COURTESY MARGARET DOVERSOLA
Margaret J. Doversola cast local actors as Shelmikedmu natives in the Richard Dreyfuss film "Krippendorf's Tribe." She's offering a workshop for those seeking extra and acting work.
Who hasn't dreamed of being a television or film star? Casting director Margaret Doversola has some concise advice for anyone who wants to do more than dream: Isles are not the place
for acting needs
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com"If you're really serious, you have to get your (acting) classes, get your SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card and then leave (Hawaii). If you don't want to do that, then you have to have a job that supports you, and act on the side and be happy with that, (because) if you have this innate need to be in the movies or television, you're not going to satisfy it here."
Doversola knows what she's talking about. She's been a key player in Hawaii's TV and film industry since "Hawaii Five-0" days. She's working on a couple of upcoming film projects, but she's taking tomorrow off to conduct a workshop on "cold reading" and other aspects of the audition process.
"Cold reading is when someone gives you a script and says, 'In 10 minutes I want you to read it for me.' That's (very) cold! I try to not be that cold," Doversola said, describing her role in the casting process as a combination "employment counselor" and "filter" who sifts through prospects and sends a small number on to read for producers and anyone else involved in casting.
"When I cast, I know what parts are coming from the mainland. ... If it's a series, you know that they've hired a star to play these certain parts, so you get left with the co-starring parts sometimes, the day players mostly, and you try to give the producers what they're looking for.
Where: LaPietra Hawaii School for Girls, 2933 Poni Moi Road Cold reading & casting workshop
With Margaret Doversola
When: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow
Cost: $52
Call: 584-9376"The problem is, a lot of times the producers and directors don't know what they're looking for until they see it. You get within a certain range and then go left and right to give them choices, and that's my thing. They may tell you that they only want to read five or six people for a role, but I try to give them as many choices as I can and be as creative within the limits of the role as I can be."
When extras are being recruited, the job is to find people who have the "look" the director is looking for -- and, all going well, enough suitable people show up for the casting call. (A recent call for "Hawaiians and Samoans and some comedic types and a woman" resulted in work for men of several other ethnicities who looked Polynesian.)
THE THRESHOLD tends to be higher when a project requires people who can handle significant speaking roles and who have proven acting skills. Casting a Hawaii resident just for the sake of putting a local face on the screen doesn't even figure into the equation.
"Generally in movies, they'll go with the most experienced (people)," Doversola said. "If we don't have them, then they'll go to the mainland."
"These companies aren't going to put $100 million ... on the head of somebody who's never been tried and tested (at the box office)," she said, referring to the furor that erupted when it was announced that The Rock, who was raised in Hawaii but is not a native Hawaiian, would star in a film about King Kamehameha.
"It's a business foremost, and they have to get their money out and they have to get their money back. ... (The Rock) has worked hard and paid his dues, and he deserves something like this."
As for classes and workshops, Doversola doesn't conduct them often. First of all, she's usually too busy. Second, she feels casting directors shouldn't teach acting classes on a regular basis.
"What happens is that the word gets around that if you don't take the class, you don't get a job in the movies," she said. "I've seen it happen over the years with other people who've done that, and I don't like that connotation at all."
What she'll be doing is sharing her knowledge of what producers and casting directors look for, and how to make a good impression at an audition.
"I just tell it like it is. The thing about cold reading is that people think you have to act, and you don't act. Television and film picks up every nuance. Every animated look on your face, every hand gesture, is very much magnified. ... You can have a big smile that's wonderful, but on TV you'll look like a grinning idiot ... and we don't cast many people like that, so it's also important once you learn the basics to get on film and see what you look like.
"So, get the basics down and see yourself on film, get your SAG card and then re-evaluate and decide where you want to go, because acting for film is simple. It's not acting -- it's just being. Half of it is you speaking, and half of it is you not speaking, so you have to (know how to) react as well as act, and you have to look like you're listening. If you don't look like you're getting it, it doesn't work."
DOVERSOLA SAYS Hawaii is just "limping" along without a series that would give younger actors a chance to break in and start working their way up through the ranks of extras and secondary speaking roles. In addition to warming up by taking acting classes, she suggests borrowing scripts from the library and forming reading groups with a few friends.
She acknowledges that there have been people without training who get into the business on the basis of their looks, or because they happen to be in right place at the right time, or because they "know the director very well," but even for them, there is a steep learning curve if they want to make acting their livelihood.
"After that (first break), you've got to have something to share. If you don't study (acting), you don't get ahead."
Here's another tip for anybody interested in a film career: Try it a couple of times as an extra. While on the set, some would-be actors discover other aspects of television and film production and go on to pursue careers behind the cameras.
Then, when the time comes to audition, "You've got to come in with confidence," Doversola said. "I don't care if those butterflies are kicking you with boots. ... If you come in and say you're nervous and you've never done this before, you might as well leave because if you don't have confidence in you, the producer won't, either."
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