Tagged: Douchebag

Feb 25

CBS Stops Production on Two and a Half Men

 

CBS announced yesterday that they were discontinuing production for their hit series Two and a Half Men.

“Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen’s statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided to discontinue production of “Two and a Half Men” for the remainder of the season.”

These statements of course were from Charlie Sheen speaking on the The Alex Jones radio show where he attacked Chuck Lorre, the series creator, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous.

After the annoucement was made Charlie Sheen decided that the best course of action was to write an open letter to TMZ:

What does this say about Haim Levine [Chuck Lorre] after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows … I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can’t handle my power and can’t handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon.

Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong.

Remember these are my people … not yours…we will continue on together…

Charlie Sheen

I have to say I honestly feel so bad for the rest of the cast and the crew.  They have all now lost their jobs because of this stupid idiot.  Good luck Charlie finding any work in Hollywood.

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Posted in Entertainment News, Film Community, Movie News

Jul 10

Being A Casting Recruiter

 

I received this email in my inbox today:

Hi Rachel,

I came across your blog and wanted to reach out to you and tap into your knowledge of the casting industry. I have an interview to become a casting recruiter for an MTV show on Wednesday of this week and wanted to ask you how your experience was working as a casting recruiter. Was the work difficult? How was the pay? Better yet, any advice for how to nail the interview?

I’ve always been a fan of reality tv and view working in the casting industry as a dream job, so to speak. I’m currently working for a publishing company but would love to do casting on the side… just not sure where to start. I read in one of your blogs that being a casting associate for MTV was your foot in the door type of job.

Looking forward to hearing back from you… any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Being a casting recruiter or associate can be wonderfully fun or terribly awful depending on the show you are working on and the company you are working for.   I’ve done casting for four different reality shows and each experience was very very different.  There are a few main things that I think you need to ask before taking a casting recruiter position.

First and most important what show are you working on?

Certain shows are very easy to cast for while others are extraordinarily hard.  Take for example a show like Is She Really Going Out With Him?  For me it was fairly easy to cast for because around where I lived there were tons of douchebag guys going out with hot girls.  However when I had to cast for a show about parents with troublesome children  it was extremely difficult because no parent really wants to admit that they can’t control their own kids let alone show that on national television.

What is the rate?

I know this is an obvious question to ask when taking any job but it especially important with casting because you need to find out if they pay you based on your quota or not.  This means that some companies will either pay you a set amount each day or week like a production assistant or that they will only pay you only if you reach your quota of potential  cast members.  If you think you can reach your quota then by all means take the job.  But, trust me from personal experience it sucks to work a full 12 hour day, not reach your quota, and find out that the company won’t pay you for your efforts.

Is there a daily/weekly quota and if so what is it?

This ties into the question above, however, it is still important to ask.  Before you start casting you need to know how many people you have to turn in on your contact list each day.  Some companies will be great and your quota will be 2-4 people, while others will have unrealistic quotas of 20 people.  Take this all into mind when accepting the position.

As for nailing a casting recruiter interview the best thing to do is to come off as an outgoing person.  The position involves you going out to the public and finding potential cast members for the show, therefore you can’t be shy or scared to talk to people.

Check out some of my older posts to read stories about my casting experiences.

Good luck!

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Posted in Casting, MTV Casting

Apr 21

The Art of Finding The Perfect Douchebag

So I received this comment on my about me page and I thought I would address it:

“I too am a casting recruiter looking for douchebags. I realize you’ve moved onto PA things, but if you had a chance to e-mail me and talk about how I might attract these types, I’d appreciate it.”

Casting for douchebags can honestly be very difficult.  You would think that these guys would be easy to find because you see them everywhere, but it is of course a catch 22 and when you are really looking for them they are no where to be found.  There are a couple of ways to approach casting for these types of guys and  here are a couple of tricks that I have learned:

First a foremost you have to approach these guys with the attitude that this is the best possible thing for them.  No matter what show you are casting for you have to spin it for the guy so that he thinks he will look great.   If he sees the show as a positive thing that promotes how totally awesome he is, he will more likely be all about it.

Another important thing is to not be afraid to go up to people.  The more guys you talk to the more likely you are to get good numbers for your casting director.    Trust me you will get a lot of guys that are pissed off that you are asking them to be on your show.  When that happens just be nice and move on to the next douchebag.

Next you have to know the right places to find these guys:

1.  Go out at night

Now this is pretty obvious but a great place to find douchebag guys are out at clubs at night.  I have found that most go out Wednesday through Saturday,  but occasionally you can find people out at other times.  Think of the most popular club in your area and head there and you will find tons of guys there.  Be careful though because douchebags out at night means that they will most likely be drunk.  Most of the drunk douchebags will be totally into whatever you are casting because they are blitzed  out of their mind or be so belligerent that they are not able to comprehend you.  The best thing to do is to try to explain to them that you are casting and grab their name and number.  Call them the next day and talk to them more about it when they are all sobered up.

2.  Gym/ Tanning Salon

A lot of douchebags like to look fresh so hitting up the gym and tanning salons can sometimes be a gold mine.  Now this can be tricky because most businesses consider  a casting recruiter as a solicitor.  You can always approach the owner of the gym or tanning salon and explain to them what you are doing but most don’t like it.    The best way to approach both of these places is to act like you are actually going to tan or go to the gym.  If you see a guy that would be perfect keep your eye on him until he leaves and try to catch him as he walks out.

