The Vegan Producers and I decided to mount a One Night Only! backers audition for Wildcat Road to fill in our financing gaps. Which means that, even though we’re shooting in Fall 2008, we need to cast now. So we announced the casting call and set up some auditions.

One of the first submissions we received was from an email that I recognized from our casting call for Pornography: A Thriller last year. An email conversation ensued back then, and continued now. Here is the conversation, which sort of jumps back and forth in time, but I’m sure you’ll follow:

On Apr 12, 2008, at 1:56 PM, XXXX@XXX.com wrote:

Any update on the casting?

On Apr 12, 2008, at 2:00 PM, Sean@XXXX.com wrote:

Yes.

Do you remember the email conversation below? We do.

YOU:
An all caucasian, gay, porn, movie. now THAT’S original! Wonder what race the writer is,,and what race the crew members will be? My point is…THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE!! Unless, of course..you’re only after an all caucasian audience as well. If that’s the case….nevermind!

Have A Great Day!

Instead of just submitting your headshot/resume and finding out whether or not we were open for colorblind casting, you sent us this confrontational email. And P.S., we ended up with a very multiracial cast.

And that’s why we didn’t call you in.

Date: April 12, 2008 4:33:22 PM PDT XXXX@XXX.com wrote:

Fair enough. However, I made my point, and maybe that had a little something to do with the fact that you ended up with a multiracial cast. Either way, it’s progress on your part.

Date: April 12, 2008 5:27:48 PM PDT Sean@XXXX.com wrote:

Actually, it didn’t. Anyone who knows my work, which you don’t, knows that I always cast my projects multiculturally. If you’d done your research, you would have known that, and had a chance to be part of one in a long line of racially diverse projects.

Date: April 13, 2008 3:23:02 PM PDT XXXX@XXX.com wrote:

That’s cute! No need to worry about me. I’m not that hungry. I’m an experienced, and talented performer. There will be many opportunities down the road. As to your “alleged” long line of projects, and my missing out….well….I’ll just have to find a way to hold my head high, and forge through life. I’ll take some solace in the fact that you’re hardly re-creating “Gone with the Wind”, and Steven Spielberg..you’re not!

Good Luck to You.

*********

I understand where this guy is coming from, at least from a philosophical standpoint. And I get that he has to try and save face, or maybe he actually believes that I’ve been left crying in his dust with his scathing responses. But dude, stop being such a douche.

The first time he emailed me, back during the Pornography: A Thriller casting sessions, he wisely didn’t provide any real contact info, agent or otherwise. I tried to lure him out with a phony audition notice on Craig’s List for a project about “Proud black men and the issues they face in today’s society”, but he didn’t bite. So when he submitted for Wildcat Road, not remembering who I was, he provided agency information.

Each time this happens, when an actor goes above and beyond the call of assholism, I let their agent know how their client is behaving in front of producers and directors. Sadly, although not unexpectedly, the “agency” this guy listed on his resume is all over the Better Business Bureau and internet message boards for being a total scam job. No need to call them and tattle, he’s being punished enough already.

Thankfully after sitting thru a lot of bad actors, and a smaller amount of good actors we just couldn’t use for one reason or another, we found an amazing cast.

And here they are!

