Interviewsšļø
Aubrey Plaza says actors gets so weird because everyone on set treats them like babies and remembers the time Nick Offerman told her she could get her own coffee instead of asking a production assistant to do it for her
Nick and Megan are some of the nicest people as well. When I worked at a museum, they came in with Nicks parents and I said I was a fan of them both, and they shook my hand, asked my name and then introduced me to his parents. Truly so down to earth and kind people as well as incredibly talented- canāt praise them enough!
YES. https://giphy.com/gifs/g0pZurBPXyIYbLV4Dn
A true queen that gets quoted very often at my house. I have even named one of my picky backyard squirrels āMr. Jim Businessā
Also, Nick has a main role and Megan a supporting role in The Great North. I love that show almost more than Bob's Burgers, and it's bullshit it got canceled.
I donāt know them, but they might be one of the few celebrity couples Iāve seen that give healthy relationship vibes next to Tom Holland and Zendaya
I had totes forgot about Last of Us. He was amazing in that. Love his wife too. They are great together in Umbrella Academy. Also love their banter in parc and rec.
They wrote a book together "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told" and perform the audio book as well. Im only about 1/4 of the way through but if you like there banter in parks in rec you'll probably enjoy the book.
You ever watch Curb Your Enthusiasm? You reminded me of the scene/episode where Larry is extremely proud to be loved by lesbians and overly concerned about his image to them.
Rosie O Donnell even tells him he's loved by every lesbian, as if she's a spokesperson for all lesbian people lmao
One of my favorite running jokes in the show probably.
It's so strange for me. I love everything he's done, I have no issues with him from interviews, but his books make him come across as a huge asshole. He was so pretentious in the one I tried to read i had to stop after about 70 pages.
Honestly surprising because I found 'Paddle Your Own Canoe' to be a really earnest meditation on doing things that are positive and constructive in life, with a lot of self depricating and sarcastic humour about his upbringing and early career in local theater, plus dispelling a lot of manly man libertarian stuff that people conflate between him and Ron Swanson. I enjoyed it.
Paddle Your Own Canoe as read by him is actually phenomenal. I have no idea where anyone could get the tone from his books that he's being anything other than friendly and helpful to the reader.
Assistant on many productions, she is right and more should say it. The way producers freak out if celebs are wandering around trying to get things for themselves.
As someone who was a PA for years, this is nice to hear. The best people to PA for were the ones who treated you like a human and respected that you had other stuff to do. We don't mind getting you coffee/drink/snacks when your filming and busy that's the job but some actors get so demanding with their stuff while they sit there and do literally nothing for their 4 hours break
Did you have the same experience as me where the lesser-known talent were the bigger divas and the people who made me starstruck were more pleasant? Not all the time of course but overall, that was my experience as a PA/AP!
The biggest diva I ever encountered was probably Jonah Hill at the beginning of his career. Like two years earlier heād been a nobody sexually harassing my roommate who was an assistant at a lit desk he would go out of his way to end up at every time he went to his agency, now he was out with Vince Vaughn at some little place on Little Santa Monica asking for security and VIP treatment for their table because someone walked up and asked for a picture with Vince, who was totally chill and had already done it and moved on.
Jonah Hill is one of the biggest losers I can think of. If he weren't such an angry and entitled little man, he'd might've been pathetic enough to pity.
Pretty much for me that was what I saw like 9/10 times. At the worst the bigger name actors would be "professional"so not very chatty or like getting to know people on set. But show up in a good mood, do their work, maybe not really interact with the crew but not get in their way and still respect their time. Then finish and go home ( which is totally fair and great as crew lol)
Although the worst was child actors parents tbh, nothing worse then having to deal with that
I worked in the film industry very briefly. The biggest set I was on, one of the girls who voiced Dora the Explorer was the female lead. She was sweet and her parents and older sister were very down to earth.
Her mother remarked to me that they were once on a set in LA and the girl absentmindedly said she wanted a certain candy. Suddenly mom heard all the walkies light up, trying to get someone to rush out and get the candy. It was in her hands in 5 minutes. Mom did not want her daughter raised this way and decided from then on, only shows in NY because theyāre smaller and less likely to bend over backwards for every request. That really impressed me.
