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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 Jeremy Kocal who shares how he
booked a role in a George Lucas film. Take it away Jeremy!
>> JEREMY: I was living in San Francisco at the time, and performing in Wicked, which
had gone there for a year run. So a very, very fun theatre experience. While I was there
I was like, you know what, let’s go see what happens in this world of TV and film
that I don’t have too much contact with but I dabble. So, there was actually an agency
in town,: Stars, The Agency, in San Francisco. And I had heard about them from some other
cast members, and they said “Oh yeah, they’re always taking submissions if you want to try
to get an agent here. I don’t even know what kind of work’s here, but go for it.”
So I submitted my materials and they said “Sure, why not? You know, join our other
200, 300, 500 clients and come on board.” So it was a very freelance type of experience.
And they sent me out on a handful of things. Some little voice over things, and what not,
some commercial auditions.
And then I got a call one day from the agent. And he said “Hey Jeremy, do you speak any
German?” And I said “Well, I took it in college.” And he goes “Ok, great, ‘cause
we see it on your special skills here.” And I know it says basic, very intro German.
I mean I do not speak German, I do know a lot of German song lyrics, and I did go through
the basic class in college, level one German. So I had it on the resumé as a special skill.
And he said “Okay, great. Well if you speak any German, why don’t you come in for this
movie? It’s called Red Tails.” And I had never heard anything about it. So I was like
“Great!” As I probed a little bit deeper, the role was actually for a German Nazi, basically,
in World War II. It was a World War II film about the Tuskegee Airmen.
And I went in, I decided to just kind of go all out. And I hadn’t had a lot of movie
auditions, and certainly not in San Fran; I didn’t even know they did movie auditions
up there. So I went out, I went to the thrift store, and I got myself a uniform shirt of
an officer, that was way too big. It was the only one they had and I clothes-pinned it
behind me with two pins, just to make it tight. And I was very self-conscious about it the
whole time because I had a little thing to cover it up but it was obvious that I had
done a pretty shabby job. But they were only going to be seeing the front of me so, ah,
that’s cool. And then this guy that went in front of me, there were a handful of guys
there that looked like, way more German than me, and I’m like, ohh. But one thing I had
done is that the line they had given me, it was one line in German. They said “Here’s
your line, learn and have it ready for the audition.” The line seemed pretty straightforward
but I wasn’t clear about all the pronunciation. So I was like, let’s do my homework on this
one little line. I Skyped with a friend in Germany, who had actually given me the proper
pronunciation and I verified that with two other friends, who had done the German production
on Starlight Express in Balkan Germany, and they’re like “Oh yeah, that’s right.”
But actually, strangely enough, they had the grammar wrong on the line. So I had a little
bit of a conundrum, and I wrote to the casting director and I said “You know, according
to these Germans that I’ve been speaking with, the grammar is wrong. Do you want me
to do it how they’ve written it or how they say is the correct way? And they’re like
“Ahh, it’s your choice.” So I’m like “You what, I’m going to do it the correct
way. I’m going to take a risk here.” I’m changing the script of the writer, but as
it turns out, they had the English version of the script and they did the translation
themselves, so. Glad I did the work.
Anyway, I went in for the audition. I said my line “Was ist das? Eine neue Geheimwaffe?!”
- “What is this, some kind of secret new weapon?” That’s all it was, I had no context
for it, nothing. The guy that went in front of me, I was sure was an actual German soldier.
He looked so legit. He sounded legit. But for whatever reason, they decided to go with
me. And I got this one line. And after I got the one line, I learned that it was being
produced by George Lucas. And that he was doing a number of reshoots of scenes that
they had filmed in Prague that didn’t quite work out. So now they were doing it on location
at his studios in Marin County. Sure enough I got to the shoot day and there he is, Mr.
George Lucas, right behind the camera, ready to film my scene. And I’m like “Ok, I’ve
got one line, it’s in a language I don’t fluently speak, let’s get this one right.”
So, it was a fascinating, fascinating day of shooting with George Lucas. I decided to
take a risk and I asked him for a photo. And he was very generous. And I have a great,
great photo with him. And I got to have personal direction by him. It was the coolest thing
in the world. And they actually brought me back for one more day of shooting. And I got
to work with him again, so I got to have two of these epic days on set. At that point,
I didn’t care necessarily that it was one line; I was thrilled to even have a line.
I am so glad that I actually included that special skill of German on my resumé because
that would have been a phone call I never would have got if the agent didn’t have
a reference that I had some connection on any level to that. Because they were scrounging
at that point, he told me later. For that one line, I’ve been getting residual checks
already. And I’m like “Wow!” The line was even cut, ultimately, from the main version
of the film.
>> KRISTINE: I was going to ask.
>> JEREMY: It was cut. I went, saw the film and it was not, unfortunately, it was not
a good film. It was a boring film. It didn’t do a great job but my connection to it, and
I’m sure like any actor, you’re going to be in some films that are not very exciting.
And even from theatre, I’m in some pieces that are not that thrilling for audiences,
but performing in them is a different experience. That was really cool.
>> KRISTINE: Yeah, if you hadn’t had German on your resumé, you wouldn’t have gotten
the call. But if you hadn’t have had the idea of “Hey, while I’m in town, getting
paid for this other gig, why not throw my hat in the ring at see what comes up?”
>> JEREMY: Yeah.
>> KRISTINE: So you really brought this opportunity into your life. Where so many actors would
be like “Oh, I’ve got a main gig, I’m cool.”
>> JEREMY: Yeah, it’s the keeping something in your back pocket and you either keep it
there forever or you’ll start doing something with it. And I thought, well, TV and film
have always interested me and I’ve dabbled. But am I really going to do something with
it? Because now I have some easy resources. I have friends here that are saying there’s
an agent, who is taking people on. Do you want to take a piece of paper over to them
with your information? Because that’s hard work. And say “Hi! Can I sign up with you?”
That’s literally all it took. I did not have to do any beating down on their door.
They were, you know, it’s a smaller market. And if you have any kind of thing going on
at all, you’re probably, maybe going to get a bite. I’m totally glad. It paid off
big time for me. With a great story for the rest of my life.
>> KRISTINE: Totally, and thank you for sharing it.
>> JEREMY: Definitely. My 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 mailing list, you can do so at TheActorsLibrary.com.