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Monday, May 6, 2002

Casting call gathers actors

By JIM HAUG | News-Journal Business Writer

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES — With casting under way for a Denzel Washington movie, local actors are lining up for a piece of the action.

Reginald Williams, an English professor at Daytona Beach Community College, auditioned in Orlando last week for a small speaking role as a sheriff's deputy. Larnell Anthony, a boxing gym owner, mailed a close-up photo, known as a "head shot," to the casting agency.

Both Williams and Anthony have played bit parts as park rangers, African villagers and villains on "Sheena," the jungle woman adventure series shot at MGM Studios at Disney World.

Acting is their labor of love, but filmmaking in Central Florida is very much a "feast or famine syndrome," Anthony said.

Actors consider filmmaking a fun-if-you-can-get-it sideline gig.

"I won't be waiting by the phone (for the Denzel Washington movie)," Williams said.

In "Out of Time," Washington, a student at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach in the 1970s, is reportedly getting $20 million to play a small town police chief who steals money from his evidence room to run away with a girlfriend, who double-crosses him.

The production is scheduled to begin later this month in Florida. Actors have heard conflicting rumors about the exact location. But because of the buzz from movies like "Out of Time," a new organization has formed to help locals cash in on the opportunities.

The Daytona Actors Group had a general casting call Sunday at the Pirates Cove Resort. Aspiring actors were invited to bring their photos and resumes.

The information will be turned into a database to help promote Volusia and Flagler counties for movie and television productions and make it easier to recruit locals for extras and small speaking parts.

The group is being organized by Sheri Albuquerque, who owns a casting agency called "Models R Us."

"The problem is people don't know about (local movie productions)," Albuquerque said. "They read about it in the newspaper afterwards."

John Weyrick, a member of Daytona Actors Group, said locals have shown enthusiasm for making movies.

"A lot of people got to work in Days of Thunder,' " he said, referring to the Tom Cruise movie about NASCAR. "They're still living off those memories."

The group will be educational, too, offering acting classes and giving tips on the proper way to audition. To contact the group, call (386) 767-4429.

"For a casting call, you have to know how to state your name, do a cold read, give something to the casting director to remember you by," Albuquerque said.

She knows a local actor who carries a wig so he can perform different roles if the opportunity arises.

With a little bit of panache, actors can leverage their opportunities, Albuquerque said. By showing up in a suit for a recent TV production about serial killer Aileen Wuornos, an actor who was tapped as an extra for the jury got a bigger role as a lawyer.

Once an actor speaks in a production, he becomes a member of the union, Weyrick said.

Going from an extra to a speaking role is "more fun than playing the lottery."

A non-union extra averages $50 a day on the set, Anthony said. A unionized actor with a minor speaking role can average $300 to $400 a day.

To really make it in show business, Anthony said an actor must know how to network. "Be real," he said. "Go out and talk to people. Make some friends."

Anthony, who is opening the Polski Pure Platinum boxing gym in Daytona Beach, also has a special talent for landing parts. He can gain or lose weight very quickly, which is helpful for getting older or younger roles, he said.

Anthony loves to play the bad guy.

For a true crime television show recently shot in Tampa, Anthony's character lied on the witness stand to send an innocent man to death row.

The trial drama was made by the same Japanese production crew that did the recent Wuornos movie in DeLand. Anthony is looking forward to hearing his voice dubbed in Japanese.

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