The Frustration and Struggle with #MaleToo

 #MaleToo is a film about the sexual assault against male models in the modeling industry. When I decided to create this film, the one thing that almost stopped me was my previous experience of producing zoom projects. I have produced one short film, a mini series, and a play reading via zoom, and I have had the same experiences with all of them and that is casting. With all three projects and #MaleToo I have had 3-4 times the people submit and still had issues casting. From people dropping out, to people "ghosting me," to people not returning emails, casting has been the must frustrating part of all of my zoom projects.

I am sharing this because, when/if you see the film you will see me in it. I was NOT supposed to be in this film according to my plans. I had about 5-7 actors apply for Robbie using backstage.com and craigslist. Only one was a chance, the thing about him was he kept cancelling the zoom due to life's ups and downs. The rest, I am assuming got nervous about what I was requesting. In the opening scene Robbie is in his underwear's for a photoshoot. I can understand why the actors probably thought I was a creep and chose not to respond to me and even drop out. Either or I knew this film needed to be made. Also, most of the filming was done, so instead of putting the project on hold or cancelling I stepped up and became Robbie. I am not happy with that choice. What I realized, some times in life you have to do what you do not want in order to do what is needed.

I am thankful for the entire cast who is in this film. Thank you to Professor Holly Logue from Kean University for sending out the audition notice. To the cast from backstage.com and Kean, thank you for being part of this. And to the one's I knew prior to this project, thank you for agreeing to be a part of this project. I greatly appreciate each of you.