July 20th, 2008 Jon
Quick preface: Normally I’m not down with sharing these stories, cause it feels kind of petty to talk shit over the internet about someone who may not even know you’re talking shit about them. But I’m good with this for a couple reasons:
1. We have email verifications to back it up.
2. It serves as a suggestion to all the actors out there that being honest can’t hurt. As with any other producers out there, you’re going to run into your fair share of confrontations over the work you’re trying to create. But please be a man about it (even if you’re a woman, not sure how can you pull it off, maybe carry a strap on, I don’t know, I don’t know if you’ll have enough time) because we’ve never gotten upset with someone who told us face to face what they thought about us and our show. We respect people who respect us.
3. Well, fuck Paul Cas.
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July 18th, 2008 Charles
Prior to the launch of Winners we filmed three episodes of the show which nobody has seen. We used these to finalize our cast, see how the chemistry worked, see who didn’t look good on camera, and most importantly, establish who was a dick to work with. The third of these three episodes was an alternate version to the current season 1 finale and we filmed the entire episode over a single 12+ hour day.
On shoots like this every small delay in the aggregate causes what could potentially blow the entire day of filming. Everyone needs to be on top of their game, have the script memorized, and be ready to act when called upon. It is for this exact reason that I have no problem calling Paul Cas a fucking asshole.
Paul’s audition would have been completely forgettable if not for the fact that he was really bad, really nervous, and looked like a pedophile. Despite all of this, or rather because all of this, we cast him for a one word role spoken by an undercover sexual deviant. All in all, however, he seemed like a generally nice, if not slightly creepy guy. This should have been our first warning.
Nice guys don’t exist, at least insofar as the overused phrase, “nice guys finish last” implies. The people who say this–self-referentially–aren’t actually nice guys. They’re actually dishonest and creepy, people who mask their true intentions in order to get laid. And lets be honest, it’s always in reference to sex, pussy is the reason men do anything.
Robert Greene said it best:
[He repulsed] me, the same way that Sting repulses me….The men I have known like this are inevitably nurturing some kind of dark side. Well, we all are, that is true. But most men have an abundance of aggressive energy (women do as well, but of a different nature). This either comes out overtly or it is channeled into subterranean chambers. A man of this type is not merely nice and sensitive, he is nicer and more loving than anyone else. He is competitive in that arena, and incredibly insecure at any sign that he might not be the best at this. Such types can be intensely passive aggressive.
Those who work the hardest to disguise this dark side are the ones who seem the most suspicious to me, and sometimes the most dangerous.
We sent the script out over five days before we were scheduled to shoot, so all actors involved knew what was asked of them. I also know for a fact that Paul Cas read the script because we had this email exchange [emphasis mine]:
paul cas
to me
11/14/06
I didn’t see this script before today. I’m not complaining, but is this the whole script? Bill has only the one line?
Wasted Potential
to paul
11/14/06
Paul,
BILL has more scenes in other episodes, but as of now we are filming out of order. In this particular episode, yes, you only have 1 line. Sorry about that.
Wasted Potential FilmWorks
paul cas
to me
11/14/06
Oh, its ok, I’m not complaining. My day will be quick! And I shouldn’t have any trouble remembering my lines..
Thanks, pc
paul cas
to me
11/16/06
With my one line for the day, is there any chance you know when my scene will take place. I won’t be sitting around from 10am until 5 pm for the one line will I? (Actually its one word). I don’t wish to complain…
Thanks/Paul
Rule of thumb: When someone qualifies a point by making excuses for what they are about to say, what they are saying is not necessarily what they mean.
Aside from the four of us there were also six actors in the house as well as the decrepit girlfriend of Paul Cas [I should point out here that there is no relation to Paul Cat.] Paul Cas’ girlfriend, henceforth referred to as Skeletor, sat alone on the driver’s side of her car while Paul awkwardly sat inside Christiaan’s house not-so-patiently waiting to film his scene. I was doing double duties, trying to memorize lines as a replacement actor as well as production work, handing out waivers and keeping the idle cast informed of the day’s agenda, when another actor approached me.
“That guy is getting really anxious”
Although I already knew who he was talking about I asked anyways, “Who?”
“The weird old guy, he keeps asking when it’s his turn to film.”
“The one who looks like a child molester?”
“Yea him.”
Being impatient is one thing, being an obnoxious dick when I already explicitly told him that he would have to wait an hour, however, is something completely different. The very act of filming necessitates a lot of idle time. Even when you’re in the scene that’s being filmed, you might only be on camera for 20 percent of it, and this sucks enough without Paul Cas getting all pissy. I don’t need a forty year old diva lowering morale because he wants to hurry back to his car and suck mandible with the zombie he calls his girlfriend.
I decided to try and calm Paul Cas by giving everyone an update on the days schedule. Paul, however, felt that my general outline on when everything was going to be filmed didn’t have enough specifics about him in it.
“When are we filming my part?”
“Like I said, we are going to shoot it in about an hour, relax, have some coffee, tell your girlfriend or wife or whatever to come inside, this is going to be fun.”
I started to walk away when I was reminded of his E-Mails; “I don’t mean to complain but.” His constant complaining was done to make us look like the bad guys. Our schedule, which he knew about in advance, didn’t match the one he wanted to operate on, and so by acting timid and nice he was trying to control what was happening on set. By the power of Greyskull I would not let that happen, I turned back.
I wanted to scream the truth: You suck, you are a terrible actor and if you are going to keep complaining about the schedule we already told you about then get the fuck out. The only reason we chose you for this part is because we all agreed after having seen your audition that if you had children you would most likely drug and fuck them. You are the dad who encourages way too many little league sleep overs. Your favorite character from a movie is Bill Maplewood in Happiness, and most importantly, you are the one who showed up early for your shoot. So drop the passive aggressive sensitive guy routine and shut the fuck up. Oh, and your girlfriend looks like a corpse.
Instead I took a more subtle approach.
“I hope you brought your leather pants.”
“I um, uh, um, I uh, didn’t know that I had to.”
Yes he did, we already know he read the script, and the action line 6 lines above his one word of dialogue was clear and obvious:
Lying in the bed is a man wearing leather pants, a gimp mask,
and two ping pong paddles.
The girls who had the incredible pleasure of sitting in the room with him all day laughed and joined in on the fun. “I can run home and get a pair if you want me to.”
“That would be great Diana, you have any whips and chains you can bring too?”
“Damn, just lent them out, you should have told me earlier.”
Paul had gone silent and started squirming in his seat. The rest of us watched his brain rapidly hit ctrl+alt+delete while he tried to come up with a response. Before I left the room I told him not to worry and that we would figure something out.
We received no more complaints the rest of our time spent at that location.
When it came time to film Paul’s scene we had to change locations. I went to pick up pizza for the crew while everyone else lead the actors to Sean’s house in Stamford. While waiting for the food I got a phone call from Jon.
“Did Paul Cas call you?”
“No why?”
“Well first off, he was following us, and the girls were following him. We get on the highway and he’s driving really fucking slow, so I slow down so we don’t lose him and he starts to drive even slower. We were going 40 miles per hour when he put on his blinker and got off some random exit…”
“What the fuck, the girls didn’t follow him did they?”
“No, but we’ve been calling him and he wont pick up his phone, he just fucking left.”
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