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>> KRISTINE: Hi, this is Kristine Oller. Welcome to The Actor's Library How-They-Did-It Success
Story newsletter. This issue features L.A. based actor David Goryl sharing with us how
he started and then nurtured a relationship with a major casting director who has since
become one of his biggest fans. Take it away David.
>> DAVID: My relationship with casting director Ronnie Yeskel dates back to the late 90s.
I had done an evening of one acts with several people from my acting class and her associate
had come to the show, and as a result we all got general meetings with Ronnie. So I met
her, I would say in ‘98 or ‘99. I didn’t see her again until ‘05 when I was auditioning
for a TV show called Thresholds, which I think was on CBS; lasted about 10 or so episodes
before getting cancelled, but Ronnie cast me in, I think, episode 8 so the show actually
aired, which is always a nice thing.
At the end of ‘06 she came into a workshop that I take on Wednesday nights. I’ve been
taking this particular Wednesday workshop for the past 10 ½ years I think. I’m a
creature of habit, I guess one would say. This particular workshop we get writers, directors,
producers, show runners, casting directors. So in ‘06 I would say late November, early
December Ronnie came into the workshop and she was doing a little talk in the beginning
of the evening and said she loves to use actors as readers for her audition process. She gave
us her phone number at the end of the evening and the next day I called her and I said,
“Hey Ronnie, if you ever need me I would love to work as a reader.”
January of ‘07 I got a call from her saying that she was working on a project and would
I like to be a reader. Now, I don’t know if this has ever happened to anybody, this
experience, before, but there were so many characters in this piece that she had five
or six different actors working as readers. So if you were coming in to audition you would
be in a room filled with four or five other actors reading with you, so you pretty much
played out the scene.
>> KRISTINE: Really?
>> DAVID: It was amazing. And these actors had so much to play with. They had this room
full of actors who were giving them everything they needed to give a good performance and
give a great audition. And from that point on I knew that I wanted to work with Ronnie
whenever she had a project, because I saw the respect level that she has for actors
and I admired that.
That was in January of ‘07 and then the following summer of June of ‘08 I was walking
again into my Wednesday night workshop and I saw her name was on one of the office doors
so I popped my head in and said, “Hey Ronnie.” And she said, “David, what are you doing
tomorrow?” And so for the next two and half weeks I worked with her on a film that she
was casting that was being produced by Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker. They were starring
in the film called The Experiment.
So for two and half weeks I read with Dean Cain. I read with Jason Ritter, Isabel Lucas,
Eva Longoria, Bill Duke, Titus Wellivere. People whom I had seen working for years and
years. In fact, Eva Longoria walks into the room she goes, “Can we do this on the floor?”
So I’m actually in the middle of a scene with Eva Longoria’s head in my lap stroking
my arm. I looked at the camera and said, “I’m using this on my demo reel.” And then at
the end of the two weeks I said, “Hey do you guys need me tomorrow?” and the associate
Justin Kane said, “Actually we’d like you to audition for the film.” Which was
the hugest honor because one, obviously the goal is to book work, but I don’t go in
there expecting that to happen. I just go in trying to give whatever actors are coming
into the room the best chance at booking the job.
They had me audition. It was one of the best auditions I’ve ever had. My roommate at
the time was actually the reader for me. So he and I had worked on it the night before.
I didn’t end up booking the role, but I remember Ronnie pulling me aside and telling
me how impressed she was with my audition. That was the summer of ‘08, then the spring
of ‘09 I get a call from Ronnie that she’s casting Atlas Shrugged Part 1. The first day
that I started working with her they had just fired the director and they had two and half
weeks to cast this entire movie.
