The other day I saw an ad on television for the movie The Book of Eli, an apocalyptic/adventure/fantasy movie starring Denzel Washington. I don't pay much attention to movies, and so I tend to ignore movie ads. But something about this sounded familiar.
And then I remembered: about 7 years ago, when I was doing some professional acting, I auditioned for a role in this film. It was so long ago, I can't remember what the role was --- a prophet of some sort as I recall. But I remember waiting in a room with about 50 guys, most of them with big-time professional training and experience, nearly all of them dressed in their perceptions of how Hasidic Jews might dress.
The audition was in Toronto back in the days when many major production companies were shooting films and commercials in Canada to take advantage of the low US price of the Canadian dollar (well below purchasing-power parity in the film industry) and to exploit some of us poor Canadians*. I see from IMdb that in the end, the locations were all in Alcatraz and in the southwestern US -- none in Canada.
I don't see that role in the film, now. I wonder what happened to that role and I really wonder what caused the lengthy delay in getting that film made and into the theatres.
*No, I didn't get the role. Their loss. And believe me, I wouldn't have felt exploited if I had been given the role.