The "IT Factor," Bravo's first foray into reality-based television, is a must-see for actors, aspiring actors, Back Stage readers, and curious civilians alike. (The show, postponed from its originally scheduled September premiere due to the Sept. 11 disaster, debuted in early January.) Firmly plugged into the public's seemingly endless fascination with the "biz," nobody on this 13-part series ever eats a bug or builds a tent. Rather, the audience follows a dozen young New York actors through a full six months in their endless daily grind of classes, auditions, rejections, and sometimes actually getting the part. And the audience learns who the winners are in the very first episode, a half-hour, highly edited version of the feeding frenzy that took place for two weeks back in February 2001, when 2,500 actors--1,000 from a Back Stage ad, the rest from submissions and the casting director's own files--auditioned for the 12 slots created by producers Nicole Torre, David Clair, and Lauren Friedland. The young actors, all relatively unknown, range from rank beginners (it was Kevin Bulla's first audition) to a Tony winner (in 1991, then 11-year-old Daisy Eagan received her award for "The Secret Garden" from icon Audrey Hepburn).
The job of choosing this hardy band fell to veteran casting director Billy Hopkins ("The Shipping News," "Kate and Leopold," and "Monster's Ball"), who not only discovered Macaulay Culkin (and recently cast the Off-Broadway version of Culkin's London success, "Madame Melville"), but also cast Madonna in "Desperately Seeking Susan." Hopkins revealed to Back Stage that he had never cast a reality-based show before, explaining, "It's very different from casting for a fiction series. [He cast the pilot for "Sex and the City."] There are plenty of good actors who weren't chosen because the 'IT' criteria involved both personality and talent. Usually, an actor covers up his or her own persona to read for a role. Here, the producers were surprised when I asked for a monologue, but I said, 'You need to know that they can act; otherwise, why bother hiring me?' Of course, I'd seen 'Survivor,' so I knew you have to have the bitchy one, the nice one, etc... I was looking for different personality types and I knew several of the actors who were finally chosen, but what was amazing to me, after all this time, was how many I didn't know before." Hopkins' best audition advice: "Understand the fine art of polite aggressiveness (which an actor needs) and never put a casting person on the defensive."
Hopkins culled a multi-ethnic group of seven women and five men, including three native New Yorkers (Eagan, Latarsha Rose, and Chelsea Lagos), two Canadians (Miranda Black and Katherine Winnick), one Amerasian (Michaela Conlin), and one openly gay actor (P.J. Mehaffey). We talked with one of the producers and four of the actors who were eager to share their experiences.
Daisy Eagan (Actor): "How do you top winning a Tony at age 11?" 21-year-old Eagan, most recently on Broadway in "The Dead" (coincidentally cast by Hopkins), replies, "Well, among other things, I took some time off. It's kind of hard to be a kid and say I want to be an actor--and then suddenly you are. No one realizes how much rejection comes along with the territory. I really wasn't sure when my agent called and explained Bravo wanted to follow 12 actors for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We each got assigned to one of the producers--I was in David's group--and they actually filmed even more than I expected, but thankfully only five days a week. There was no script, no dailies, no director--just someone with a digital camera following you everywhere." In one episode, the audience goes with Daisy as she gets a tattoo; in another, we see her lose a cookie commercial. "I'm hoping the public will see that it's not all Oscars and parties; we work hard." Eagan's advice to other young actors: "Keep going. It's always an uphill struggle. Just because you won a Tony doesn't mean work comes in." Check out her website at www.daisyeagan.com.
P.J. Mehaffey (Actor): At the January premiere party for "IT Factor," Mehaffey sports the new shorter hairdo he got after leaving "The Donkey Show." "I danced in it for over a year, and I got that part through an audition I first saw in Back Stage. The show got me calls from over a half dozen agents." Of the Bravo show, he says, "It was like living in a fish bowl for six months, and we didn't have a clue what would or wouldn't be on the show." Mehaffey has also performed several of his own works and comments, "I truly believe in self-producing. No one's going to come up to you and say, 'You're perfect for this show!' You've got to take charge of your own life and career?that's how people make it. Ask anyone famous their backstory and you'll learn they did their share of struggling." Mehaffey's advice: "Network, network, network! Don't be shy, talk to other actors, share information back and forth. When you need an acting teacher or a photographer, check out Back Stage, but ask for personal recommendations from other actors." He'll be performing his latest one-man show, "I Love New York, What's Your Excuse?," at the Pulse Theatre.
For more interviews with the IT Factor-actors, go to the Member's Area