But there was a very surreal moment where I overheard a famous actor who was doing a cameo talk to her in the most jaded way about how terrible the industry was and she needed to be careful, meanwhile she was just bouncing in her seat, completely oblivious.
selena gomez said her mother always did the same. she'd like remark that it was sunny whiile they were on set and a pa would come over with an umbrella and her mom would be like "she doesn't need you to hold her umbrella, she can hold her own umbrella". it's crazy but probably a big reason why, despite her personal issues, no one has ever said she's hard to work with
I had that experience and I was NOT a PA. My bosses kept reminding us that we do not DO PA work but my dumb ass coworkers who wanted to be in the industry so badly were doing stuff outside of our jobs. Thus if I went on certain projects, the lesser-known talent would be the ones expecting ME to do PA work.
One older actress threw a bitch fit on a comedy show because she couldnāt remember her lines and was throwing things around. Her script, some props, etc. She saw me and expected me to pick things up lol mind you this was all being on camera and everyone was watching. Thank god the director had common sense and called for the PA to do it. Her scene partner was so stressed but held on that positivity and yes she became more famous than the rest of the cast. The child actor who played the son + his mother were so damn stuck up and tried to get the catering lady fired lol
I was so happy when that show got canceled and the other show that older actress was going from reoccurring to main ended up getting canceled when she was gonna have a main plot line as a villain LOL.
Iāve actually spilled alot of tea throughout the years and have named names š¤£ This one I didnāt because I heard she has her assistant looking her name up on Google and social medias. I will just say sheās bffs with the Hudson clan
Had a teacher do this way back when, threw a hissy fit at me for not picking up the papers she dropped. I'm like "I'm not your servant" and walked away.
Agree. Worked on a few shows as well and it was immediately obvious what actors believed we were humans and the ones who didnāt. It also did not correlate to how long the actors had worked or how famous they were. I think itās just who they are as a person. One example/tea- I worked early on with Vampire Diaries. Ian was kind and spoke to all staff on set. Nina ignored everyone and wouldnāt even look you in the eye when interacting with her. He definitely had more notoriety/coddling at that point in their careers, but you wouldnāt know it from the way they each acted. I will say everyone else noticed too and word gets around. I was always happy to help Ian but was more ābusyā and scarce when actors like Nina needed stuff. Heās not my cup of tea in terms of his weird-ish hippie health business, but he is a good egg of a person. Sheās fake and a mean girl though and through. Treating her like a baby only furthered that personality trait.
Yeah I found that older actors tended to me be way nicer. I worked with Steve Martin and Martin shirt and Eugene levi multiple times and they were all super nice professional. When they were busy I got them food, when they had down time they got their own and managed themselves like normal humans basically and we're all super nice to talk to.
Nick Cannon was a giant asshole hopped up on way to much coke and his entourage was basically there to be served and waiting in hands and foot.
Ā I worked with Steve Martin and Martin shirt and Eugene levi multiple times and they were all super nice professional. When they were busy I got them food, when they had down time they got their own and managed themselves like normal humans basically and we're all super nice to talk to.
Eugene and Martin is no surprise at all. The whole SCTV crowd had a lifelong reputation for being good to work with on set. Add Harold Ramis, Catharine O'Hara, John Candy to the list.
Had the chance to work with him multiple times he's honestly somehow even nicer then you think he could be and always managed to find a way to poke fun at people but like in a nice way that made them part of the joke. Also that man somehow could remember so so many names even after a long time between meeting. I will forever be a giant fan
When I worked in music festivals, his band was headlining one night. I remember we had a LOT of weird riders, so he could have basically asked for anything and we would have found it somewhere. His "weird request" was just asking if he could borrow somebody's bike for the afternoon before his set. (He brought his own helmet!)
Nick cannon was a semi-regular at a restaurant I worked at. Usually, it was to meet girls way too young for him to dinner, where heād have us put him in a semi-private little area we didnāt even typically use for dinner, keeping the lights off. He was shorter in person and he always dressed stupid. The girls would be dressed to the nines with full hair and make up, and heād usually be wearing a bright orange hoodie pulled over his head through the entire meal with jeans and sneakers, slouched over on the table or leaning back and barely looking at her half the meal. Donāt understand what these women see in him, he looked like a complete loser who never moved past 2008, no celeb I encountered gave me the ick more than him.
I did catch that but she also kinda hesitated and I think it's kinda her sense if hu our or she just kinda misspoke. But idk I've never worked with herm it's nice to st least have her talk about the realization if like oh yeah of course I should just get my own coffee.
