Hollywood What If Chapter 570
"Hm, this one seems about right."
The casting director muttered after taking the DVD disc out of the DVD player.
Everest nodded after watching the actor's performance. He wrote some key points on the actor's resume.
Today, Everest, the casting director, and other important people on the production crew of Modern Family were watching audition tapes from the actors and actresses who were interested in becoming part of the cast of Modern Family.
They had already reviewed over fifty audition tapes, each actor or actress bringing their own uniqueness for the crew to appreciate. Some actors had potential, while others didn't quite fit the roles they were looking for.
To be fair, almost everyone who auditioned had no clear idea about what the show really was. They just heard that it was written by Kazir and that it was a comedy. A few lucky actors from CAA heard the criteria for the cast, but even then, the best they could do was send audition tapes.
Almost all of the audition tapes featured actors and actresses doing comedy skits. None had successfully acquired a portion of the script this time. Grey Pictures was strengthening its security.
Everest leaned forward as the next tape began to play. A young actor walked into the frame. He delivered lines with a natural charm and nice comedic timing. The room grew quiet, everyone watching intently. After watching so many comedy skits today, their sense of humor had become numb.
Even the casting director raised an eyebrow in interest.
"Meh, not bad I guess. We can invite him to personally audition and read the script for us," he said.
Everest scribbled "passable" on the actor's resume. The search was long, but moments like this made it worth it.
They were currently looking for an actor who could take the role of Phil Dunphy.
"Yeah, we can send copies of tapes of the promising actors to Kazir so he can see who they are. I also heard that he invited some actors to audition personally next week."
Yeah, after some meetings here and there, Modern Family got approval, and even the budget was estimated. For Season 1, each episode would cost around $1.5 million. It was cheaper than each episode of Game of Thrones Season 3, which was around $6 million.
Overall, Modern Family was promising.
"Alright, roll on the next tape. This time, let's look at the actresses who auditioned for female roles."
The list of characters was still undisclosed, yet hundreds of actresses had already sent their resumes and audition tapes to attract attention… In fact, one aspiring actress even sent a "casting couch" type of audition tape. Yes, she literally sent a porno. Perhaps she hoped she could get a role by seducing the male crew members. People heard that a new young director would direct the show.
And this time, the same type of "tape" was shown.
The room fell into an awkward silence as the casting director embarrassingly stopped the video from playing.
Everest sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was visibly annoyed.
"Throw it out," he said flatly. He crossed out the name and the resume of the actress using a red pen. Meaning, the actress failed to pass the audition. Thankfully, this was just a preliminary audition.
"We're here to find actresses, not scandals. If we hired them because of sex, we might get into lawsuits and even be blacklisted," Everest added.
He knew that Hollywood was never good, and he also knew that many people in the industry used sex as a way of trading benefits.
Unfortunately, Kazir, the boss, was against this kind of business deal… Yes, unfortunately. Many people in Grey Pictures actually enjoyed this kind of benefit, but they were hiding it from Kazir since the director was never a fan of the "casting couch."
Everest was still a newbie director with credentials to prove. He didn't want to destroy his career right at the start. As for his opinion regarding the casting couch... Well, he kinda enjoyed the treatment. After all, Everest was Kazir's ex–assistant director, so his position was quite high.
"Alright, alright. Fuck these bitches. They think they can seduce us by sending porn. We are not hiring pornstars. Ptui--!" The casting director spat disgustedly.
The casting director chuckled nervously and quickly shuffled to the next tape, eager to move on.
As the screen lit up with a new audition, a middle-aged actress appeared. The crew was surprised as they realized that the middle-aged actress was playing the role of a mother in her audition tape.
The room fell into silence, this time more seriously.
"She has potential," Everest said, tapping his pen. The search for Claire Dunphy just got interesting.
Everest was Kazir's assistant director after Palenque Simone became the director of Game of Thrones.
Everest got the position after being introduced to Kazir. Everest's agent was a close friend of Salvatore Barlowe, which made the transition easier. Salvatore was now one of the co-chairmen of CAA, and Everest's agent was Salvatore's lackey. Yeah, this was kind of a reward for Everest's agent. Because of that, Everest easily got the position.
After years of working with Kazir, Everest learned a lot of things. He became an apprentice in a way. And now, he had successfully earned the position to direct Modern Family.
Kazir had three assistant directors that worked under him. All of them became directors… Now that I'm going to direct Modern Family, I wonder who will take over my position as Kazir's assistant director. I bet so many people will die just to get that position, Everest thought.
Becoming Kazir's assistant director was a sure way to become a director. That was probably the fastest method to become a director in Hollywood.
After all, even though there were thousands of directors in Hollywood, only a few had the chance to direct high-budget projects such as movies and TV shows.