldblum has been known to sing to us between takes.
In contrast one feamle actor came onto set with a burly bodyguard who stood between her and the supporting actors until just before the take. Now it may well be that she had had a previous bad experience, but nevertherless it does lead to an atmostphere. Another Hollywood actor was known to gradually upgrade and decorate his costume when he felt that a supporting actor was more grandly dressed than he was.
In the main most main cast actors are respectful and friendly, which is why when you get one with an over active ego, it is such a contrast.
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It is not just main actors who have egos. We all have heard of the Cumberbitches (i.e. Fans of Benedict Cumberbatch). On set you will find 'Camerabitches'.
These are supporting artists whose main aim during the day is to get in front of the camera as much as possible. They will keep repositioning themselves according to the camera angle to try to ensure that they are 'in shot'. Some of the SAs who played stormtroopers in the Star Wars series of films were the worst culprits (which considering you could not see their faces seems somewhat redundant).
Normally the Assistant Directors will notice these SA's and move them to deep background or even reduce their time on set. The committed Camerabitch will however argue that they did not hear the Assistand Director or will gradually creep forward to try to ensure that they are back 'in frame'.
There are many Supporting Artiste Facebook groups and Camerabitches do get noticed, as do Supporting Artiste who behave unprofessionally.
To Infinity and Beyond
Contracts for work on Films are becoming more complex and litigious, with some very extreme terms and conditions. Here is one I signed earlier...
" You irrevocably assign to the Producer all rights in and to the products of your services in and in connection with the Film (“Products”) throughout the universe in perpetuity. You give your consent for the reproduction, exhibition, transmission, broadcast and exploitation of the Products without time limit throughout the universe by all means and media (whether now known or later discovered or developed)."
This means that even if we colonise Mars in the future I cannot claim any repeat fees if they decided to transmit the programe intergalaxically.
We could I suppose argue about which Universe?
Page 4 of 4
Menu
- Introduction
- Getting Started (6 July 2018)
- Does your Face Fit? (6 July 2018)
- When is a booking not a booking? (6 July 2018)
- Tights, Cod Pieces and Coifs (8 July 2018)
- The Ego has Landed (7 Dec 2018)
- To Infinity and Beyond (7 Dec 2018)
- What's in a Name (29 April 2019)
- A Winter´s Tale (29 Oct 2019)
Musings
After a quiet few weeks a number of availabilty requests have come my way mainly for BBC work but also for a couple of important films. As a matter of course I normally say yes to all requests. I have subsequently been released from most of these projects but still have a number of irons in the fire. I did film a few days on the new series of the Crown. On the down side this clashed with filming of Downton Abbey which I therefore had to decline.
The difficulty this time of the year is that you can never tell what time of the year the scene your are filming is going to be. In 'Will' we were filming scenes set in the height of summer, outdoors, wearing light shirts, sandals and bare legs and arms. Unfortunately the filming for this scene took place in one of the coldest December's on record. The ground was hard, the wind was bitter and a number of supporting artists, including myself, had to be rescued from the cold and placed in front of a portable gas fire until our bodies returned to a proper healthy colour.
