{original post had no questions}

I played a scene of Tracy's at WorldCon this weekend, and the
audience responded *very* favorably. I think this is gonna work out
just fine.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I wouldn't cast someone who was less than ideal for the role.
If you don't find the right person, you just keep going until you *do*.
We had a goodly amount of time on this one, and we saw a LOT of very
talented people. But she rose right to the top. We put her in
secondary auditions with our other top contenders, and she blew *them*
out. Then we put her in a scene with Jerry Doyle, in one of their
nose-to-nose, toe-to-toe confrontational scenes, and I told her to pull
out all the stops and try to bury her...and Jerry can be a very strong
presence when he wants to be. She held her ground and gave back as
good as she got, maybe more. And at the end, even Jerry said, "It's
her."

jms

{original post unavailable}

You're mixing up your terms. You don't use "better" in the way
that you are using them here. You look for the actor who most embodies
the character you're looking for. When we were casting Cartagia, for
instance, there were several actors who you could look at and say,
"Okay, this actor has more technique than *that* actor." But that
ain't the issue. Wortham Krimmer is mainly noted for being an actor on
daytime soap operas, and he was competing against people trained at the
Royal Shakespeare Academy in some cases. The latter may have been more
classically trained...but Wortham WAS Cartagia.

And we knew it in the first five minutes. The hard part was
then sitting through all the other auditions knowing that we had
already decided instantly on Wortham.

The casting director's job is to winnow down the list to those
who are real prospects. So by the time they get to me, the selection
is already very solid. When Tracy walked in, we instantly felt, "Okay,
this is the character." One other person came in and was also the
character, with a somewhat different take. So we brought both of them
back and had them audition one after the other, so we could compare and
see which worked best for the character. It was Tracy, hands down.

The casting process was no different for this character as any
other. We knew within moments.

jms

{original post unavailable}

No, you don't seem to understand the point. Of course the
actors you cast have technique. Where did you get this from?
Especially the "some actors are just being themselves" part in this
context. Wortham wasn't "just being himself" as Cartagia, nobody is.
Neither is Andreas, and neither is Scoggins. She didn't just walk into
the room and do herself, she created a character. Lochley is nothing
like Scoggins. Scoggins made a number of actor's choices, and when she
entered the room, she *was* Lochley.

I don't mean to be rude, but it's hard to have this
conversation when it's clear you don't really know what's involved in
casting or acting or creating a character, and are using your
misunderstandings to justify ragging on Scoggins. Andreas was
neck-and-neck with Morgan Shepard for the role of
G'Kar...fundamentally, Andreas' approach was more in line with what I
envisioned. Tracy was the same way. We cast the person who was right
for the role. If the person's not right, we don't cast them. The only
time it hasn't worked out as well as I'd've liked was when we cast Mary
Kay Adams, who was very strong in the auditions, and then made an
actor's choice to play the character very quiet, to not push against
Andreas...but you fade into the woodwork if you do that. So it's not a
question of technique there, but of choice. She was right in the
audition, but her choice later wasn't what we'd initially hoped for.

And Tracy is *great* as Lochley in all the dailies.

But basically, this is a stupid conversation. You're obviously
hoping to get me to be defensive about her, and there's no need. Every
sesaon the same thing happens, a cast member comes in or goes out, or
there is another change, and some people cry that the sky is
falling...and in the end, the choices have been right. There is
nothing to defend. Either the work succeeds, or it does not. And that
will be borne out in the episode, not the talking. I had to deal with
this with Bruce, Stephen, even Claudia, I would point out, from the
Takashima fans out there, which a lot of folks have conveniently
forgotten. Lots of folks online were saying that Tamlyn was a strong
female character and that in casting Claudia we were just putting in a
"babe," and pilloried me for it, and at the end of the day, when they
actually *saw* what she was doing, they were fine with it.

So I'm kinda tired of playing that game.

See what she does first, *then* we'll talk.

jms

{original post unavailable}

"Maybe I am naive to say that I don't think that you are 100% in
charge of your destiny on the show, naive to say that there are outside
presures that effect some of the decisions you have to make, and naive
to say that budget and time contraints effect who you cast or when you
cast them."

Okay, you're naive.

"Maybe I just don't understand."

A distinct possibility.

"If I am naive, then when it comes down to it,everything that is less
than brilliant on the show is your responsibility: everything."

I'll accept that only if by the same token I am responsible for
everything that is *more* than brilliant on the show. Otherwise it's
lopsided. And both statements are inaccurate. If an actor blows a
line on the set, if a director doesn't get his coverage, if a prop
breaks seconds before it was supposed to be used, if a lens doesn't
show up from Panavision in time for a particular shot...no, I'm not
responsible for those things.

For those things that are done deliberately, by choice, by me,
on the show, I will take full responsibility, whether they work or not,
except insofar as that may result in stealing thunder from any of our
actors or crew, in which case the good stuff was their responsibility.

"But then maybe you do think the show is perfect, that when you say
that there is still room for improvement you don't really mean it..."