3.  College Campuses

Two words: Fraternity boys.  Hang out at the Student Union, or find out about when the frat parties are.

4.  Malls

This is another tricky place because most malls think of casting as soliciting, so be careful.  Try to get people as they walk out rather than inside the mall.

5. Outdoor Activity

I live in Florida so I would go to the beach a lot on the weekends.  If you don’t live near the ocean check out parks or other weekend activity places.  Check out basketball courts and sports fields.

With these tips you should do great.  Just keep your head up and eyes open and you will find the perfect douchebag for your show.

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Posted in Douchebags, MTV Casting, Production

Oct 07

Is it really that hard to answer your phone?

 

So my casting booker called me today because she needed help with calling our prospective douchebags.  At first I thought this would be fairly easy… boy was I completely wrong.

I got the list in my email around 2:30pm.  This is where all the drama began.  Apparently microsoft office now has a new version of their program.  Me being not the most computer savvy person did not know about this.  I see that it is an excel document but there instead of the normal .xls on the end of the title  it is  now some new .xlsx  Now you would think that magically excel would be able to recognize that it is a new form of the program and just allow you to choose to open it in the older version…but no.. microsoft has to be difficult and make it so you buy the new version of the program to see the damn document.

I do a quick google search and find that there is some converter thing that you can download that will help with the problem.  I search for a good two hours to find this so called converter only to find that they do not make one for macs.    I finally give up and head over to a fedex kinkos and open the document there and send it back to myself saved in the old format.  Finally when I get home it is 4:00 pm and I have yet to call a single douchebag.

I start going down the list and begin to call people.  Little did I know that this would just cause even more drama.  The first 10 people on the list don’t pick up so I leave a message .  The next 10 have no idea what I am talking about, and are extremely confused why I am calling them.  As I try to explain the show to them, they get all pissed that I am calling them a douchebag and some of them hang up on me.   The last few people I call answer the phone and say they were really drunk when they met the casting associate and don’t really want to do the show.

Honestly people, I know you are drunk when you go out..but if you don’t really want to be on a reality show then why do you give your number to someone who is telling you that they want to put you on a reality show?

It is now 6:00 pm and I still don’t have a single person scheduled for a interview with my casting director tomorrow…crap!

Thankfully I did get some calls back and booked a couple, but I have to say I have a new found respect for my casting booker and the drama she puts up with.

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Posted in Douchebags, MTV Casting

Sep 24

Hunting for Dbags

 

Casting for a reality show can really be hard.  Especially when you are casting for a show where one of the participants is basically getting made fun of the entire time.

Is She Really Going Out With Him isn’t like The Real World, or Survivor.  There are no prizes to be won, no cool houses you get to live in.  However, there is the whole getting to be on national television, having an entire episode about your life, and getting paid part that sways most peoples opinions about the show.  Like I’ve said before this show takes a very special guy to do it.

I went out to a local Irish themed bar last night with hopes of finding some great couples for the show.  First off it was a Monday night, and honestly there usually isn’t much happening on Monday nights.  So I was really excited when I heard from one of my college contacts that this Irish bar has beer pong and drink specials on Mondays.  I got to the bar around 11ish took a seat, ordered a beer and began to look around.  At first there weren’t too many prospects, just a few normal looking people playing beer pong and a couple of cute girls at the bar.  As time went on though a ton of college kids began to show up and drink their Monday night away.

As I was sitting at the bar a guy walks up and tries to get the bartenders attention.  The bartender was busy doing another drink order so the guy was forced to sit and wait.  Apparently this was just not acceptable.  This kid leans over the bar and yells “Hey Yo!” at the bartender and tries to grab her arm.  She nudges him off, gives him the death stare, and walks off to help another customer.  At this moment I smile because I believe I have found a prospective douchebag.

The guy tries to get the bartenders attention again and of course fails.  He looks over at me and smiles.  Now is my one shot, I hop out of my seat and introduce myself.  I begin to tell him about the show and he interrupts me.  “Wait.. you don’t know who I am?”  I am now confused.  Have I met this d bag out before?  I smile innocently and say “No am I supposed to?”  He laughs and says “Yes, I am a big sports celebrity.”  I quickly rack my brain for any “sports celebrity” that I would know of that would be down here in Florida.  I am quiet for a second and the guy starts to look surprised.  “Do you watch golf?” he asks.  I start to laugh and say “Absolutely not.  I hate golf.”  This kid then goes on a rampage of how he is a “famous” golf player, he’s on the PGA tour and that I really should know who he is despite my hatred for what is apparently the best sport in the world.

Once he is finially finished with his rant about golf, I smile and say that I will be right back.  I quickly ran to the bathroom, pulled out my cell phone and started to google this cocky d bag.  To my amazement this kid really did play golf, and really did play for the PGA tour.  I continued to look his stats and smiled when I found what I was looking for.  He sucks.  He has lost every game he has played in the last year, and has never qualified for any of the bigger tournaments.  This kid obviously thinks he is amazing, which just makes him an even bigger douchebag.

I run back up to the bar and thankfully he is still standing there attempting to flirt with the bartender now.  I tell him all about the show and of course he is super excited to be on tv.  I have officially found our “golf bag”.

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Posted in Douchebags, MTV Casting