Why I'm Not a Bruins Fan

Knowing that this is a public forum, even if only three people in the world actually read the damn thing, I've always tried to keep it positive, or at least neutral. But something's been bugging me lately and I've decided to break that self-imposed rule at the risk of alienating the students, faculty, and alumni of one of Southern California's largest and most prestigious film schools. I have had great experiences on projects at USC, Loyola-Marymount, Chapman, Cal Sate Long Beach, the Los Angeles Film School, and the New York Film Academy. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with talented, earnest young filmmakers. Even on auditions where I didn't get the role, I was treated with courtesy, respect, and even gratitude. ("Hey," you may be thinking, "I was promised negativity!" Hold your horses.) So when I submitted for a role in a project at another university film school and was invited to audition, I had every reason to expect the same. The character I submitted for had a name, an interesting back story, and a pivotal role in the plot. The role I submitted for was a named character who was described as a professor. When I met with one of the filmmakers, he had me read dialogue that was written for other characters which kind of surprised me, but it wasn't the first time. Sometimes a filmmaker may see you in a different role when they meet you in person; sometimes a screenplay is unfinished and your part may not even be fully written. The director responded enthusiastically to my reading, gave me some adjustments, thanked me profusely for coming in, and sent me on my way. The next day I was offered the role and I accepted. Then he sent me a script. I searched for my character's name, couldn't find it. No dialogue, no entrance, no action, nothing. I contacted the director and he told me I was going to be part of a crowd scene. Now, I've done nonspeaking roles, I've done crowd scenes, and I will do them again. But everything from the initial character description in the breakdown to the multiple readings during the audition seemed calculated to give the impression I was being considered for a principal role, a role which didn't really exist. That was some time ago. So why bring it up now? Because I recently responded to this notice: "Seven short films are being cast and shot this week, including '[title deleted]'! [name deleted] graduate directing students and TFT faculty will be involved! Come to the audition and you will have the chance to audition for several of the films, not just ours!" Do you see in there where it says these films will be directed by high school students, because I sure don't. I have actually recently worked with a director who was a high-school student at the time of filming. It was a great experience and I'd do it again, but let me know up front. Please don't make me think I'll be working with film school graduates when that's not the case. And please don't then usher me into a room full of high-school males and give me the task of finding one who is interested in talking to me and not the beautiful young women in the room. One student was openly derisive and rude. Another was obviously not going to cast me but seemed to want to try out his impression of a slick Hollywood mover a la Entourage.Despite the less than ideal circumstances, I did strike up a rapport with a young director, who called the next morning to offer me a leading role. I called back and accepted, and he called back and very apologetically retracted the offer, saying his writer and director of photography wanted someone else and outvoted him. At first I laughed it off, chalking it up to youthful indiscretion and poor impulse control. But then I stopped laughing, realizing that it fit into a pattern of behaving as if promises made, explicitly and implicitly, don't really matter where actors are concerned. This high-school students should have been taught that actors, like anybody, deserve respect and honesty. But who is there to teach them?