This week has been the busiest week I’ve had in months. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, at all. I like to be extremely busy. Matter of fact, I go absolutely nuts when I don’t have anything to do…so nuts that I make work for myself…like WWDN, for example. š
I had 2 really big auditions this week, and I major deadline at work. I talked with my boss, and she said that I still can’t talk about G4 at all…but I can say that I’m doing some really cool work there, that I’m already very proud of, and I can’t wait until you all can see it.
Many people have this complete misconception about actors. They think that actors just have their agents call someone up, and then that actor is magically placed into a role, or into a movie. The way things really do happen is quite different. It sort of breaks down like this: After a role is created, the writer, and producer usually sit down, and talk about “types”, like “we want a Paul Rubens type” or “we need a brooding, mysterious, handsome man for this role”. They then think of all their friends and relations who don’t come close to any of these “types”, and try to make that square peg fit a round hole. Then they hire a casting director, and the casting director goes through his or her list of actors who he or she likes to work with, and the casting director brings those people in for auditions.
Sometimes, managers and agents hear about roles, and they submit their clients to the casting director, but, more often then not, the casting director doesn’t want to hear from an agent or manager, because the casting director would like to work with the people they already know.
This trend can benefit actors, because there are lots of casting directors who have good relationships with agents, and they’ll call those agents up, asking for a type to fill a role, and the agent can then tell the CD that he has a client who fits the type, etcetera, etcetera. This works out great for relatively unknown actors, but if you’re sort of known, like I am, it can hurt me.
There’s also this thing about not being wrong. The entire entertainment industry is extremely insecure, because everyone knows that they’re playing to a very fickle public, who can be in love with someone one week, and hate them the next (see “Mariah Carey”). So casting people get it in their minds that they “know” a person, and they don’t like to be wrong about that. They’re not adverse to “discovering” someone, but they are (sadly, understandably) reluctant to take a chance on someone, because, more often than not, the casting person gets burned.
So this process goes on for a few weeks, and, ultimately, it’s weeded down to me and one other guy, and they hire Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin.
Kidding.
Here’s why I tell you all of this: I recently added management to my team. I was really reluctant to do this, because I’ve had managers before, and they’ve never really managed to make any major difference in my career, as far as getting auditions or work goes. Basically, I haven’t been able to find a manager who works as hard as I do for me, and who cares about my career as much as I do.
Until now, that is.
One brief thing about managers, that you have to know, so this makes sense: Managers really should be an extra set of hands for an actor. They should be able to make calls when the agent isn’t able to get to somone, or is being told “no” by a casting person.
I think I’m a pretty good actor, and I know that I’m very dedicated to my craft. But that’s really not enough these days. For example, it really helps to be related to Jimmy Kimmel, or have a nice rack. As I’ve said before, many months ago, there has been this misconception within Hollywood that I was still 14, or still on Star Trek, or whatever. Casting people knew me as a strong dramatic actor, but not as a comedic one. They knew me as a child, but not as an adult. Basically, they knew me as Wesley or Gordie, and that was it.
This is where a good manager comes in.
My agents, who are simply amazing, awesome, hard-working bad asses, have struggled mightily the last year or so to convince casting people that I wasn’t that kid anymore, and to just give me a chance to change their mind, and the casting people were always saying “no”. Until two weeks ago, that was the end of it…but this time, things were really different, thanks to my new additions to my team.
My agent submitted me for a role in a very big MOW, that will end up being what they call “an event”. That’s just slightly bigger than “a very special” episode, I’m told. The casting director calls back, gives my agent a few reasons why she won’t see me, and that’s that. But this time, my agent calls my manger, explains the situation, and my manager gets on the phone to the casting director, does his thing, and I have an audition three days later, because the casting director decided to trust my manager and take a chance on me.
I have a final producers and network call back on Thursday for this role. I think there’s 3, maybe 4 of us left, out of the entire entertainment industry, within our type, going on this call back. How cool is that?! I went from “no way” to producers and network call back. I’ve been doing the happy dance all week.
