How do you deal with a DIVA?

F

FilmBoy77

Veteran
is there even such a thing?

i have this very hot/sexy/pretty Latin girl (19) that has a key role in my short film where her lines are only about 2 pages long with short lines. she has had the script since November and we finally got to her part of the film yesterday and wer on a tight schedule and she was very unprepared and pissed off my crew and main actor...and me. we had originally planned to film 2 scenes that day and film the final scene the next day. we couldnt do that because what was supposed to only take 2 to 3 hours max turned into a 10 hour work day.

situation #1 - i have 2 guys on the crew helping me for free and all the actors are working for free. everybody was exactly on time (9am) but when the girl got there she brought a friend to help with her makeup. an hour after she arrived she was still doing makeup and realized she needed some glue for her eyelashes. i told her she was hot without that and we could just start. she and her friend gave me a look and said she couldnt go on without it. so they left and went to the store to get some then came back.

situation #2 - they get back from the store and after another hourshe finally has her face done but is not dressed yet. at this point its about 12pm. around 12:30 she's finally ready and pulls me to the side and says she doesnt know her lines and could i help. i didnt panic because i'm using one camera and would have to stop constantly to reposition anyway so i have a guy feeding her the lines. but....

situation #3 - she has a hard time delivering the lines. we had a rehearsal in december and she was pretty decent. forwahtever reason now she is completely scrambling. there was a line of hers that was like 10 words long and we had to do 23 takes of it because she couldnt get it right. at this point my boom op guy is getting pissed and mumbling things under his breath.

situation #4 - fast forward past several bloopers and a coupla hours and now we're all pretty hungry. so i order pizzas. the pizzas arrive and on the shot list i notice we have only gotten 6 shots complete out of 40. i ask if everybody is okay to work a little longer to get like 4 more shots before we eat and the actress is already walking out the door saying lets eat first. at this point both crew guys are like "man wtf???" on a funnier note, she cut in front of the crew guys as they were getting pizza by saying "excuse me guys" and getting ahead of them and taking her food to share with her friend she had brought. i try to make light of the situation to them by cracking omse jokes about it and they find it funny and are lightened up now instead of completely pissed.

situation #5 - we get back to the shoot and after 20 mins her friend (who doesnt speak english) says in spanish she has to leave and my Latina star has to take her home. The guy who's house we were using speaks fluent spanish and mentioned that he could taker her home instead so we could keep shooting but the friend says no because it is disrespectful to her husband. so now the diva has to leave for another 45 minutes to take care of that.

finally it's 5pm and the crew and actor are beyond frustrated but when they look at the little bit we've done they like it and a few people there on set that werent involved keep saying how hot she looks on camera and that she really stands out (she is wearing a negligee the whole time).

to make a long story short we got a majority of the stuff done around 7pm but had technical difficulties and while we have good footage we didnt finish and cant do the final scenes until March now because the main actor was on a tight schedule and has another project he is starring in the entire month of February.

my crew guys now hate her and everybody involved wants her off. the main actor and crew want to just redo the entire scene over since we didnt finish BUT they don't want to work with a DIVA (as they kept calling her).

the next day the actress calls me and says next time just call her when WE are ready, lol.

i totally didnt know how to handle this situation. i thought u deal with this in Hollywood. not on a low budget short film project, lol. was there anything i couldve done better on my part as a director to keep things in line?
 
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SomewhereinLA said:
Fire her. You seem to be infatuated with her.
Click to expand...

i'm not. but everybody that has seen her is and it seems to be getting the film a buzz because people are talking and passing the word along quick.
 
I agree with John. She's not worth the trouble. There is no substitute for professionalism. Recast.
 
I'm going to cast an opposing vote here. It would feel good and just to fire her because she clearly deserves it. but is that best thing for your film at this point? You said that you got the majority of the shots finished, and have only one shot (with her) left to go. Wait until March, get the shot and get on with finishing your film. You said that a lot of the other actresses you dealt with before shooting started didn't bother to call back, or return calls in a timely manner. How easy will it be, then, to re-cast at this point, and what is to say that the next one won't be just as bad? Your diva actress wasted a lot of people's time with her two-bit routine, but you could be wasting a lot more time starting from scratch.

