Julia Rosette has talent and energy that will leave you enthralled and speechless when you see her in the STARRING ROLE as JADE SILVER in "The END of FUN!
On June 28, 2016, I placed the first ads to begin casting "The END of FUN". Over the first week, as the ad appeared only on Craigslist, a few FB groups, etc, there were maybe 2 real people truly showing interest in all of the roles combined (Jade, Kari K, Scab, VV, Shay). Just over a week into these efforts, on July 10, 2016, I made one of my best decisions so far, and placed a casting call on Backstage.com. This unleashed a flood!
Within mere minutes of posting the ad-- before even receiving "official notification" of its approval-- the number of qualified, interested actors for the project tripled.
In the first day after posting this casting call, there were ELEVEN actors applying JUST FOR JADE! I was blown away. Some clearly spammed their names out to everything that came along. Even so, a few of them still received replies from me just due my being so overwhelmingly thankful to finally have the DESIRED and EXPECTED RESPONSE!
Three days later, I received an inquiry from the outstandingly talented Julia Rosette. TWO THINGS struck me immediately in her initial email. Before I could even read a word she had written, I was simply stunned at her PHYSICAL RESEMBLANCE TO JADE --as I had previously only seen her in my mind and attempted to put onto paper. The second thing to hit me was her NICELY WORDED and THOUGHTFUL PERSONAL MESSAGE which accompanied this original submission through Backstage. It encouraged me to visit her profile there, and look at her experience and talent more closely than I had any of those who had so obviously just spammed out their responses.
Julia is every bit as multi-faceted a creature as Jade Silver--just far more compassionate and soulful, and far less narcissistic and self-focused!
When I replied to her, it was my goal to be every bit as thoughtful as she had been herself when submitting. It was from this point that a real rapport and mutual respect was born before we ever even had the opportunity to speak a word to, or see each other. I explained what I needed, regarding a pre-taped audition with a side I provided; and even included another document that tries to very clearly lay out what I perceive to likely be specific challenges for any actor who may be courageous enough to take on this movie, and especially the role of "Jade Silver". As she worked on that "pre-taped audition" video, we also scheduled our first video conference on SKYPE.
During that very first meeting, Julia impressed me with her instinctive and insightful understanding of Jade Silver based upon only the brief amount of initially provided information-- she clearly explained the ways in which she relates to this type of character, and the many more ways that she knows she is far different.
She impressed me with a maturity, honesty, and frankness that was as welcome as unexpected. She impressed me with her focus as an artist, and goals in writing as well as acting. I was more than impressed to hear, as one of her first proud declarations-- and completely unsolicited, at that-- that she loved listening to Classical Music, and that many of her tastes ran to the rather classic and thus, ironically, non-traditional for her age group in 2016...
While nowhere near the narcissistic manipulatrix that we know Jade Silver to be, Julia proved to be every bit as dynamic, complex, and not-what-you-expected as the character I had created. There were several instances right from the very beginning in which I almost slipped and referred to her directly as "Jade" instead of "Julia".
As Jade, Julia will make you laugh and cry; she will scare you and thrill you; you will get mad at her and with her-- Julia owns Jade...and Jade will OWN YOU!
Over 50 actors submitted for this role in the end. Only about 4 included the type of thoughtful email that Julia did, and I always looked at each of those actors much more closely than I did any of the others. With the much higher submission rate, I never felt as compelled to reply to those who did not personalize theirs to at least some degree, though.
It felt nice to be dealing with such an overall higher level of quality, but a total of 11 actors were invited to submit audition tapes or to read live over SKYPE or Google Hangouts.
Out of those 11 who auditioned, 4 were very good, but only 2 really NAILED IT. One of those two was Julia Rosette, obviously-- and hers was a combination of 2 brief taped pieces and one live reading/audition. I do not want to discuss the other actor here because this spotlight is reserved for Julia Rosette, but I will say that the other actor is one I owe A LOT to already and definitely hope to collaborate with in the future, and whose work and career I will promote from this day forward (on FB and in future posts here, etc.).
Ultimately, Julia Rosette just convinced me that she would embody Jade completely. I realized this after catching myself in both our video meetings, as mentioned above, nearly calling her "Jade" instead of "Julia" at certain points as we both excitedly discussed the story, screenplay, or character. Hers was also the picture in my mind by which I judged other actors degree of resemblance to Jade. ("Does she look MORE like Jade that Julia does? I don't think so...").
Yet, I must be 100% clear here: It was NOT HER PHYSICAL RESEMBLANCE that earned her the part-- it was actually her focused talent as an actor, her friendly persistence, and her incredibly nuanced understanding of Jade as a character, and the whole story, upon reading the entire screenplay for the first time that sold me and my Senior Executive Producer, Rita McBean. The physical attributes that align her own description with Jade's are very welcome once all those other pieces fit into place so nicely.
What REALLY matters now is that SOON when I say (or anyone says) the name "Jade Silver", it is Julia's face they--AND YOU-- will see. PLEASE help us make JULIA ROSETTE feel WELCOME and say "Hi" below! I know she will be checking in here occasionally to touch base with all of us, and would love to hear from you directly!
Say "HI!" to Julia below, and then follow this talented actor and her career through "The END of FUN" and beyond!
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ReplyDeleteYes! That's me! Hello world, thanks so much for the kind words Bobby. As for anyone else who might be reading, thank you so much for your interest in our movie, we are truly beyond excited to make the best possible movie for all you viewers. Bobby is a passionate creative genius who I am confident will continue to inspire the film industry for years to come. Stay tuned!
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