Then, this morning, I got a call from one of my managers (there’s 3 of them, and they all work together. I’m sure this is terribly interesting to everyone. But it’s my damn website, so get off my back.). She had called a very important casting director at a major studio, and talked him into seeing me. He had told my agent that I was a great dramatic actor, but that he didn’t know about me for comedy. So my manager talks to him, gets him to give me a chance to change his mind, and he relents. I go into the audition, and I did a really good job with the material. As a bonus, I really liked the guy, and he really liked me (we know some of the same comedy people, it turns out). My manger was calling me after she’d gotten off the phone with him, where he raved about me, about how funny and nice I was, and told her that he was bringing me back to producers for his show.
I think it’s just awesome that these casting directors gave me the chance to show them what I can do, and I’m so thrilled that I brought my “A” game, and didn’t let them down.
I’m really excited about all of this…I think my years of suffering as the constant runner-up are going to come to an end, and pay off, finally.
Besides, Kimmel can only have so many cousins, right? š
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I think your website must be helping your career… not just getting you into the right mindset, creatively… but also publicity!
I personally think this site rocks and therefore would totally watch something that I wouldn’t normally watch just to see if you’re funny or whatever.
The last time I came here was a few months ago and it looks like things are going good… Good luck. Or… uh… maybe I’m not suposed to say that so… “Break a leg” or whatever
AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! *pout* I thought I was going to be the first comment and then I get here & Mandy has posted! grrrrr…. š
OK… anyway, I’m glad to read that you’ve got all these auditions, Wil! I hope everything works out for the best… good luck, Mr. Wheaton. š
Who’s Gordie?
“Who’s Gordie?”
Gordie LaChance… Wil’s character in Stand By Me! š
Oh.. and we’re not supposed to say good luck, are we? Umm… how about best of luck? Is that OK?
Wow, I went to post my meaningless comment on the last entry, and came back to boredly read it, and suddenly here’s a new entry. Cool! And it actually IS terribly interesting, I say non-sarcastically. I like reading all your blogs, but I especially enjoy the ones about your career and “the biz.” Between your site here and the stories I hear from my professional actor friend Zach, I’m learning enough about Hollywood to write a book or something. Thanks! I’m glad things are working out for you, and I hope you’ll remember WWDN and its inhabitants when some other guy is writing in his online journal about being second choice for roles YOU ended up with. Good night!
Hey, that’s cool that your working for G4. I’ve been reading about the upcoming network in PSM magazine (A mag. all about PS2), and it sounds awesome! I’ve been waiting for an all-videogame channel for a LONG time. Good luck there, dude. Of course, my crappy cable company prob. won’t carry it. Time to switch to satellite!
Lenny
sounds messed up what you have to go through to get a gig, wil. good luck dude.
Hi Wil — do you actually receive the comments that are posted here? Some entries have 50 or more, and…wow, that would certainly fill up your inbox in a hurry. (((grin)))
Anyway, what to say that differs from your other fans? I’ve been an admirer of your work since seeing STAND BY ME when I was a kid, and discovering this website has been a wonderful experience! I am now a daily visitor. Not many celebrities would go to such lengths to demonstrate not only an appreciation for their fans, but also underline the notion that you are a “regular guy.”
Take the best of care. Warm wishes to you and your family.
Hey,
Look, I get to post in the top ten! I think that’s cool. (ok, really it’s just convenient timing or whatever) Anyway, Wil, Congrats on your audition and I LOVE the site. This is my first time posting, so hopefully I’m not making an ass of myself. I don’t think I am, am I? š
Right, well hope things continue to go well and I offer a big hello to all of the rest of us WWDN monkeys.
Goodnite, all.
I just have one question.
What’s a MOW?
Is it like a lawnMOWer, or like MOW, Larry, and Curly, or like MOWtown, or like a CIA MOW, or like MOWing the carpet, or what?
I’m dying here, aren’t I?
I found this vaguely amusing:
“Casting people knew me as a strong dramatic actor, but not as a comedic one.”