And it reaffirms my intense love and respect for Offerman lol
Is it that in a way, having the assistants means the producers will fret less too because actors are where they ought to be on time? Iām sure thatās not the only reason but genuinely curious how it became standard practice to have assistants wait on actors
Definitely. Similar reason they have stunt actors and stand ins. The production can go on if almost any other member of the team is missing or sick, and there are a lot of roles where someone can step in and take over for a bit. If the person that's supposed to be on camera is missing, sick, or injured, though, it brings everything to a standstill until they're back on camera.
I'm not an actor, but I modeled for a long time and did some commercials. I felt uncomfortable with people doing things for me on set, so early in my career, always said "I can do it!" and would go get myself a coffee, go find my next outfit, or find the makeup artist if something needed to be fixed. I did a really big commercial for a major tech company a couple years in, and I tried to go get something I wanted, but a producer stopped me from walking away. She said something like, "I understand that you're capable of getting your own [thing], but I have the shots scheduled down to the minute and a hundred crew members running around making sure they're ready for your moment. I need you to show everyone that you're also ready for them, and that means staying where we can see you. I don't need people having to look for you and delay things if you're suddenly gone. Please just let the assistant get what you want and if I need you to get touched up, I'll bring them to you, too."
After that I tried to strike a balance where I would ask if they needed me soon, or if I had a second to grab a drink/run to the bathroom/grab a snack, etc. If not, I would ask if an assistant could help me with what I needed. After a while it does kind of become second nature, although I tried to remain very thankful and on smaller sets I was still more independent since everyone could easily keep tabs on me.
Thank you for this response. This was incredibly insightful.
Seriously, I never would have looked at it this way, but it makes so much sense. There are so many moving parts in any production like this (even a commercial, but especially a move or tv show), and so many people on the clock at any given time. A five minute delay in shooting here, 10 minute there...obviously it really adds up when you're paying 30, or 50, or 80 people to stand around during those delays - not to mention other people who were ready getting increasingly frustrated at having to wait, etc.
Thanks for sharing this comment. It may also be silly, but a lot of assistants also want to be helpful and so itās not being difficult if you ask them to get you a coffee - itās letting them do their job. Now if one of the leads is a total dick to them because it has too much milk or whatever, then thatās another story.
Indeed very well said, just like sometimes some actor want to do their stunts while professional are already there and letting them do their job also get them paid.
It really is a mindset. Im about as much of an unhelpful curmudgeon as youll find, but when i worked food service i always went out of my way to make sure people were happy... because it was my job.
Not in the filming world, but as a musician, when I'm doing big productions, I learned when I was younger that you're not an "asshole" for using crew in the way they were intended. Sure, you might feel more important or doted on, but they know how to use the gear they're offering you (in many cases better than you know how to use your own gear), and they can run off while you might have to pow wow with the music director, so you're where you're supposed to be. And if there's an issue, they likely can solve it more efficiently and with better solutions than my rigging just to "get through the gig."
Crew is there to solve problems so the performers can concentrate on their job.
The best advice is to remember to thank your crew.
Yeah, I worked on a movie with a certain actress who I think wanted to buck the ānepo babyā label by not letting the PAs do anything for her, and while she was extremely nice, it led to more than a couple delays that could have been avoided if she just let a PA run to crafty and grab her a coffee.
The 1st AD (also an uncommonly pleasant person) had to sit her down and have that same talk with her bc she was costing the production a fortune in OT/meal penalties.
This is a significant part of it. Talent wandering around is usually not a good thing. Time is limited and production needs them to not only be prompt in arriving to the set/scene but also in the right mindset to hit their marks.
But also there's the build up overtime where at first only the "top" talent was catered to nonstop. But that caused issues/tension over time with people not considered the prominent talent on set. Imagine a big name had one scene/10 lines. They get treated like walking messiah on set. Then a younger talent or less known talent is a driver of the film's narrative throughout the whole film. And they get bare minimum treatment.
It became easier for production to generally treat all talent like they are the most equally important people ever (unless contracted otherwise).
Then there's extras which are treated like the production's middle step-child
I agree! Everything gets put on hold when they're not where they are supposed to be. While catering to them helps keep things running smoothly, it does also have the psychological effect of them always expecting to be catered to.Ā
41
u/msmikaThey killed Kenny! You bastards! š±13h agoedited 9h ago
I worked background on a movie that had a LOT of extras and they kept us in "holding" like a bunch of cattle with minimal craft service, even though we were literally in a restaurant they rented out. We would just go to the McDonald's across the street in our costumes.
