Have you ever dressed up in costume to go and see a movie in theater?
Yes. I dressed in my red TOS dress to see Star Trek, Into Darkness on opening day. As I came into the theater, a local radio personality saw me dressed up and ushered me over to participate in a contest. I assume he chose me specifically because I was the only one in my party of 8 who was dressed up. He then quizzed me to see if I could name the main cast. When I correctly named them all, I was rewarded with a huge vinyl promotional banner which has hung in my TV room ever since.My kids wore their HarryPotter costumes to a number of releases of Harry Potter movies as well.Just be aware that many theaters, however, won’t let you in wearing a costume that covers your face or looks like you are packing heat because of security reasons.
How is casting handled for roles that call for an unattractive person? How do the actors feel about it?
There is a lot about the way this question has been asked that gives me pause (and frankly, some of the answers sent my eyebrows skyward as well). I will address this from my own personal experiences as one of the "fat and uglies". I live in New York, not Hollywood, and make my living as a professional actress. I get auditions through my agent and my manager, just like the ingenues. Roles I audition for, and book, are probably 50% look-specific and 50% not. But I am, as is necessary in my business, fully aware of how I look. My fatness is not a secret that is being kept from me, that I feel uncomfortable with people addressing. I am fat. I also feel very attractive in my everyday life, because at the end of the day, what I do at work is PLAY A ROLE. TV and film are not life. I do not get my self-esteem from the outward attractiveness of the parts I play. I view playing a role that is described as "fat" or "unattractive" as a challenge and an opportunity. There is a widening chasm between how people on tv look and the appearances of the people watching at home, and I am proud to be an actress that women "of a certain size" can identify with. To me, it's not about being a freak. It's about portraying characters that could live in the real world, that are mothers or stage managers or fast food restaurant employees, that go through life without the benefit of plastic surgery and personal trainers. I am not an actor so I can look pretty, or to collect a paycheck and be laughed at. I am an actor because there is nothing on Earth I enjoy as much as acting.
Realistically, what are the chances of becoming a famous actress?
Some really dodgy equations going on here. 50-50? So every second person who wants to be an actor will get to Hollywood? 1 in 1000? Totally random figure plucked from the air. In the UK, 2,600 people have been made millionaires by randomly playing the lottery - that's not including people who won 900,000, just those who won a million or more (figures confirmed by Camelot). There are far fewer than 2,600 people in the UK today who make a living from acting alone. Review any programme from just five years ago and you'll be asking yourself "whatever happened to them?" about a good percentage of the cast, the leads as well as the supporting cast. Go back 10 years, and it is shocking who fell off the radar. So even of those who get a very rare chance, don't necessarily go on to have a career out of acting. These are true stats you can check yourself. No random figures. No false hope. Accredited drama schools audition thousands of people just for 30 odd places every year. From that 30, statistically, 20 will have given up within five years due to lack of income. Of the other ten, most won't make a living solely from acting. Maybe 2 will go onto to make a living from acting, but none will necessarily become famous, and almost never will any of these work in Hollywood. Hey, live your dreams, but remember - you only dream when you're sleeping. You can achieve so much more if you're wide awake to the reality of the situation. Is it impossible? No. Is it it realistic? No. Is this why you should choose to become an actress, because you just want to be semi-famous for a couple of years? No. If you don't 'just' want to be a famous actor, why ask how likely it is that you will become famous? Just get on with the acting, and let random chance do what it will. Oh, and one more tip - buy lottery tickets, cos if believe you can manipulate how lucky you are against the odds, why wouldn't you put it to the test and make lots of money with no effort?
Have you ever been a movie extra?
I was an extra in a few scenes of "The Man Who Fell to Earth" which were filmed in Roswell, New Mexico. The film company needed a hundred extras and advertised for them several days in advance. Basically, I spent six hours waiting around to be in two scenes (both with a great number of other people), and the filming itself went quickly once the director was satisfied with the camera set ups (I also watched the filming of five or six other scenes in which few extras were included). I did have a chance to talk to Rip Torn for a few minutes, which was the highlight of the experience. That was back in the mid-seventies and scale for extras at that time was $19 and a box lunch (which was less than delicious). David Bowie wasn't in any of the scenes filmed in Roswell, so the entire filming came and went without much fanfare or attention. One of my Uncles lived in Sedona, Arizona in the fifties and early sixties, when the area was often used as a location for western movies. My older brother, and several of my cousins, worked as an extra in half a dozen movies filmed there (the only one still worth watching is an obscure Rod Steiger movie, "The Run of the Arrow.") He had a single line in "Fort Courage," which was the only time he made more than fifteen dollars a day as an extra. As I recall, most anyone who had any interest in movies in Sedona during that era, when Sedona only had two or three thousand residents, had worked as an extra in anywhere from one to a score of movies. No new filming has taken place there in years, and the town is now has somthing like ten times the population it had in 1960. If you get the chance to be an extra, you should take it. You won't make any money to speak of, but the novelty of the situation is something that will stick with you for years.