Doesn’t it always seem like the funny guys in the industry are going insane because they can’t get anyone to take them seriously in dramatic roles? š
We gotta get you hooked up with someone that knows how to write full-spectrum characters, and stories; ever thought about gettin’ in good with Joss Whedon? His stuff rocks, he’s ambitious as all heck and he seems to know how to take of his actors. š
Jun, took me a moment, but I came up with ‘Movie of the Week’… could still be very wrong, but that’s my guess, and I’m stickin’ to it.
“took me a moment, but I came up with ‘Movie of the Week’… could still be very wrong, but that’s my guess, and I’m stickin’ to it.”
I was thinking the same thing.
*sidetrip* I don’t really watch movies of the week but with Wil in it, I’ll certainly be excited to see it!
Not to mention that almost every casting director has no understanding of “subtle comedy.”
Don’t get me started. Don’t EVEN get me started.
I’m confused. I thought the casting people from the project sent out the “type” they needed to the agents. Then the AGENTS looked through their roster of clients and sent out to the auditions who they thought would fit the part. Isn’t the whole point of an agent to secure auditions? You make it sound as if an agent is irrelevent to getting auditions.
Congrats Wil. In bocca al lupo(opera geek thing).
I miss Spudnuts.
I’m a yutz. I should double check prior entry comments before I go around saying I miss someone. Yay for Spudnuts š A void in my life has been filled! Now, if I can just develop a decent sexlife…
Note to Artemitis:
If you’re a chick, then you need not look further than Dr. Jun. The good doctor’s technique is refined by thousands of hours of examining a certain type of videos, and he fears going to nude beaches lest he be violently attacked by jealous stallions.
If you’re a guy, then I really don’t wanna hear about your sex life.
Oh yeah, that goes for all the chicks here, not only Artemitis.
Glad things look to be working out for you, Wil.
“She had called a very important casting director at a major studio, and talked him into seeing me.” HAhahaha ‘important’, ‘major’, how much like Hollywood wank does that sound!?(Not that I’ve ever seen the place, or have any basis for my opinion) I mean, I take what you said to be true, as I don’t take you for a liar… But you know, if it were somone else that said that line, me for example, I’d say “You’re so fulla shit, pacman, what really happened?” and i’d reply to me with something like “I spent 4 hours on the toilet contimplating my belly button, then I cried myself to sleep”.
I have no idea where I was going with this. So I wont.
Hi Wil! Never posted here before so, erm, here goes… Thought you were great in TNG and Stand By Me – I mean, Wesley pretty much knew more than Data! Hope you audition goes well – knock ’em dead. But not literally of course. That might end up with an expensive and unnecessary law suit. Maybe I’ll leave the comedy to you… All the best anyway!
I’d say break a leg, but have to be sure that Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t have any Italian cousins that would do that for you… *g*
Wil thats great that your manager has helped your career out! I hope everything works out for you with the MOW, I look forward to seeing you in it. I’m a daily visitor to your website, and think you’ve done a great job with it. Keep writing to us, your loyal net fans, lol (if your busy schedule permits you to, that is.) š
~Kristie
I’ve never posted here before, but I just wanted to say yay for you Wil! š
Cool for you Wil. Now I just have to figure out how to get you to drag your cabaret act to Watson, MN. I’ve been trying desperately to class-up the local arts and entertainment scene. So far I’ve gotten 4 coffeehouse shows produced, but that’s geting a bit cramped. What we need is star power!
I voted for WWDN over at Bloggies. Break a leg!
I’m still wondering why they named a game network after a turbo Mac. Maybe they’re just finally bowing to the superiority of my machine…heh.
Ok, this has nothing to do with anything, but it’s 8:15am in January, in Minnesota, for chrissake, and a kid just rollerbladed by my house in his shirtsleeves. I think I just heard one of the seven seals cracking open. God does not like it when Minnesotans golf in November, or skate off the ice in January. We will be punished…
Hey, congrats Wil! I’m glad to hear you’re doing the happy dance. You deserve it, man.