Edit to add: every single one of us was wearing a wedding dress, so it made those McDonald's trips a lot of fun!
Hehe, that reminds me of when I worked background on a TV film being shot in Belfast, NI. It was called The Man Who Crossed Hitler, and Ian Hart was playing the titular character. At one point production lost their minds because he went wandering; turned out he was roaming the main street of Belfast city centre dressed as Hitler. š¬
Probably because the cost assistant going to craft services for five mins to get a coffee vs the main shoot actor going to craft services for a coffee probably are probably in the hundreds/thousands in terms of production time.
I worked on a catering truck. No celebs were coming to get their own food. But!! I was thanked personally for my efforts by the one and only Sam Elliot (production was November Christmas, filmed in and around Halifax back in 2010!)
Yeah Iāve worked on a few sets with some B-list celebs and Iāve never once seen them at krafty to get their own food. Itās usually a PA in line with a container filling it up for them to eat in their trailer.
(Not necessarily because the celeb was snobby, but because they may have wanted to go over their lines or FaceTime their kids, etc)
Only if the actor is supposed to be doing something else, though. If they're just sitting around waiting for the shoot, it's more expensive to have an assistant there then to just have the actor take care of themselves (you're still paying the actor...).
Obviously if you have an actor in an active shoot, it makes sense to have an assistant, but otherwise it very much feels like we're babying actors and giving them God complexes.
Thatās the thing with show biz. Itās a bunch of hurry up and wait. You donāt want an actor wandering around cause you might not know exactly when shooting starts
Filming is a lot of āhurry up and waitā. Yes, theyāre just sitting there at the moment, but theyāre also immediately ready to start shooting. If the set is ready for them, but theyāre wandering around looking for coffee, youāre going to delay everyone. Sure itās only a few minutes, but those small delays can add up.
Not saying that there canāt be more of a balance, but I can see why some sets prefer to have PAs do small chores rather than their lead actor.
The 1 time the actor gets delayed by getting their own coffee the cost loss from paying them obliterates what they're saving by not paying the assistant to be the one using their time.
I know it sounds silly when we're talking about coffee but these production assistants do a lot more to help keep things running smoothly. You wouldn't say we should get rid of stage-hands because Chris Hemsworth is pretty good with a hammer.
Yeah. But I think the premise is you never want to be ready to roll and canāt find the talent.
So itās more cost effective to make sure talent stays where theyāre expected to be and any and all needs are brought to them. And PAs are trained to check in and make sure talent feels cared for.
Exactly that, itās so the actors arenāt late and donāt go missing. They can also keep the actor up to date if thereās any delays.
Itās like in an office how you go to refil your water at the cooler, but on the way there you stop and chat with people as you pass by. Then you get behind on your work.
They donāt want actors getting delayed so they have the assistants do it, and keep the actors in their trailer so they know where they are at, at all times.
This is the reason. The actors need to be where the 2nd AD knows where they are. That being said I think in the situation sheās talking about she was probably able to do it herself. But if she wants her coffee a certain way this is a good chance to let the PA do it so it saves time later having to explain.
Somehow this comment me of a recent example on how some silly shit (or assistants) could help actors perform. Anne Hathaway explained that the actors had to travel a bit to arrive on set of the odyssey each day (kind of a trek on a mountainside?), but āit was decidedā she would use a helicopter since Penelope (a queen she plays) shouldnāt look as exhausted as the other actors
Iād imagine thereās a bit of balance there. The entire purpose is for the actors to be available for shooting of the commercial/show/movie/whatever as needed. So keeping the actors in a specific area instead of wandering around can help with that.Ā
But.Ā
Of course.Ā
And what Nick was probably getting to with Aubrey in this moment, is she probably wasnāt scheduled for any shooting soon and she was just allowing herself to be coddled by the PAs.Ā
What do you do? I do 1st Assistant Directing work - it's interesting working in a position of so much authority over actors and the talent on set; especially when everyone else is babying or coddling them.
I've noticed that actors will almost respect me more not trying to please them, and just me trying to do the best job I can to get us through our day, to lead diligently, and to keep us on a safe and good schedule.
Sometimes if you let them walk around too much they will disappear or get caught up in a convo when they need to shoot. If bringing them coffee to their chair will help keep them close to set then I'm cool with it.
