Using Tack With A Bad Actor

Yesterday, an actress from my last short sent me a FB message to look at her new demo reel.

It is pretty bad. She has no talent. She could not even play a drunken soldier in my production convincingly. The only reason why I kept her was she was willing to work and was committed to the production.

So, I replied to her message keeping my comments positive. I told her to get role models in acting and learn from their tips. I recommended two of my favorite actresses that I follow, Jody Foster and Nicole Kidman. They give great tips for actors and indie filmmakers to learn from in the craft of acting. They make millions because they can become many different kinds of characters. They share their techniques on how to become a new character that is believable.

In her case, if I had a better actor available for her role, the other actor would have taken her role. I lost someone who got tired waiting for the production to begin because we had to keep on auditining actors to get enough people to show up to fill the roles. I know most of my crew commented to me I should have held out for a better actor for her role. I did not want to delay the production further waiting for enough actors to show up to recast her role. I may have lost another actor who might have gotten another conflict in their schedule waiting for us to begin. Big budget productions can have scheduling conflicts with their shooting schedules too. But, with the wages they can pay, they get a higher caliber of talent to replace dropouts.

So, I recommend keeping comments positive when dealing with people in the field as often as possible. I made a choice to kepp a bad actor because of her willingness to work.

I agree with you.
But the word you're looking for is "tact" not "tack" like a thumb tack that can hurt like hell when used incorrectly.

Thank you for the correction.

Today, the actress thanked me for my advice. So, I think I had the right approach.

Unless you're talking horse tack, which would be a strange though potentially effective method of dealing with a bad actor. I suspect travel by car, golfcart, or even walking would still be more efficient than riding your actor around though.



You can lead an actor to water, but you can't make him drink... or something.

I don't know if you ever had the good fortune to work with a studio actor. They are more self-motivated to do the right thing and be a help to a production than the indie actors. They also have much better work ethics.

I had two in my last production. They have a low tolerance for indie actor divas. I had to play referee between the two studio actors and the divas at times.

In a big production, an actor who cannot take direction from a director gets replaced with a different actor. A classic story happened in the making of Kill Bill 2 when Quentin Tarantino asked the original Bill actor to do things the way that David Carradine would do. The actor suggested that Tarantino should just get Carradine to play the role instead. So, Tarantino fired the actor and replaced him with Carradine.

Back on topic, show no footage until the premiere.

Good luck.

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:

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So, I recommend keeping comments positive when dealing with people in the field as often as possible. I made a choice to kepp a bad actor because of her willingness to work.

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Although it's good to stay positive, decisions like thing can turn off other cast and crew members.
I understand you were plagued with dropouts in the past and I have no idea what caused it, but people get the feeling something is becoming crap because of very bad acting, they can loose heart. (Eventhough it's not an excuse to break an agreement.)

Believe me, they lose more heart from no shows than bad acting because the people who are there want to work.

This actress was a nightmare to edit because she kept recreating her lines with every take because she could not remember her lines from take to take.

But, the cast and crew preferred her to a diva who made up her own schedule and kept getting lost trying to find our shooting locations.

As I said, at least the bad actor was always early and ready to work and the other actors appreciated that because we were getting scenes done with her.

Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:

Believe me, they lose more heart from no shows than bad acting because the people who are there want to work.

This actress was a nightmare to edit because she kept recreating her lines with every take because she could not remember her lines from take to take.

But, the cast and crew preferred her to a diva who made up her own schedule and kept getting lost trying to find our shooting locations.

As I said, at least the bad actor was always early and ready to work and the other actors appreciated that because we were getting scenes done with her.

Click to expand...

I meant the no-shows maybe lost heart.
But I have no idea what goes/went on on your set. I only notice that you are always referencing to your bad experiences.
Since 2001 I had 0 no shows and 0 dropouts.
(Although I must admit that shooting for most productions with no budget lasted 1or 2 days: not enough time to drop out.)

The studio actors and experienced actors and DP asked me to fire the diva who made up her own hours because she was holding everyone else back. So, I did.


As I have said, once actors were attached, they did not drop out. A year later, I got one hundred percent of the cast to return. They told me my production is the best one they were in.

My productions generally last two to three weeks.

My problem has been the auditions in getting actors to show up. Instead of casting for one week, we had to audition actors for 3 month right before the week rehearsals began. I don't know if you audition actors for roles, but I do. They cut it so close I had to put in a special rush order for their costumes that are each custom fit.

Too many of these divas want to make up their own schedules. So, they lose out. If they can't follow an auditioning schedule, they cannot follow a shooting schedule.

The irony of these no shows from the auditions are some of them are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn. And, I am ignoring their requests. Then, they endorse me in my LinkedIn profile for preproduction and screen writing and some other skills, thinking I will give them bogus endorsements as well. Well, I don't. If I give an endorsement, it is for something I know that person is qualified in to receive an endorsement. I give my past and present cast and crews endorsements because I know they have skills that I have seen in action. But, I will not give endorsements to talent I have never auditioned. So, those no shows get nothing from me. I remember them and would not even give them a chance to audition in the future. If they can lie with endorsing people for skills they don't know they have, they could be lying on their resumes and elsewhere.

I will stick by people that I know are reliable and honest.