Nope. That I think your statement is flawed does not mean that
I think my show is not flawed. Two vastly different issues. If it
were perfect, I would not be struggling every year to make the show
better than the previous year. We learn by doing.

As you just did.

jms

Phyllis Schmulenson <72447.224@compuserve.com> asks:
> I'm missing something- who is Tracy Scoggins and what role is she
> cast in?

Scoggins is on board for season 5 as Captain Elizabeth Lochley,
who is going to full the void in the command structure left by Ivanova.

jms

colin heaps <100622.3610@compuserve.com> asks:
> At that time Claudia *seemed* to be in for S5, now that's not the
> case, do you intend to shift the ability as another part of a
> different character, or will it be one of life's little
> mysteries? (You know - like why is there always 1 spoon left in
> the bowl after washing up? On another issue, (sorry if you've been
> over this before), but I just read in SFX that you won't be
> attending anymore Wolf conventions due to "queueing?" and
> "treatment of the fans" ?
> - Could I ask if that was for sure, or could we all persuade you
> that you are worth lining up for? Anyways, in parting, can I just
> say, season 4 is "doing my head in" as we say hereabouts, you
> don't believe in static characterization do you?
> - Anyone asked about yur reaction to Diana's death yet?

The stuff Ivanova would've done this season will be shifted in
part to another, but not Lochley.

Re: Wolf...no, I won't be doing any further Wolfs due to my
ongoing concerns with the way they are being run, the way that the fans
are being treated, the unreasonable lines, and other genuine concerns I
have with Brian and the organization. They promised that all illegal
good would be kept out; the dealer's room was *chockablock* with
unlicensed, pirated stuff, forcing me to have to go and police the
thing, which was not what I was there for, and put me in some difficult
situations...they promised that the lines would be dealt with fairly,
and they were not...I had yelled before at Brian for showing 4th season
material, as yet unaired in the UK, at conventions, he said he would
not do so, and yet the music videos were full of this footage (he says
he only promised not to show full episodes, so that isn't the same
thing, which is nonsense...he says that he got the videos from others
so they're not his fault, which is also nonsense)...I have asked him,
repeatedly, to follow through on his offer to let us inspect the
records of the charitable donations made by the convention, because I
have heard that a goodly amount the money never reached its proper
destination, and I would like to know the facts one way or the other,
but thus far he has consistently refused to do so, even after having
said at first that they were available for inspection...I've heard
enough times that he has been muscling other conventions by telling
people he has a lock on our cast that I'm concerned... and so on.

I have an obligation to associate myself and this program only
where I feel things are being done properly. My concern here is that
they are not, and thus I cannot and will not involve myself or
Babylonian Productions with any further Wolf conventions. My cast are
free agents, and can do what they wish, but there will be no further
cooperation with Babylonian Productions until these areas are addressed
and fixed.

jms

Phyllis Schmulenson <72447.224@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is captain lochley supposed to be the captain of one of the earth
> force ships that defect? Who is Diana?
> What about her death?

No, Lochley's ship did not defect.

And the Diana of whom others are speaking is Princess Di.

jms

{original post had no questions}

I'd mainly rather look at them myself at this stage, and I want
to emphasize here that I'm not saying they've done anything *wrong,*
rather that very little has been done *right* in some very crucial
areas. The distinction is an important one.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> That begs the question does B5 need a professionally run
> convention? What do we fans get if we don't get Wolf 359 type
> conventions?

I've always preferred the fan-run convention format to the
other sort, so there has to be a way to maintain that structure, and
I'm looking into that.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Can the producers of shows run fan events as well?
> What if fans' reactions do not agree with the official line?
> How many hats can you comfortably wear?

"Can the producers of shows run fan events as well?"

No, nor was that the intent of my message. We've talked about
doing just one, a one-off convention, here in LA at some point in the
future, but that's all, we can't and wouldn't want to get beyond that.
No, my only point was that maybe something can be done to make the
profit conventions hew more closely to the rules by which the fan run
conventions operate, and perhaps we can try to influence that in
future.

jms

{original post had no questions}

"What does concern me is the future of the fan convention which, I
understand, is particularly strong in the Uk compared to the US which
is mainly professionally run conventions ( Correct me if I have
misunderstood the situation in the States.)"

That's definitely, 100% incorrect. The professional conventions
are only a very small percentage of the overall conventions that take
place in the US. Most are local, fan-run conventions, and a large
number of regional or state conventions, and those covering several
states.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Speaking of which...John Copeland and I just did the producer's
cut on 502, the first S5 episode...and Tracy it *terrific*. I think
she's going to to over like gangbusters. It's a solid episode, and her
presence adds a great deal to the show.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> So you think you can run a BIG fan convention well enough to
> satisfy gusets and attendees on purely voluntary labour?

"So you think you can run a BIG fan convention well enough to satisfy
gusets and attendees on purely voluntary labour?"

Happens all the time. About a month or two ago, I was at
Westercon in Seattle, about 3,000 people showed up...and it was one of
the most efficiently run conventions I'd ever attended...all on
voluntary work by those involved (who were comp'd into the convention).

jms