industryLIFE: The Casting Director Who Never...

I'd heard about her through friends and was especially excited to meet her. When the day came for us to meet, I arrived and introductions were made.

She invited me into her home where she shared with me the glory and the pain of working in "the business". She shared the good times first and then she shared the bad. She was a woman who had worked on films such as “Which Way Is Up” and “Greased Lighting” with the legendary comedian Richard Pryor. It was during a time where people of color had just started to get into show business so she didn't complain when a Caucasian woman was brought in to be her supervisor. Sure she had found countless extras, been in the trenches from day one but again those were the times so she worked with out complaining, she was happy to be involved! As we sat in her dining room of her East Atlanta home, she told me of how she had been hired to cast the films via a relationship with other crew members who knew of her skills. She showed me pictures from the set with the cast and crew and even had pictures of her children as actors in the films. 

As she talked I could sense that even though time had passed she was still scarred from the experience. As she switched directions and began to tell me how it all fell apart, she realized she still could not place an absolute reason as to why she was never given any credit (on-screen or otherwise) for working on those films. Could it be that the powers that be decided she was not the right fit or maybe she did something to piss them off but whatever the reason, when the movie came out, she was NOT credited for any involvement in the projects what so ever!

To say she was upset was an understatement. Even after all those years you could still tell that the experience had left her jaded about the whole industry. Now when I say she wasn’t credited I don’t mean she wasn’t paid…she had been paid for her services but as any hard working professional in media, music or entertainment will tell you, the credits are the end all!!! Because even when the money is gone, your credits remain.

After that major disappointment, heated debates with the staff and major frustration, she realized there was nothing left to be done so she left the business and quietly raised her children. Now fast forward to her children as adults and wouldn’t you know it the “bug” had bitten her daughter. Although mom tried to make her aware of all the trapping in the business, she moved to New York and went into the television field. What happened to her mother was years ago so she worked hard to make sure the same thing did not happen to her. She did fair better than her mother as she was able to work on some highly rated TV shows but after a few years she began to see what her mother had warned her of and she too left the business because of other shady dealings.

Seems some things never change.