RSS
Home
Contacting an A-List actor
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Finding an A-list actor to read your screenplay will be a monumental task. The purpose of attracting talent is part and parcel of a marketing strategy to attract attention from financiers, production companies, or directors; generally people with an artistic or financially motivated interest in optioning your screenplay.
At this stage, you have everything you need to sell a screenplay except an agent, connections, and an apartment in L.A. So how then, might a writer outside of Hollywood go about finding the actor he or she had in mind for a script?
The Player’s Directory is part of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and a phone and address directory of card holding Hollywood actors and actresses. You need only pick up the phone and dial the Player’s Directory (Located in Beverly Hills, CA) and ask for an actor’s contact information and it will be given to you without hassle.
The Player’s Directory is also available online. For a fee you can peruse the directory in search of contact information for any actor you’ve ever wanted to work with.
There are other online services out there, like Imdb.com, a vast industry movie, acting, and production directory. The web site is free to access, but also charges a fee for the professional area of the web site for a mere 14.95 a month.
Before you set out to harass the likes of Pauley Shore with a deluge of phone calls, attaching an actor to a screenplay is not as easy as it sounds. Even with contact information there’s little guarantee you’ll get past an agent, an assistant, or some other formidable underling. These services have always been around, so use with care, and maturity.
Greater obstacles lie ahead in writer’s journey to optioning a screenplay and at best, making a movie. So get your goggles, your typewriter and a good lawyer and get back to work.
You can reach the Player’s Directory at 310-247-3000 or in writing to Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90211. While inquiries over the phone are free, The Player’s Directory is also issued in print twice a year for 75.00 US Dollars.
- E. Hughes
