I rarely drink.

After receiving the paperwork from Screen Actors Guild, finding all the supporting documentation, and discovering (SURPRISE!) I will have to provide several additional forms of insurance for this next movie to ‘allow’ Steve Callahan to play the leading role, I need a drink.

Of cyanide.

Steve’s a fantastic actor, and I’m absolutely thrilled he’s doing this movie and am really looking forward to working together.

Is it so much to ask SAG to outline the real and actual costs of hiring a union member, instead of waiting till we’re three weeks from filming?

Admittedly I have a chip on my shoulder regarding SAG’s attitude in the past toward us low budget producers.  It used to be they made it virtually impossible to hire a union actor.  Now that actors are struggling (Hollywood is struggling. Who isn’t struggling?) SAG puts on this glitzy happy face on their website making it sound like hiring a union member is sooooo simple now.

Bullshit.

I spoke to another filmmaker today about it.  He said he could never reach anyone at SAG to answer his questions.

I faxed in my application two weeks ago. Heard nothing. Zippo.  Called this week and got a call back the following day that the contact person who was going ‘to rush my paperwork through’ was on vacation.

I called into the office to get someone else to help me.  That person’s voicemail said they were out of the office, try their assistant.  Their assistant’s voice mail said she would return Tuesday, call the operator.  The operator had voice mail saying she was on vacation all week this week.

I spoke to  someone in Dallas who told me to rush my paperwork –send it today– so there’s enough time to process it before the shoot.

As a point of interest, a casting director in New York told me last week that he’s not sure how long SAG is going to be viable in New York.  He hires almost all non-union talent.

SAG is killing itself.

I won’t let it kill me.