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.
Queen Esther (Actor): Another proponent of doing your own thing, actor-singer-writer Queen Esther has performed her show "Queen Esther, Unemployed Superstar" at Joe's Pub, fronts for James "Blood" Ulmer's blues band, writes songs she loosely describes as "urban heartland music" (you can hear them at www.queen esther.com), and she's hard at work on her next one-woman show, "The Big Payback." "My feeling is I can do anything, but not everyone will cast a black girl. All the actors I respect—like Ann Magnuson, John Leguizamo, and Danny Hoch—developed their own material. I auditioned for 'IT' because I had no screen time and I wanted to learn how to be comfortable in front of the camera. I was able to be myself on the show." She recently spent several months as host of the Stagedoor Canteen for Ground Zero workers presented by her good friend and mentor, director Jeffrey Cohen, at his Tribeca Playhouse. (Castmates Eagan and Godfrey also participated.) Naturally, she advises, "Be versatile. If you just act, you may not work much. Study singing and dancing. Try writing. Do it all."
Jimmy Smagula (Actor): New Jersey native Smagula understudies the role of Dave Bukatinsky in "The Full Monty" on Broadway, but dreams of hosting his own TV show. "You have to know who you are and be pro-active in this business. I'm a character actor and I think I have the same kind of blue-collar appeal as Rosie O'Donnell. (I got picked from the audience to play a game on her show once and I took that as a sign.) When my agent told me about 'IT Factor,' I wasn't sure I really wanted a TV crew following me everywhere. And it was invasive—even a bit annoying—by the end of the six months. You had to tell them your schedule and they'd decide whether to come along. But I think it's a great career move and I always need to dream bigger. I got my first job out of Back Stage one summer while I was still in school, and when I graduated, I also found a job at Hershey Park for a season from a Back Stage audition." The most important advice this New York University grad can think of is, "Be prepared for anything and everything. You need good training to provide the basic tools to handle all kinds of situations."
Nicole Torre (Producer): "The whole idea really came about from an idea my buddy Ed Woodlawn [he gets an "Inspired by" credit line] used to kick around, but we were never sure if it should be a parody or a documentary. There's so much drama for an actor in just getting the job. I acted for a while, but I never got that big break. I also know how thin the line is between getting a job and not. We tried to capture the cruelties and triumphs of the business, and the whole show is a bit tongue-in-cheek at the same time. Billy's expertise really helped us. The camera never lies, and it wouldn't be an interesting show if they were all a bunch of 'nice guys.' What's amazing to us is that before we even aired, we got hired to do 13 episodes in Los Angeles as well. Bottom-line, the program really shows how beneficial creating your own work is to performers."
The last word goes to New York Times TV critic, Caryn James: " 'IT Factor' is...funny and engaging, as each person's career takes the shape of an intimate little story. Reality games like 'The Mole' may have floundered, but series like this...prove there's life in fresh nonfiction shows." It airs locally on Bravo, Sundays at 9 pm. Check your listings for show times and repeat schedule.