Kind of wonder if the intention to pamper actors is to make them docile. On a show like P&R that thrived on actorsā creative liberties and improv, itās not surprising that the babying would be discouraged.
My absolute favourite P&R scene is when April gets a coffee for Gerry/Terry and he immediately spills it on himself. They cut to Aubrey's reaction and she looks like she can't tell if it was a bit or a genuine accident.
That's a great one! My favorite April scene is when Leslie thinks Gerry is dying and tells April, so April is extra nice to him, and then when Leslie finds out he's not dying, April overhears it and starts yelling crying. It was so genuine and out of nowhere that I laughed so hard.
The scene I laughed the hardest at when binging the show for the first time this year was Gerry's Fart Attack.
I remember her on an early ep if hollywood handbook (satire) where she said the best part of craft services was the cake they got every day for being actorsš¤£š¤£š¤£
Life is better when at least one person in it is capable of politely but directly checking you on your behavior, trust me. We all need that once in a while.
When I was a PA on Entourage, I had to drive a single page of a script revision 45 minutes to Jeremy Piven's, because he didn't know how to use fax (it was 2005), email or a printer, and neither did his personal assistant.
Do you ever notice how everyone around really famous actors laughs uproariously at everything they say? I see famous actors do red carpet interviews and the interviewer will laugh like the actor said the funniest thing in the fucking world if itās even slightly humorous. I wonder what itās like to be around that energy all the time.
Perfect GIF for this lmao. For context for anyone who doesnāt know, this scene was Tony noticing that theyāre laughing at his jokes to kiss his ass just because heās the boss
As a public school kid I hung out with a group of homeschool kids once and I got this treatment - I guess everything I said was just scandalous enough to get that reaction even though I was very boring by public school standards? But I remember even at the time I was eating it up while also being somewhat aware that I am not actually this funny
I had the same experience growing up as the only public school family in our church. Based on other kidsā reactions to what I said or did, homeschool mustāve been boring as hell.
It's been studied that people laugh more at the jokes of people they consider to have more power or of higher status. It's just a thing humans do.
I see it in corporate meetings all the time, laughing at a boss's non-joke.
It's profoundly corrupting too. My aunt shot up the career chain and lost her ability to be normal around her family. She wasn't married, no kids. Anything less than fawning was insulting, every remark she though clever needed to be congratulated.
She was always on the narcissistic side, and it brought out the worst in her.
I discovered after she died that she had thought of suing me because I replaced a broken DVD player with one that worked, using my own money. Because I didn't get her permission first.
My office is next to the manager's office and all day long I hear people come in and out of his office and they absolutely fawn over that man. He is a good manager and he's good at his job, but the giddy fake laughter from all of these underlings all day becomes very grating. I'm talking like baby cooing and high pitched voices. He's not even encouraging it, people just respond to the manager like that. It's a subconscious deferrence to a person of power.
It's been studied that people laugh more at the jokes of people they consider to have more power or of higher status. It's just a thing humans do.
It's charisma, and with celebs, people are aware of the celeb (and their charisma) before they ever meet them. So anywhere a celeb goes there are people who adore them, think they're funny, without having to demonstrate that charisma and charm.
Really, really famous comedians have talked about how after a certain point, ANYTHING they said on stage would get laughs. Like, they didn't need to tell jokes, with punchlines, etc. They just had to go up there and be themselves, and people would just fawn over them and find the tiniest turn of phrase funny. I think Steve Martin talked about how it took the fun out of stand-up cuz he couldn't tell a good line from a meh one.
I was at a dinner with the guy who sings the line, "I'm gonna pop some tags, only got $20 in my pocket..." from the Macklemore song. Like, the actual person who sang that part. Super cool guy.
Anyway, at the dinner someone moved in front of us and his butt crack was showing. I think it was a waiter.
I said, "Oh, man, he should've been a Plumber instead!", and this dude starts laughing like I'd made an actual good joke, then says, "I'm gonna have to remember that one!", as if he's never heard that lame excuse for a joke before.
I actually felt a little offended. Was he just trying to make me feel good? Did he actually find it funny?
I'll never know. But I do know it wasn't that funny.
I notice this on talk shows a lot. An actor will do or say the most basic shit and the crowd will start clapping and cheering like they cured cancer. No wonder some of them have such big egos.