I’m reading with the producer, two producers are in the room; John Aglialoro and Harmon
Kaslow and Ronnie and her casting partner Sharon Howard-Field and myself. This is on
a Thursday and I get through two people coming in and John Aglialoro, who is the money guy
behind the thing – he’s got the rights to Atlas Shrugged looked at me and he goes,
“Are you going to audition because you’re really good.” I said, “I would love to”
and I left it at that. A couple weeks went by and they’re getting closer and closer
to casting and we’re toward the end of the session again on a Thursday night and I turn
around to Ronnie and Paul Johansson who is now the director and said, “Hey guys I would
love to audition for the film.” I was really nervous, really hesitant about doing it, but
then I said, f- it. This is my chance and the worst thing they can say is no. And they
go, “Of course.” And they said, “What role were you thinking?” and I gave them
a couple. They go, “Oh, those are big parts.” I said, “I know, I can do it.” And they
said, “Well, why don’t you look at these other three parts?” I go home and I prepare
the other three parts and I’m not jazzed about any of them, but the opportunity to
audition is there.
So I walk in the next day, this is a Friday, and I tell them right away that I’ve got
a massage client. My side business is that I’m a massage therapist. And I said, “Listen,
I’ve got to leave at 4:30 because I’ve got a client.” And Paul looks at me and
goes, “How much do you charge your client?” I give him the number and he goes, “I’ll
pay you double to stay.” And I said, “Let me go make a phone call.” I called my client
and said, “Look, I can’t make it today” and she was very understanding. Paul pulled
out money and gave it to me and that was that. At the end of the day I said, “Do you guys
want me to read now?” And they said “What about the role of Jay Knight?” Which is
a part that had been written into the story as a news anchor, a sort of Anderson Cooper,
who is interviewing three of the lead characters. I said, “Oh, I didn’t look at that, but
I will.” And they go, “No, we’re giving it to you.”
>> KRISTINE: Oh wow.
>> DAVID: I literally almost started crying. I mean of course I accepted right there on
the spot and they were all joking how, Paul said, “Can I have my money back?” I said
“No, I turned my client down. I need the money.” So that became a running joke.
Atlas Shrugged was 2010, and now cut to last spring I worked on another two movies with
Ronnie. I think you’re getting the pattern is 1) Ronnie loves to use me. I love to work
with her because it’s a great partnership. She values my opinion and it’s just a professional
relationship that has grown over the past 12-13 years. And every time we work together
and producers in the room say, happen to compliment my work and she really goes to bat for me.
>> KRISTINE: Wow. So generous.
>> DAVID: I remember also last year Ronnie at one point pulled me aside and said “Oliver
Platt used to be a reader for me.” So here’s hoping that I’ll have his type of career.
>> KRISTINE: There’s two things about this story that I really like. And want to point
out is 1) how many hours that you’ve given this relationship for free. You have nurtured
it with a lot of free volunteer work basically.
>> DAVID: Right.
>> KRISTINE: And she has benefited from that and she respects that. She really knows that
you as a reader enhance the auditions that she’s able to produce for her clients.
>> DAVID: Right.
>> KRISTINE: And then what’s also remarkable is especially the beginning of this relationship,
there was big gap between the first time you met her and the first time you read for her
and then there was another couple years between getting cast in that television show and then
you popping your head in the door. What’s interesting about those gaps is often times
actors will think, “Oh, I’m not going to pop my head in the door, I mean it’s
been two years. She’ll have forgotten about me.” Or, “This relationship has gone cold
and there’s no chance for revitalization.”
>> DAVID: Right.
>> KRISTINE: You popped your head in the door, she remembered who you were, and she was like,
“What are you doing tomorrow?” But if you had not popped your head in that door
none of this would have happened. And that’s the key moment in this story.
>> Davis: Yeah, I’ve never even thought of it like that. That’s so interesting.
As you said that I go, “Oh my goodness had I just kept walking by that night, none of
those dominos wouldn’t have started falling.”
>> KRISTINE: These careers that we want so badly often come down to moments where you
had an instinct of “There’s her name on the door, I should pop in” and you chose
to follow that instinct instead of telling yourself a story that would make it okay for
you to walk past that door. So that’s what this newsletter’s for: to encourage people
to make those bold moves. That was it. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
>> DAVID: Kristine it’s always a pleasure.
>> KRISTINE: And that’s just one more example that you can bet on yourself and win. If you
need to get on the Actor’s Library newsletter list you can do so at theactorslibrary.com.