Atlantic City Weekly

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Do you have stars in your eyes and Hollywood in your fantasies? Do you yearn for recognition, glamour, fame and fortune? At least 500 people in this area do, since, in spite of cold weather and icy roads, they turned out en mass for a movie audition on Saturday at the Clarion Hotel in West Atlantic City. Duane Hopwood, starring David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo and Judah Friedlander, will be shot in Atlantic City from Feb. 9 to March 5.

This writer cast his iron into the fire by attending the auditions with headshot and resume grasped tightly in hand. As a part-time actor, I've worked as a background artist or "extra" in a number of films, infomercials and TV programs (including Fallen, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Snake Eyes and Sex and the City), many of them shot locally. I've had a couple of speaking roles in commercials and in an industrial (an in-house training film). Usually, extras have to look the part they're playing and are often hired for that look. Although I don't gamble, I must look like a player, since I've often been chosen to portray casino patrons.

I relished attending this casting call, since I knew that it was for principle as well as background roles. Casting Director Cindy Toland of Duane Hopwood Productions says she is seeking actors for 11 speaking roles and probably "hundreds of extras." On Saturday, she sought actors (especially those with casino experience) of all ages and groups for the abovementioned principle filming period.

Once, at a Sopranos casting call I attended in North Jersey, the 13,000 actors who showed up were told to put their headshots and resumes in a box and go home. Unlike that mob scene, almost everyone at the Hopwood casting call was asked to do a script reading. This, unfortunately, made the process long and slow.

"I asked myself, 'Why am I sitting here for three hours?'" said Screen Actors Guild member and jazz singer Kitt Moran of Galloway. "They [the casting crew] were very nice, but not organized well." Moran believes that SAG members are supposed to audition before non-union actors do, which wasn't the case on Saturday. After more than three-and-one-half hours of waiting in the hot, humanity-packed room, Moran left hungry and tired. Her advice for future casting call participants? "Be prepared. Bring a picnic."

"Being at a casting call is always exciting," commented flutist and actress Geri Rizzo of Margate, who, after waiting almost four hours, was given a background part. The room was stifling and "It was very poorly run," she said. "People were feeling faint."

However, actor Ed Monterosso of Brigantine, who has appeared on As the World Turns as a craps dealer, disagrees. "It was run very nicely for the amount of people that attended. They were well-organized and they handled it very well. You have to have patience for these things," he stressed.

Actress Charlene Del Fico of Gloucester City waited patiently for seven hours to audition for a role as a teacher. "It's a shame. They were actually very, very nice people and very pleasant and they had a long day, too," she says. "But, I do feel like it could have been more organized. It's a SAG film and there are SAG rules that they did not follow." However, according to a New York SAG business agent, there is nothing contractual stating that SAG members have to be taken first.

This non-union actor also waited three hours before being handed a script and waited another half hour in a slow moving line, which gave me time to practice. I was overjoyed that I was no longer chosen to portray a casino gambler or hotel guest. This time I was "Aldo," a character who gets slapped around a lot. Entering the audition room, I met Toland and an assistant who videotaped my performance. The assistant read lines to me and I responded to him, acting as if I were a beaten man.

Reading a few lines from a script doesn't give you much information about the film. However, after asking some questions I learned that the character "Duane Hopwood" previously appeared onscreen. In Walking to the Waterline, Hopwood (portrayed by Alan Ruck) is an unemployed TV actor who returns home to the Jersey Shore after his father's death. Hopwood has an affair with a woman working at a local tourist attraction. That 1999 film also features Mathew Broderick, Hal Holbrook, Elizabeth Franz and writer-director Matt Mulhern. Now Mulhern will direct Schwimmer as Hopwood, an alcoholic who works as a casino pit boss and is trying to improve his life.

According to Toland, the release date of Duane Hopwood is yet undetermined.

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