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The Troma Acting Method
Greetings from Tromaville! In my book Make Your Own Damn Movie, I spoke at great length about the trials and tribulations of working with actors. For those of you who are unable to purchase a copy due to the overwhelming demand for the book[1], I'll repeat one of the most important lessons contained therein: Most Actors Suck However! A very, very, very small percentage of them
are among the greatest people in the world. There are even a handful of
big-time movie stars (like Oscar winning Jon Voight) who are genuinely good,
decent people. If you cast your film well, you will weed out the actors that
suck and use the 1 percent that give you everything they've got and more
besides. I've been lucky enough to Troma's basic theory of casting is to make the audition
process as difficult as humanly possible without getting punched in the face.
You may think this is a joke.[2]
But I swear to whatever god you're comfortable with that, not only does it
work, it's necessary. Troma movies require actors who are completely fearless, totally
committed and willing to do absolutely Getting people to audition for your film is relatively simple. Ask anybody on the street if they'd like to be a big, famous movie star and every single one of them will respond with a resounding and emphatic, "Yeah, I guess, why not." Filmmaking, particularly outside of Los Angeles and New York, is very glamorous to most people. You may know the process is rife with neurosis, stress, fatigue, filth, and gastrointestinal distress, but the rest of the world doesn't. To paraphrase a movie whose title I can't remember,[4] "If you make it, they will come." The first st During your auditions, don't just lock the camera down and forget about it. Hopefully your movie will consist of more than just medium shots from fifteen feet away, so your audition tapes should, too. Use the camera to get in there and really look at these people. If there's anything particularly unusual or distinctive about their look, focus on that. Explore the bodies of good-looking guys and gynos. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, you need to get the bodies in the room. If you live anywhere near a metropolis, you can place
advertisements in an industry trade magazine like Backstage or Variety.
For the 99 percent of the planet that doesn't live in or near a very large
city, any classifieds section of a local newspaper will do. Most places have
classifi But don't worry, I have had the most success at casting by using one of the cheapest methods available: posting flyers. For the last thirty years, for every movie I've done from Battle of Love's Return to Citizen Toxie, the cheapie flyer has been my primary means of obtaining a cast. A simple piece of paper with the words "YOU CAN BE A MOVIE STAR" posted throughout the local college campus, video store or old folks home will result in a line of nubile undergrads, zit-faced teenage loners, and geriatric hotties outside your door. Don't be afraid to get creative with the flyers, either. In 1967 on The Girl Who Returned, I wanted a wide range of people to choose from but I knew that since this was my first film, people weren't necessarily going to come out in droves just to be in my movie. So I made up flyers that read, STANLEY KAUFMAN IS CASTING FOR A NEW MOVIE. Stanley is my first name (I was named after my father) and, coincidently, Stanley Kauffman is a highly regarded film critic from The New Republic. Not a lie, not a hoax, simply a mild exploitation of a fortuitous association and most people's inability to spell. It worked, too. I got a pant-load of shitty actors of all ages and sizes willing to work for free in my half-assed, 16mm, Bolex[6]-shot film.
Of course, your quest for realism isn't going to amount to
squat unless you communicate what you're trying to accomplish with your crew.
For a scene in The
Toxic Avenger that required a guy to have his arm torn off, I had a
brilliant idea of casting a bona fide amputee. After a long and arduous search,
I found Larry Sutton. He wasn't a professional actor. He was an IRS agent who
wanted to act and was willing to have his handicap immortalized on celluloid.
However, the overeager special makeup effects crew decided to create a fake
arm-stump anyway. Without my knowledge, they tied his You, as the independent filmmaker, have the advantage of spending as much time as possible finding the perfect cast. You don't have the time constraints that a "real" production company has. This can be used to your advantage in the casting process. Take your time. Find the right people for the job. Sometimes the right people, like Larry, aren't professional actors. Joe Fleishaker is a 500-pound computer programmer, yet has turned brilliant performances in everything from Troma's War to Poultrygeist. Trent Haaga was also some kind of computer hotshot[8] when he wandered into the Troma offices and Will Keenan suggested we audition him for the role of Jeremy in Terror Firmer. Of course, there are probably outstanding amateur actors who are not computer geeks. But a lot of these techno-types have made a lot of money in the real world and are more willing to take a pay cut (down to about zero dollars an hour) in order to live their dreams of being a movie star.
[1] Sales tracking provided by the Florida electorate. [2] For that matter, you may think my whole career is a joke. I guess I can't argue that, but I'm dead serious about Troma's history of casting. [3] We do not, however, insist that our actors provide their own piss and shit. A trained crew of defecators is always standing by, ready to assist. [4] It may have been something called Field of Creams starring Troma regular Ron Jeremy. [5] By "one of those," I'm referring to the video camera. I've been carrying Wrap-Around Sallies with me for decades now. [6] This means it was shot on a Bolex camera, a type of 16mm camera that was quite high-tech back when it was introduced in the 1930's. When I got around to using one, it was already the kind of camera you found lying around in your grandparents' attic, covered in dust and rat piss. This is not to be confused with a Botox-shot film, which would mean that it stars Michael Douglas. [7] Because the very first thing to be changed would be the character's ethnicity. [8] Designing web sites or something like that... I'm not really sure. I try not to pry into personal details that I probably won't understand.
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