I’m happy too. I live in nowheresville, IN and, get this, it’s going to be over 50 degrees today! It’s still JANUARY!! 50 degrees is top-down weather…don’t you think?
“I’m sure this is terribly interesting to everyone. But it’s my damn website, so get off my back.”
Just to agree with Tammy….I reckon most of us who come here regularly find it most interesting.
Speaking for myself, I’m not in the entertainment industry, and have no aspirations to be, but I find the “behind the scenes” comments and stories absolutely fascinating.
Keep ’em coming š
Hmmm, Wil, it seems as your career picks up, so do the number of vistitors to your humble little web home. We seem to have a lot of “first-time” posters here lately. That has to be a good sign; a ready-made audience for what ever show/movie/play/performace you’re in.
Just tell your manager(s) to mention us next time, OK? Teach them the mantra: “Wil has a posse… Wil has a posse”
(Get your minds out of the gutter, you lot, I said posse…)
Oh, by the way, Happy Australia Day to my fellow Aussies, wherever you may be. I know it’s over for most of us, but the wonders of the internet mean we get to celebrate it for as long as it’s the 26th anywhere in the world *grin*
Actually, what this all shows is the original show biz adage (which most of us feel happens in the working world outside of Hollyweird as well Wil!): “It ain’t who ya know, it’s who ya bl*w!”
Obviously, if a casting person is only going to look at “one group” of actors that “they” like then that is all we are ever going to see on teevee/movies…. it is great that you’ve chosen a proactive caring and professional manager to assist you with your career as it looks th ese days as if you need as many people rowing the boat as possible in Hollyweird.
But in another sense this also explains why when you watch some shows-movies-whatnot you see some of the SAME people over and over (whether they are truly “right” for the roles or not!)…. which again proves why it is so hard for so many talented actors to become “working actors” when the odds are so stacked against them by these cliques the casting people create.
You are a very talented guy working in a weird and strange business… but you’ve a done great job at keeping your head straight and keeping your priorities focussed… that in itself is a TRIUMPH in Hollyweird and you should acknowledge that for yourself and your family. you’ve sadly known those who were unable to stay away from the darker elements…and you’ve lived and learned from their experiences/.
I do hope ya break a leg… and that you are soon the new “flavah of de month” in Hollyweird… and all those casting folks who were ignoring you a whiles back will realize they should have been backing ya all along!
Carpe Diem Sir and Kick Some ASS at the auditions!
— Bev Martin
Imaginary scene in Casting Director’s Office (EXT SHOT OF GLASS DOOR with FIGURES seen moving through the glass)
Voice 1: You hired this guy’s no-talent bleepin’ COUSIN?!!?!?!?!? We could have had WIL WHEATON and you didn’t EVEN talk to him — now WHEATON is with the BIGGEST project since sliced bread…. our jobs are toast!
Voice 2: Well…uh…at least we’ll be known as the people who didn’t hire him…
Voice 1: Some consolation — pack your desk — you’re never working in this town again!
What you gotta do is get that Manning fellow to write some great ga-ga reviews of your comedy routines…
Or maybe you could wear a beret and Bill Clinton can give you a hug and a peck on the cheek when an LATimes photographer is around…
Or get some of your friends to make an indie flick with you as the time-travelling alien that replaces that Sheen guy on “The West Wing” and …
I think you got it all together on your own, you know?
Break a leg, Wil!!
So who is Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin and what part did he get?
Hey Wil,
Surprisingly, it is terribly interesting, I guess we get to live our movie star fantasies vicariously through you. And, sadly, it seems decisions in Hollywood are not made based on talent or ability but the same way they are made in many industries, it’s who you know.
It’s good to hear you have a good team working for you (and might I add that you are very adept at self promotion, that’s meant as a compliment, lol). It’s amazing how persistence pays off. Good for you!, it seems you’ve earned it. I do hope you won’t abandon your site, now that I have discovered it, I like visiting.
What is G4 is it an big american thing that we Brits don’t know it or should I as a Brit know it?