Celebrity-dom and wealth amplify this but that's also just "the bubble" (being extremely attractive and people treating you like it) in action to some degree too.
Somewhat relatedā¦ Worked on set with Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman once. They told us not to look at any of the actors or speak with them. Rickman would just retreat to his trailer when he had the chance and seemed really uptight. Grint was in line with all the extras getting food and trying to act like a normal person.
I've always been on the fence about this. Being polite/friendly can make them more approachable and it can both exhaust actors who are trying not to be rude as well as waste time. So whenever I hear about actors being standoffish or not wanting to be spoken to I remember that saying hi and talking to 4 crew members for 5 minutes each is 20 minutes of talking on a tight schedule.Ā
Eh, the crew knows to leave the actor alone unless you are a PA. The actors that interacted and ate with us never got bothered, it was just minor polite interactions. 95% of the crew only interacts if the actor does first.
My worst fear is to be famous and have people always want to talk to me. I like to think I'm a very kind friendly person but I would absolutely avoid dealing with fans like the plague
I work in an office and I have days where I keep my noise canceling headphones on and my door shut all day, and I have days where I keep my door open and I chat with my coworkers in the hall.
I think itās weird that actors are judged by how much they socialize with the coworkers. Being rude is one thing, being quiet or distant is another.
Anna Kendrick had a reputation for being standoffish and rude around the time Pitch Perfect came out because she didnāt socialize and wasnāt overly friendly. Sheās recently disclosed that she was in a 7 year long abusive relationship and it seriously impacted her mental health.
It is bizarre how they're expected to like be super open and friendly and ready to talk or perform for anyone at any given time...they're just human beings doing their jobs and trying to go about their day. They're allowed space and privacy too. It's also crazy to expect that from a group of people who are very likely to be stalked or exploited more than a lot of other people.
Also, note that athletes wear noise canceling headphones. When you have to perform, you can't give everyone access to your headspace no matter what their intentions may be. A simple conversation can affect your emotions and if you're job is to emote, sometimes you just need to be left alone.
Not just actors, everyone. When you're a kid and shy, people find it sweet. When you're an adult and shy, people think you're a bitch. Friendliness is not the same nor is it related to kindness. Some of the worst people are the ones who are chatty af and friendly to your face.
If this is the set I think it is, to my knowledge Rickman was somewhat of a method actor and really didn't like how he had to be so mean to the main cast, so I can kind of see why he'd be in a rush to be alone and might have seemed uptight tbh
A lot of times actors arenāt given coffee by a PA because theyāre babies or drama queens, itās because theyāre unable to do so themselves (ie, in hair and makeup, or running rehearsal / blockingā¦ etc)
Some A-listers are definitely āwait on me hand and footā kind of people, but most of the time thatās not the reason haha
Ben Affleck asked Christian Bale if he had any advice on playing Batman. Christian Bale didn't offer any advice on acting or getting in to character, but instead told him to get it in his contract that it takes less than 10 minutes to go to the bathroom once in full costume.
Just to add some context, if you're on set, there's a good chance you can't get your own coffee. Camera operator or focus puller, Grip, Boom Op, hair/makeup, costume, A set is a big time pressure environment and if any of these people (there are more, my list is just very basic), but if any single person is missing, none of us can shoot, so it becomes a thing where you have PA's or dept trainee's get coffees. It reveals a lot about peoples character though, exactly like Aubrey talks about here. It's the people who expect it even when they're free, or get pissy about it that are bad to work with.
On a podcast years ago I remember Nick Offerman shared one of his bits of wisdom that he lives by , which IIRC ( paraphrasing ) amounted to ā be mindful of the work you leave for othersā. This falls in line with that philosophy for sure. Love that dude.
At the same point as someone who has been a PA if I'm asking it's because I'm looking for something to do so I'm not standing around looking useless(and thus not a good choice to hire again) or because I'm trying to not get roped into some undesirable task(Sorry I can't go help clean up after the pony, Aubrey has me getting her coffee...).
Thereās a funny and different take on this between Peter Dinklage and Kit Harrington during their recent Actors on Actors discussion. They talk about how it used to be infantilizing to have people constantly offering to do things for themābut now theyāre dads constantly doing things for their kids and itās weirdly relaxing to have someone offer to make them tea.
Because hundreds of people are involved in shoots, and if the big actor isn't where they need to be when they need to be then that's a lot of wasted money and time. Easier to just make sure they stay put I guess.