Now, about your denial of being infatuated with her - are your really thinking that you'll want to cast her again, no matter how small the role? Really? C'mon, get the work done and make the best of a bad situation. But if you reward her behavior with more work in the future then, frankly, that's just stupid on your part and disrespectful to your future cast and crew.
 
build a time machine, go back and auditon her properly. then, thank her for coming and place her headshot in the "NO" pile with the confidence that you are saving yourself a lot of grief.
 
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Even in the big movies they recast if they are having a problem with an actor. At our level with crew and other actors basically working for food and credit it's better to go with another actor IMO. Other hot chicks are out there. The last project I worked on for a friend, he eventually had to pay a actress extra money to get her to come in the last day. It was a feature and she was in too many scenes to do anything else. Believe me, she was anything but hot so I think it was just the "I am a main character on my first movie" thing so the diva types can happen at all levels. Since you are stuck until March, and everyone hates her, and they are willing to reshoot the scene provided she is nowhere around, that might be the best solution overall. Good luck.
 
Replace her. There are millions of hotter actresses out there that are willing to work.
People like her like to make things difficult because men let them ger away with it and it gives them a feeling of control.
If she's 19 and not already big in the biz she's not a diva she's just a *****
You have to earn you privelige to be a diva with either talent, years of time, or both.

If she truly was a diva she would have left the crew pissed off but with some brilliant acting in the footage. Instead she left you pissed off and with nothing to show for it. She can't work if she only relies on her looks, and isn't willing to work hard at her craft, unless she moves to modelling or the adult film industry where acting skill isn't a requirement.

Oh and never feed a crew pizza. They get pizza on every student film and hate it.
 
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How do I deal with a Diva? I use 'em to make my set look good and then when I'm done I fold 'em over while they're still hot then throw 'em in the trunk.

We are talking about lights right?

Real Divas? No thanks. Too many hot chicks lining up for film/video work to deal with any odd personalities/relationships.
 
The egocentric behavior is one thing, not knowing your lines, another. Unless you're improvising or Marlon Brando himself, you don't know your lines, you're gone. Reshoot.
 
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How to deal with a Diva..... I will first echo what others have said.
She's pretty and she knows it, and like several folks her age, she's inconsiderate, never really known what hard work is, probably now thinks she's Paris Hilton, is a flake and has no idea of the commitment she undertook to make this film.
I blame who cast her..first.
IF YOU MUST CONTINUE TO WORK with her, get a PA to pick her up (and her friend-if you have to) So, she'll be on set in time. Work with her on her lines off set, when not filming. She may be motivated by a few hundred bucks as well.
Otherwise, reshoot with people that have talent as well as looks.
(As far as what I said about your actress, I'm sure she's a nice person, and I was talking in generalizations about todays work ethic, over what it used to be. Kids just seem to want things handed to them these days.. But that's a whole other thread. ( Holy Crap..I'm starting to sound like my DAD..LOL)
 
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You need to be a devious hound.
Keep her sweet, but also try to find a replacement, and prepare a plan b reshoot. In the meantime circulate a rumour that your friend the big Hollywood talent scout has been hanging out on-set. Make sure she gets to hear it.
If you can't find a replacement, at least she might lose the attitude; if you can, then you get to spectacularly kick her ass off the set, and tell her she was in the running for "Titanic 2 - The Refloat". You could keep the cameras rolling and use the scene as an extra on your DVD, or post it on YouTube.. viral publicity.

Or...

...you could just ask her to leave, take that weight offa your shoulders, and get back to being creative with a happy crew, who respect the hell out of you.
 
LMAO - Titanic 2 "The Refloat" :cheesy:

good comments guys. definately lesson learned. i now see why some people sacrifice beauty for talent in movies.
 
It's a tough call, if your film is only a short I'd say Get rid of her and re-cast, but if it's something much longer where she is almost in every scene, then I would go with an alternate plan in try to make her finish the film, your crew would understand. Because it would be much harder to re-cast and re-do everything over than to deal with one more day of her Divaness.

Good luck, if this is a short film.. GET RID OF HER ASAP!
 
yah see you said shes like a small but pivitol part. so i saw screw her. recast, then after you finish the movie, send her a copy just to rub it in her face haha. but yeah, def recast.
 
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