I’ve heard various director/screenwriters say that they wrote a particular character specifically for a particular actor. I was thinking Bill Murray in Lost in Translation and IMDB bears me out.
John Waters lobbied Don Cornelius pretty aggressively to be the narrator for Pink Flamingos. Cornelius refused and Waters wound up doing it himself. I don’t think Waters, at this point in his career, was typical of mainstream filmmaking.
That’s what I understand, too. I actually think it’s a bit of an insult if they don’t ask you to audition. It means they’ve seen enough of you and think you are predictable enough that they know how you would act in that role. If I were one of those “acting is my job” people, I’d want to audition anyway.
Interesting, yes, but how could it have worked out for Hurley? Sawyer is a con man, travels around, knows how to disappear in a hurry, makes suckers out of people, romances women to get their money. I can’t see Hurley doing all that without being caught and jailed tout suite. “Yes, detective, a con man cheated me out of my life savings! Description? Oh, long fuzzy hair, about 5’8”, between 300 and 400 lbs. Dresses in a tent size red t-shirt and shorts, you can’t miss him." Whereas Sawyer can do his conning without standing out like an elephant in the back yard, and is good looking enough to bamboozle dozens of swooning dumb women with little effort.
There’s auditions, and there’s screen tests. I would imagine most actors, even the biggest names, still screen test, but not all actors audition.
Screen testing is putting actors with the other cast members on camera to see if there’s the right chemistry, amongst other things.
The character would have had to be changed, I think - but I could see Sawyer/Garcia’s basic likeability being used to good effect. And there’s no reason Garcia couldn’t cultivate a bit more charisma - the man is a good actor. Put him in a tent-size suit instead of the shirt, have him tweak the cons to suit his strengths, and I think you could make it work. Probably not the romance angle, though - that would have to go.
You don’t have to be an A-list actor not to have to audition. My sister-in-law does commercials, training videos and the occasional corporate photo shoot. She’s well-known enough in her niche that she’s been called out of the blue because some corporate PR or training person saw her on a calendar.
Found the article, here’s some more information:
Specifically, it was Paramount’s president, Stanley Jaffe, who didn’t want Brando to play Don Vito. First, he thought that Brando was too young, at age 47. Second, Brando had earlier cost Paramount a lot of money when they’d backed Brando’s directorial debut, a loser called One-Eyed Jacks, in 1961. Brando caused the movie to run way over budget. So, when Coppola lobbied for Brando, Jaffe finally caved, with three conditions: that Brando would accept a much lower salary than usual, that he would pay out of his own pocket for any production delays, and that he would submit to an audition. And the rest happened as I posted earlier.
Did Brando get a cut of the profit from the Godfather since he took a low salary? (yes I know that profit in Hollywood can be very hard to define)
I recall years ago reading an interview with an actress who complained that some stars are notorious for wanting to do auditions with prospective leading ladies to check their “compatibility” in the intimate scenes.
I would say yes and no. I recall an interview with Olivia Newton-John saying Alan Carr offered her the part of Sandy in “Grease,” without any audition. But she says she asked for one to make sure she could handle it. And Newton-John only had one prior movie to that, the ill fated Toomorrow
Bolding mine
[SIZE=2]This is the gold standard. It is not a matter of being well known or well paid in the public eye. It is a matter of being known enough to producers/directors/studio execs/casting people that they know which parts would be right for you without having to see an audition.[/SIZE]
Same thing happened with Yunjin Kim, who originally auditioned to play Kate. (Which then led them to add Daniel Dae Kim as Jin.)
–Cliffy
I thing Jorge Garcia auditioned for the part of Charlie not Sawyer.
Yes. I’ve read that he was offered $50,000 plus 5% of the profits, which he later sold back to the studio for $300,000.
Here you can find an interesting piece by John Rogers regarding Hollywood auditions. He wrote it after the initial auditions for Leverage, a series he created & helped write.
When The Golden Girls was being cast, Rue McClanehan was asked to audition for Rose based on her role as Vivien, Maude’s dim witted friend. Betty White was asked to audition for Blanche, based on her role as Sue Ann Nivens.
When Rue saw the script, she knew she’d be perfect as Blanche. The casting people finally told her to leave because Betty White had asked to audition for Rose and was perfect, so Rue asked to audition for Blanche.
The casting people loved her, but told her Bea Arthur had turned down the role of Dorothy, Rue called her and asked wht.
Bea: Because I don’t want to do Maude and Vivien meet Sue Ann.
Rue: No. I’m playing Blanche and Betty is plaing Rose.
There was a very long pause, then Bea said "That might be interesting.
And TV magic was born.