	Pete Scherer Pete was in Pornography: A Thriller, and is one of the best sports I know. He’s straight, but has no problem playing gay dudes who take off their clothes and have sex with other dudes. His performance in Pornography: A Thriller is going to be amazing. Originally we didn’t call him in because I thought his very ‘heavy’ persona wouldn’t lend itself to the comedy of Wildcat Road. But when a front runner for his role dropped out of callbacks at the last minute, I figured ‘Why not?’ and called him in. He nailed it, and now, thankfully, we get to keep this role in ‘the family’.
	Dylan Vox as ‘Jett’ Dylan is also in Pornography: A Thriller, almost by accident. We were trying to find someone who could play a pornstar from the 90’s who would be willing to do full frontal nudity and shoot simulated porn videos. We had exhausted almost all the options from our casting call. I remembered Dylan from The Lair, in which he took my attention away from all the other cast. I tracked him down via the interweb and asked if he’d be interested in auditioning for the film, and after describing what he would have to do if he was cast, his only question was, “Will I have any wardrobe?” We assured him yes, he came in, nailed it and was cast. When we started casting Wildcat Road I immediately thought of him, and again got to keep a major role in ‘the family’.
	Kevin Stea as ‘Kevenn’ Kevin is in Naked Boys Singing!, Truth or Dare and, more importantly, Showgirls. He found us thru The Vegan Producers, I believe. They sent him the script, which he loved. i wasn’t sure where to put him in the cast at first. The role of ‘Kevenn’ was written for an African-American originally, but in the casting breakdowns we opened all the roles up to all races. We read him for a couple roles, but in the end he was perfect for the innocent ‘Kevenn’.
	Sara Maraffino as ‘Tammy’ Sara actually emailed us directly when she found out about the project. The role was originally written with an actress that had appeared in both Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror and Socket in mind. But scheduling just wasn’t working out, and the nudity and sexual situations were going to be a problem. So finding an actress that could either change the voice in my head, or match it perfectly, was tough. But Sara pretty much nailed it on her first read. What sold me? She was the only actress that made me laugh repeatedly when she read the line “I’ve done some acting. Stand-in stuff mainly. Although I was the body double in that very special episode of ‘Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood’ where Lady Aberlane got raped…”
	Coco Peru as ‘Dot’ Coco is, of course, one of the stars of Girls Will Be Girls, as well as an award-winning stage performer and the total scene-stealer from Trick (’Ever get cum in your eye? It burns….’). The Vegan Producers and I were discussing some stunt casting, and the idea of having one of the three supporting women’s roles be someone in drag came up. We immediately thought about Girls Will Be Girls, and how Coco would be a natural as the diner waitress. So we contacted her via her website, sent the script to her agent, and she said ‘Yes’! Amazingly, her incredibly busy schedule is allowing her to be part of the reading and the film, and we’re thrilled to have her.
	Alexandra Billings as ‘Mavis’ Alexandra was in Socket, the Romy and Michele prequel, as well as a handful of episodic TV shows like ER and Grey’s Anatomy, and approximately a billion stage productions in L.A. and Chicago. Lynn Redgrave even played her mom once! We’ve known each other for over a decade, done long, long running shows together (Cannibal Cheerleaders on Crack and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom) and she’s one of the most talented people I know. When we were casting Wildcat Road we thought about her for all three of the supporting female roles, but the image of her running around a ranch, wearing an eye patch and serving dead horse for dinner was too perfect.
	Tim Hearl as ‘Sam’ Tim was in Socket as the mugger who is accidentally killed, thus propelling the madness further. He was very close to being cast as one of the leads, but when we had to make that heartbreak decision, we asked him if he’d like to play a smaller role because we thought he would be good, and we liked him as a person. He also got pretty close to a featured role in Pornography: A Thriller, but again we ended up not casting him. So I was thrilled when he came in and gave such a great read for Wildcat Road so we can once again work together.
	Jonathon Walsman as ‘Tug’ We almost cast someone else in this role. When we called everyone in for callbacks, Jonathon told us he could make it, but ended up getting stuck onset somewhere and missing them. We were bummed because even in the first audition we thought he’d be perfect. After we held the callbacks and cast a different actor (who we hadn’t notified yet), I thought I’d give Jonathon one more try. He was available to meet with us at The Vegan Producers’ house later in the week, so we set it up and had him read. He was great, and we had our ‘Tug’.
	Nick Salamone as ‘Morton’ Nick was in the first feature I produced, Nine Lives. He’s SAG so I couldn’t use him in either Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror or Socket (both were non-union), but was lucky enough to get him in front of to audition for Pornography: A Thriller. He was great in Nine Lives as a sleazy TV producer, Pornography: A Thriller as a sleazy porn producer, and now he’ll be great in Wildcat Road as a sleazy snuff film producer. One more movie and he’ll be playing a sleazy infomercial producer.
	Sarah Lilly as ‘Alice’ Sarah came into our auditions and read for both ‘Alice’ and ‘Dot’, and was pretty much the only actress that understood the style and tone of the script. She nailed both roles, and we originally cast her as ‘Dot’. But as we searched for an ‘Alice’, we realized that we could probably find another ‘Dot’, but ‘Alice’ was going to be tougher. With a perfect ‘Alice’ already in our cast, we realized we really needed to have Sarah play that part - it’s a bigger role, which means we’ll get to use her great comic timing even more. And who doesn’t want to play a part that includes shooting someone in the eye with a crossbow? Extra bonus - Sarah appeared in Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds for my friend Phillip Bartel, and The Mangler Reborn.
	David Pevsner as ‘Cole’ Pevsner is one of the many writers of songs for Naked Boys Singing as well as one of the cast members of the NYC production of Party. I remember hearing his name tossed around when we were casting Socket, but didn’t actually come face to face with him until we were casting Pornography: A Thriller. He appears as a dismissive photography professor in that film, and now as a crazy, bisexual rapist in Wildcat Road. His only worry? He has a deviated septum, so when we do the plaster head cast of his head for the decapitation scene, he has to be able to breath out of his mouth.
	Judi Evans as ‘The Rest…’ Judi an Emmy Award-winning actress from Days of Our Lives who just happens to be a friend of The Vegan Producers. When they told her about the project, and mentioned that we would need a ‘utility woman’ to read a bunch of parts in the script for the reading, she immediately volunteered. She’s very sweet, and I can’t believe our luck in getting someone as busy and established as she is to be part of this project!
	Alisha Seaton as ‘More of The Rest…’ Alisha ended up in one of my favorite parts in Socket - the comic book nerd member of ‘The Group’. She’s done a ton of independent films, and I’ve been waiting to work with her again ever since the Socket days. She’s going to be our other ‘utility woman’ for the reading.

