Poor Logan Fratty
January 13, 2009
Remember this little incident?
Basically, I ripped on this actor for making what I thought was a wrong choice in an audition, when in fact I was the idiot who made the mistake.
Well, we ended up casting that guy for the part of Logan (who is a typical fratty). His real name is Craig Coyne. He came to Shreveport, shot his part, did a fantastic job, and was great to have on set. A complete joy to work with and I would cast the dude again in a second.
Well, due to problems that had absolutely nothing to do with him at all, we had to cut his entire scene. As far as you the viewer are concerned, Craig will have nothing to do with the movie, he won’t even be in the background. This happens all the time, and most professional actors are used to it. It’s never fun, but it’s part of the business. A lot more gets shot than makes it into the movie.
I don’t have any idea what the normal process is for actors finding out that they got entirely cut out of a movie. I assume they show up at the movie and find out by watching it.
Well…that’s not how Craig Coyne found out.
Yesterday I was at Chateau doing an interview with Playboy Germany about my book being translated to German and my trip there in March, and I ran into him. Nils had told me that he’d run into him a month earlier at The Grove, so I just assumed Craig knew his scene was cut out. Without really thinking about it I started to talk about it…
Oh shit. Fucking Nils hadn’t told him.
Since I already fucked up, I went ahead and just broke the full news and told him that the whole scene he was in was cut. He wasn’t in the movie at all.
The dude was crestfallen. He got this look on his face like an 8-year old who just learned Santa isn’t real. It was so awkward and unfun. I would have kicked a goat to death to avoid having that conversation.
By the way, Nils is a dick. The text message conversation I had with him:
Tucker: Just saw fratty, told him we cut him, dude was unhappy
Nils: Hahaha, I didn’t tell him at the grove, i didn’t feel like telling him in front of his girl. Poor Logan Fratty
So, since I’ve met Craig, I punked him in an audition when he wasn’t wrong, then made him fly to Shreveport for two days, and then cut him entirely out of the movie. If he came over to my house and shit on my floor, I think I would just call it even.
For any other producers or casting directors reading this: Craig Coyne is a very good actor, a good guy, and fantastic to work with. Don’t let our unintentionally awful treatment of him fool you.
And Nils is an asshole.
