Preparation for a Confrontation

There is a woman in Florida that child actor mothers call "the Devil." She is mean and self-serving, jealous and greeding, ugly and cruel. The sound of her voice can clear a room just as fast as the use of her name. Mothers think twice before handing their child to a production that features her son.

And we hired him.

Alas- I did not know of this woman until it was too late. Her son is a brilliant boy. He's gorgeous and confident and can cry at the drop of a dime. Him acting out a monologue written by the likes of Shakespeare carries rays of sunshine from the audition room into rain clouds, and the sun emerges miraculously. A boy like him is one in a trillion... how could we not hire him?

ugh.

Peter, Andy, Erick and I have gotten reputations around the talent agencies in Miami. Our work is good quality stuff and we are always good to the people we hire. Half of the people we've casted have worked with us before-the other half were eager to meet us because of what they have heard. So when the mother of one of the supporting characters asked us who we hired for the lead we told her, because we are honest, trustworthy filmmakers.

Her reaction was less than trustworthy... and very much too honest.

She became very upset. "That boy is an angel, but his mother is a witch!" was all she would say. Mind you- we've each worked with this woman and her son many times- they're like family. The woman is the sweetest person in the world. I have NEVER heard her say anything that could even be considered PG13, much less curse. I mean- her and her son decided to sacrifice going to LA for pilot season this year just to be in our film, and he has a high chance of getting a couple projects.

We decided to heed her warning, but still keep the boy. She was not going to pull her son out anyway, she said she would work with the woman to work with us again. We thought- maybe it's not so bad.

Then we started to get OTHER reactions.

One mother went into hysterics. For the first call back she dropped her son off at Andy & Pete's apartment so that she would not have to go to location and bump into that woman. Another mother started to cry, saying that she wants her daughter to work with us but she can't bring herself to face that woman again. An ACTOR- a 12 yr. old BOY even- opposed the decision saying that the woman had slapped him once for no apparent reason.

So we held a meeting between the 4 of us and deliberated. She would be a distraction on set- but her son is a living miracle. She would be hard to handle- but the whole movie rides on the strength of the main boy's acting ability. Other mothers might start pulling out their children from the project- but ONE child is worth all of the others.

*sigh*

We decided to keep the boy. I am the producer, so it is ultimately my responsibility to handle the talent and the talent's representatives. Pete, Andy, and Erick will not have to deal with her. They are the ones who will have the creative parts of the movie on their shoulders. As long as I can keep this woman away from them and everyone else on the set it should be fine. I'm not too fond of this idea, but surprisingly the other three say I should be able to handle it.

"Remember when you battled President Flemming and won a bigger budget for the student films, and then went to CineVideoTech and got $900 worth of equipment for free?" They ask, "Or when Professor Goodly threatened to shut down the production of Jazzman after finding out that one of our actors was SAG, but you went head to head with him and convinced him to change his mind?"

Why... yes, actually- I do. And you know what? Who CARES if this woman is mean? Who CARES if she scares the mothers, or the actors? Not ME. This is MY production. I'M in charge. No god-hating, power-loving, hard-hearted BITCH is going to get in MY WAY. I RUN THIS SET. NO ONE CAN STEP OVER ME. So you know what?

She can go ahead and bring it on. I'm ready for her.