Good luck Wil for those auditions I’m sure you’ll do really well.
I’d have to agree with fenaray’s comments about living vicariously, as the closest I’ve ever come to movie stardom has been as “background” in an HBO flick, and I passed through a doorway at the same time as one of the main characters…oooo.
Break a leg, Wil!
G4: new cable channel relating to video games.
Chile and Lime chips kick flavor bootay.
Wil: I want to be able to resize the comments window, it’s way too small!
There seems to be a catharsis happening within the entertainment industry or maybe a re-awakening from which you and some of your peers are benefitting. It is the realization that comedies should actually be funny and that we the end users, as it were, want to ROTFLOAO rather than being mildly titilated (if at all) by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Pauly Shore,and Howard Stern et al. We, the paying public, demand more than a slap on the left tit with a dead fish, a pie in the face, or women jumping on trampolines for our entertainment dollar.
I return to this site because of the intelligence and creativity that wells up in your ‘funny’ and your other writings. Your unwillingness to ‘dumb down to find an audience’ is a breath of fresh air and I think that the powers that be are finally noticing. Quality always shines through.
Well done, Wil
John McGregor
Break a leg on the auditions. About half of my friends here in Indy are actors… and its not exactly the best midwest industry… š My good wishes go out to you.
Way to go, Wil! Mucho, mucho luck with everything. Heaven knows after all your hard work, you deserve it!
(Gawd, how I love the entertainment business! :p)
You know, what Fenaray said is very true–we are doing some vicarious la-la land thrills whenever Wil reports about new goings on at this site.
I think most of America has this idea of actors as either having it easy (never having to audition) or living in a trailer park when you haven’t heard from them for a while.
It’s like what I refer to as The Coastal System–The belief that there are only three states: New York, Los Angeles, and everything in between is The South.
For me, it’s cool, as a writer–this site gives me yet even more insight into what I may end up being up against.
I’m also sending my resume to G4 next month. I do it for the kicks.
Assuming Jimmy Kimmel isn’t from West Virginia. š
“Surprisingly, it is terribly interesting, I guess we get to live our movie star fantasies vicariously through you.”
It definitely IS cool. I always wanted people to live vicariously though me….I guess not that many people are interested in a shift manager at Stop & Shop. But if so, email me. lol.
First time to your site. I think it’s great, and the time you’re spending on it is greatly appreciated. Strange idea isn’t it, to take the time to show your fans you appreciate them? Good job, Wil!!! p.s. When looking to find any info on the status of the new ST:Nemisis, I found your link. Very glad to have found it, and again, good job! Mark
Yay Wil!
I love this site: I’ve gotten some of my friends addicted, which makes me quite proud. I hope you get the part!
(yes, it’s lame, but heartfelt.)
Ok, first of all… who is Jimmy Kimmel??
*ducks and runs from incoming various rotten vegetables, fruit, etc…. as well and dirty looks from those who know* For all I know, I should know who he is, but, alas, I don’t. *frown*
Wil, hope all goes you’re way with the auditions.
Keep the insider thingies coming (no, not stock market crap!! Don’t wanna go the way of Enron, here, people!)… insider thingies being how things *really* are in LA/Hollywood/waaaaaaaaay over there… yeah. I’m a college student. “Thingies, things”; real good grammar and shit, Jessica!! *hits self on face*
Good morning or afternoon depending on where you are. I’ve been lurking here for about three months and today I was moved to comment. It looks as though Hollywood, will finally start to give Wil the respect that he deserves. WWDN is doing it’s job, winning over the people, as many of you first remarked ” I never knew he was soooooo funny. “. I leave you with these words to live by, ” You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used againt you. ” š
Wil,
Your comments about the advantages of “having a good rack” are about right – after all, film and TV is one way guys can stare at women all they like without social consequence (come on guys, we all do it). So, the question to you is, what pressures do you feel as a male actor to stay fit? I imagine that low body fat or something like that is important for a lot of roles (person 1: “the camera adds ten lbs, you know” person 2: “how many cameras do you have on you?”).