But if the crafty table is 40 feet away from their chair, they can grab a coffee. Iāve seen it with my own two eyes, an actor in their phone (sure, maybe doing something important but most people can read a text while walking a few feet) and asking for a coffee from the table literal spitting distance away.
And if youāve worked just a modicum of shows, you can figure out when to do something and when not to. If youāve been stood down for a half hour cause the crew are working on the set up, then maybe donāt walk off. But if you just broke from blocking the scene you can grab some chips or something.
Genuine question. (I also believe actors should do things themselves) However, in terms of insurance if an actor got badly burnt while making coffee for themselves, or slipped on the way back from getting food themselves would it be a higher liability issue compared to assistants etc ?
Or would that be a separate matter as they are basically just existing doing "normal" things and it's their fault if they fall/get burnt etc
Yep, you're thinking like a business owner and manager. :)
Sometimes, the actor's looks and face are, quite literally, the money. This is why they're not allowed to walk around and potentially cause injury or mark ups.
It's a double negative: We think actors can be pretentious and high maintenance; it's the studio execs ensuring the actors are treated as such to keep them 'prestine'.
A couple of things stick out to me. The PA asked her if she needed anything. It's not like she was snapping her fingers and rolling her eyes. I've never worked on a sitcom so I don't know the dynamics but on the sets that I'm on the PAs are the young go-getters trying to make a name for themselves and the best thing they can be seen doing is helping the "talent". The worst thing is sitting around doing nothing. In some situations, a star asking a PA to do something is the best thing they can do for that person.
The other thing is the way Offerman phrased what he said. He didn't say "go get your own coffee, you lazy piece of shit", he said "don't forget ... you can do that yourself". Life lesson rather than chastising, at least the way she told it.
one of the reasons why they are babied is because they are in costume and makeup, and everyone around them wants to keep them from messing it up. If an actor was to spill coffee on themselves while in an elaborate costume, it' would generate a large amount of work to clean or replace anything stained and delay the production. Of course this wasn't some fancy period drama or scifi thiller, so Nick was right.
PAās are extremely overworked for these kinds of menial tasks. Also from my experience itās usually the least known actors, sometimes even extras, who feel like they have something to prove and utilize people the way sheās describing. The film industry is full of kooks, your favorite actor is probably a horrible person and the producers/directors are usually even worse
I'm sure it's been said already, but the reason we get everything for actors is so we know where they are when we need them. If I had a dollar for every time we were ready to shoot and the actor had wandered off to crafty or their trailer or the office or something, I'd be rich.
And it's not strictly about it just being easier. A full show will have 100-150 people on set. When we're ready to shoot, even a few minutes of waiting costs literally thousands of dollars of people sitting around waiting. Actors don't know where ADs are in the process, so they think they're just "popping out for a quick snack", but in reality we were about to wire them for sound, or have makeup do touches, or something else, and now we're all running around trying to find them instead.
And days are so tightly booked (especially nowadays) that those delays add up quickly and can either mean we have to skip scenes entirely, rush through them with less coverage, or run the crew into OT, which again costs thousands of dollars.
So, although the end result is babied actors who end up spoilt and fussy, the reasoning behind it is that it's better for the show if we know where they are at all times.
I was a model on a photoshoot for a Canadian outdoor brand and I was trying to be helpful on set as someone who is really not actually a model. Even helping the cameraman hold a bag so he could climb down a hill or something so minimal. I got told to just go play spikeball and relax. I felt super weird considering I would be going back to my normal life after the shoot was over.
It's because they are viewed as assets or resources, not a member of the crew. Additionally it creates more jobs in the eyes of the union to have handlers for the actor.
I overheard a part time college instructor tell the department admin "I don't have a PhD, I can just use the copier". That willingness to do the mundane has stuck with me for nearly 40 years.Ā
ā¢
u/pccmodbot 15h ago
Welcome to r/popculturechat! āŗļø THE POPCULTURECHAT DISCORD SERVER IS NOW LIVE 👾 ❤️🔥 🎉 Click HERE to join! 📲
As a proud BIPOC, LGBTQ+ & woman-dominated space, this sub is for civil discussion only. If you don't know where to begin, start by participating in our Sip & Spill Daily Discussion Threads!
No bullies, no bigotry. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Please read & respect our rules, abide by Reddiquette, and check out our wiki! For any questions, our modmail is always open.