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A Democratic Audition
| Article
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14152 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1988 |
2,005 Words |
| Author
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Herb Greer
Herb Greer is an American writer and playwright who lives in
Britain and on the Continent. |
That's it. Finished, done, I've had it. My resolution this year is: no more bloody show business. No films especially. I mean, it could have been--I mean, at the time it seemed like--well, it might have been an opening, a new avenue ahead, a sort of revolution. There was this advertisement in the Times that said American extras were wanted for Hellwoman, and I made inquiries. Then I went along to see, because I had this hunch that the audition was going to be different. In the first place, Jane and Vanessa were in the film. And when I walked into the auditorium at the American School in London, the director's assistant, Terry, was up there on the platform. He was saying that this was going to be done in the most democratic way possible. That was it! A democratic audition! So there would be none of that bad old stuff where a paunchy, middle-aged type, sucking lecherously on a big black cigar, wanders up the aisle in a loud Hawaiian shirt showing off his sunlamp tan and pausing now and then to mutter hoarsely at some attractive person: "Ya wanna be in show business?"
There were warning signs
Looking back on it, there were warning signs. This gray-haired person sitting next to me, for instance, thought it was going to be "a barrel of fun". Some friend of hers had been an extra in the Great Gatsby and that was "a barrel of fun." So when she got the work about Fred Zinnemann wanting real Americans for extras in Hellwoman, well, she thought--why not?
In the seats behind me, Christopher and Marcia were snickering and whispering to each other, and they obviously thought it was going to be a barrel of fun, even if they were too young to use such
... (1999 of 11096 Characters)
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