November 20, 2002
Ladder 49 is the gritty tale of a fire-fighting crew and one man's love of the fire and the fire of his love. My potential role in this flaming movie is uncertain. I can audition for any of the guys in the station-house. Take my pick, as it were, and prepare a scene.
Well, there's the first problem. There are no good scenes for the firemen besides the lead. They are all sitting around the station-house chatting as a group, throwing in one line here and there. Some of the characters even have sides from fighting a fire. That would mean sitting in a 10x10 office, four feet away from a 4-pound digital camera screaming for more hose. Are they serious?
I let my manager pick the role for me and I showed up a little early to look over that character's sides. They were three tiny scenes with two lines in each one. The second was a big fight in the station-house amongst four or five different firemen. After we read that one, the casting director said, "That was a tough one to do." I agreed with her, but wished she had realized that before my audition instead of after.
The best part of the whole thing was that my manager chose RON, the African-American firefighter. He assured me that the casting office had thought it was no problem, that they were opening the role up to all ethnicities. If that were true, I wouldn't have expected the casting people to say at least three times, "That's an interesting choice for you." And yet they did.
Long story short: I will probably not be climbing Ladder 49
any time soon.