Plucked from obscurity! An overnight success! But… not really!
Things we talked about in this episode include:
- Day jobs and being support staff in Hollywood (Here’s a pretty good idea of what a typical day as an assistant looks like.)
- Life after AMDA - actors in the wild. Classes, auditions, commercials!
- Being a casting assistant and a development/production intern
- Ronnie Yeskel, casting director (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs)
- Teri Weinberg, producer (The Office, The Tudors, Ugly Betty)
- Doing background acting for film, tv and commercials
- Reading scripts and writing coverage
- The Social Network (2010) and screenwriting icon, Aaron Sorkin
- The Second City LA, The Groundlings, Mikey Day and SNL
- Bridesmaids (2011) and Kristen Wiig & Anne Mumolo
- Re-writes, punch-ups, improv - jokes!
- Superbad! (2007) and Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg
- Working in film and TV in secondary markets (Atlanta, Canada, etc.)
- Independent filmmaking and being adaptable
- Optioning a book and adapting a screenplay
- The perks of being in LA
- Off-Broadway plays and self-producing theater in NYC
- Manhattan Movement and Arts Center
- Global ad agency, Leo Burnett and NY cultural institution, the Village Voice newspaper
- Hurricane Sandy in 2012
- Being an assistant aka “on a desk”
- Finding inspiration from your day job (Brit’s experience in development and pitching. Caitlin’s in talent management.)
- Bad bosses in Hollywood and toxic work environments (Read more on it here.)
- Be nice to other assistants! They will probably be in Hollywood for a long time!
- The death of Quibi
- Netflix, HBO and Writer/Creators owning their work (Taylor Swift and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You.)
- The myth of being an overnight success
- Doing your dream job in the free time when you aren’t doing your day job
- Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as Princess Margaret on The Crown
- Ken Jennings, LeVar Burton and the future of Jeopardy! (RIP Alex Trebek)
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