Day 20 Month of Love goes to Sally Forcier. Sally and I met in 2011 when she cast me in a WalMart commercial. I had not been in front of the camera for 10 years but when a friend sent me the casting email I went to the audition. I was over the moon feeling validated, feeling like I still had it. Sally cast me in a couple more jobs, one for an industrial for Denio's and then for an industrial for the California Chamber of Commerce. I played a sassy redhead who likes her beefcake calendars in her cubicle. What I love most about this job is that people still go to the Chamber of training and see that video. Ronald came into Pete's and said, "Hey, I saw you in a sexual harassment training video today."
Sally started following Mason's culinary journey and called to talk about him auditioning for a film she was working on where she was going to need a dozen 10-13 year-old boys, but she wanted Mason to audition for the lead boy. WOW! That was cool, especially since all of Mason's experience on camera was him being him, he had no real acting experience. He does now! He didn't get the lead, but he did get to read with the actresses auditioning to play the mom, he got to do a pool stunt, he got to wear FX makeup & white contacts, and he got bit by the "making movies" bug.
From that film, Sally asked me to help her cast her next film and she asked who I knew that might make a good addition to this team she was building and I immediately thought of my girl Tanya Greer. Tanya came on board and we jumped into the "casting a movie" process with both feet! It was bumpy to be sure, but we learned so much! We are heading into pre-production on our fourth film/project together and though it's getting easier because we know more of what we are doing and what to expect, it is still the hardest work we'll ever do and still love doing it.
Part of the love of doing this kind of work is loving the people we get to do it with. I am so grateful to Sally for believing in me and having confidence in me to allow me to be her right hand allowing us to make movie magic here in N. CA and more specifically in Sacramento. She's a wise woman because I know stuff! :)
I've worked with quite a few powerful women and most of them talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk. They talk about lifting other women up and reaching back to grab hands after they've been lifted to the next level and not one of those women before Sally has followed through. In fact, I've been behind the scenes and seen these women show their true colors. Saying things like, 'What's in it for me? Why would I go speak to your Toastmasters group, they don't pay." Or speaking of someone they are mentoring, taking thousands of dollars an hour, "She's as dumb as a box of rocks. Her idea is good but not even her husband's money can buy her success." Yet, this one woman continued to take the hourly consulting fees. Or to see them put other women entrepreneurs through the paces, making them pay to move her forward only to never even be thanked let alone informed of what happened with "the project." It's awful to work for someone who promises the world but goes alone to the party or accepts the award thanking her team but naming no names. Sally is who all these other women are not, she is honest, sincere, truthful, and truly has the best interest of her team at heart - not only as a team but thinking of how she can help build them up personally and professionally.
Thanks,
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