Right after we wrapped Socket, The Vegan Producers from Velvet Candy Entertainment came to me with an idea. “What would you think about doing a gay Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!?” I immediately said “Of course!” They sent over a story outline, and I started writing the script.

Less than two weeks later I had a good first draft, which made The Vegan Producers very happy. We immediately started discussing how we could get this made.

Months went by, and we sent the script to a bunch of production companies that specialize in gay flicks. One of them, Unnamed Gay Production Company, was very interested in giving us the money for the film. Hooray, right?

Sadly, after several meetings with the Owner of Unnamed Gay Production Company, we had to walk away. UGPC had never been soley a financier before - they always developed and produced their own content, answering only to themselves and their loyal customers. After making a Well Known Gay Film almost a decade ago, the company had turned almost exclusively to gay softcore, and Playgirl videos. Because this was their business model - impossibly hot guys doing full frontal in videos with little to no plot - doing a plot-heavy gay road flick made them jittery, even though they loved the script.

OoUGPC and his very silent partner couldn’t get past how Wildcat Road would be cast. “You’ll never find guys as hot as the guys we insist on that will be willing to do the full frontal and the gay sex scenes. You think it’s easy, but just ask David DeCouteau. He has guys quit on him all the time, right before they shoot…” He kept going on and on about how we’d never find our cast. “Yes, the Socket guys were hot, but not UGPC hot. They have to be models…” We tried to tell him that we didn’t necessarily think we needed full-on models, that we could cast handsome men and that would be good enough. Nope, it had to be models.

He also got completely caught up in artistic control. Even though The Vegan Producers had come up with the idea, and developed the script with me, OoUGPC couldn’t understand why they would want to be in control artistically (with me). Again, he developed and produced all his own stuff, so now giving up that control was too much for him. We had many, many conversations where I talked him off the ledge of “Well, what happens if we’re onset and the three of you gang up and I can’t get what I need on film?”

As a side note: Right before we began talks with them, they’d released Slasher Flick About Hot Rapists Getting Murdered, which had a bit more plot than their other softcore stuff, but was still firmly in their production model - impossibly hot guys doing full frontal, but this time being revenge-killed. Supposedly this was a “gay” film because it featured hot guys doing full frontal, even though the guys were rapists and straight. The more I think about this being sold to the gay audience, the more disgusted I get.

Anyway, after several conversations between The Vegan Producers, OoUGPC and myself that involved strange lapses in OoUGPC’s memory, we broke off talks.

Which brings us to now. We feel like we need to put the Wildcat Road script on its feet, so we’re going to do a staged reading for investors. May 5th, save the date!

We’re in the thick of casting - next post, pictures of porn stars and drag queens that will be appearing in our film!