The pinnacle of my career was auditioning for Uncle Buck, which was breathlessly described to me by my agent as "a John Hughes movie with JOHN CANDY in it!" I drove up to New Trier (whichever one is the closed one, which he used for the set) and read the script for some flunky, and then the next week got called back to read for John Hughes himself.
When I got there, I met John Hughes and the Assistant Director, whom I will refer to as Dick. They didn't tell me the script had changed -- I had the previous script memorized, so I made an idiot out of myself by telling him I didn't need a copy, and then having to take one anyway when I found out we were reading another scene. The scene didn't make any sense, and was very short (maybe 5 lines).
Then John Hughes started asking me interview-type questions. He asked where I was from, and I told him that I lived in Skokie. He said, "Where do you get good bagels in Skokie?" I was pretty much thrown by this question, since I knew he was from the area, and I didn't see how he could possibly not know where to get bagels. I said, "Um, there's Kaufman's, I guess," and he said "Where's that?" I didn't know the address, so I said, "Uh, on Dempster?" He stared at me. I mean, really stared. And he said "EVERYTHING in Skokie is on Dempster." In the most scathing voice you can imagine. I don't remember what I said after that, really, but when I got out of there I cried in the car because I was so humiliated.
The next day I got a call from my agent saying that I had GOTTEN THE PART! I was floored. She told me that they had a "deal memo" from Universal and that I was a Principal actor. I had to apply for a Taft-Hartley exemption so I didn't have to pay the fee to join the Screen Actor's Guild, since it was my first job.
My agent gave me a contact number to call for the production company (Universal) and told me to schedule going in for a costume fitting and getting my script. Most of the people I talked to referred to me as "the girl in the bedroom". I went in for measuring, got fitted for 3 outfits, was given a date to show up, and was never given a script. As the date grew closer, I called the contact number again, nervously wanting to know what was going on and, most importantly, wanting to get a script so I could memorize the lines. The person I talked to the second time gave me an address of an office in Winnetka and told me to show up there at 6am.
When I arrived, there were about 50 other kids there, and we were all herded onto a bus and driven to the house of some poor schmuck who volunteered to have a scene filmed there. You hear people talk about how long things take on movie sets --it's no joke. Around 9am everyone was on the set and we were all instructed to sign Extra Releases. At this point I was severely confused -- extra form, no script, no makeup, (I had arrived freshly scrubbed, as is the general rule). Finally I recognized Dick, the Assistant Director, who announced that we were all having a wild party, and John Candy Himself would be making his way through the house and going up the stairs. We were all instructed to stare at him or the camera, wondering why the giantly fat geeky grownup was invading our teenspace. Everyone was given cups of watered-down beer and told to dance around. In came Mr. Candy, we flailed in silence, stared at the camera in disdain, he waddled his way through, and then we did it again. And again. At about 2pm, everyone was instructed to go call all their friends and have them show up on the set, because there weren't enough kids. I called two of my high school theatre buddies, who drove up swiftly and joined the throng.
While we were waiting for everyone to show up, John Hughes came in and flopped tiredly on the sofa in the living room near where I was standing. We made eye contact. I smiled nervously. He smiled back, and then said, in a puzzled voice, "I KNOW you." I started to say "Yeah, I auditioned for you --" and then suddenly Dick was there. Dick had something to tell John Hughes that was very important, and off they went. The most interesting part of all of this was watching how the SteadiCam worked. I did get to talk to John Candy a little, but he was mostly surrounded by other kids. He seemed very patient and was nice to everyone.
Around 11pm the crew started to get nervous because apparently Winnetka wouldn't allow shooting past midnight and there wasn't going to be enough time to pack up get out. Every one was herded back to the bus and back to the office, where Dick announced that the people he had talked to individually should come back the next day at a certain time, and everyone else could go home. I gathered up my nerve and I went up to Dick, asking "Should I come back tomorrow?" He shook his head and smiled condescendingly and said "No, thanks, that's all we need from you."
The next morning I called my agent and told her what happened. She was enraged. I tried not to cry. She promised she would call me back. I don't know what occurred on the other end of things, but I can assume there was a lot of screaming and possible legal involvement. She asked me why I had signed the extra form. I told her that they had said nobody was allowed on the set without it. She asked if I had talked to Dick, and I said yes.
About a week later my agent told me that I would be paid as a principal for the hours I had spent as an extra, and that was the end of it. When the movie came out, I mysteriously got in the mail a xeroxed pink sheet with 2 complimentary tickets to the premiere, which I didn't attend, because I left it at home and only discovered it when my boyfriend and I were in the car 2 blocks away. And then the checks started arriving. To this day I still get SAG mailings and residual payments from Universal -- maybe $14 every year or so.
I am actually visible in the movie, in the party scene. I am wearing a black beret and I have giant curly mall hair and I am dancing with a tall gangly guy who has his hair in his face. Upon finally seeing the movie, we deduced that I had been originally cast as "the girl in the bedroom", who is actually a girl that the main character Tia's boyfriend is cheating on Tia with. (John Candy drills the doorknob off and breaks in to surprise them, and discovers the girl isn't Tia.) The "girl in the bedroom" showed a lot of skin, which was disturbing in and of itself. Most everyone was struck by how much I resembled Tia's actress, and we surmised that they had decided not to use me because I looked too much like her, and it would have been confusing for the audience. That was our best guess as to why they fucked me over.
Here is a comparison:
Jean Louisa Kelly in Uncle Buck
Another shot of Jean Louisa Kelly
One of my headshots
Another one of my headshots
