Posted by bengal at spider-wg021.proxy.aol.com on November 29, 2001 at 00:33:35:
In Reply to: Uncredited performances posted by Vincent on November 29, 2001 at 00:26:13:
: : Mr Director Man: What does an uncredited performance mean? They don't get paid? They come in, do it in one take & leave before the SAG finds out? Scott tried to explain it to me on TOK, but maybe you could do a better job?
: It doesn't neccessarily mean they aren't paid- after all, Robin Williams was paid for THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN. It just means that for one reason or another, the actor or actress doesn't take a credit on the film. In the case of BARON, Williams opted against taking a credit because he was concerned that the studio would try and sell the film based on his cameo performance- i.e., when ABC ran MALLRATS and it was advertised as, "Before he saved the world, Ben Affleck hung out at the mall!" Another instance was I think F. Murray Abraham in THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES- he had it in his contract that he would get billing before the title, but with Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, and Melanie Griffith already taking up space before the title, the studio said no, and F. Murray said that if he didn't get a credit before the title, he didn't want any credit at all, so his name was removed from the credits.
: There's also instances like A BETTER PLACE where a SAG actor does a cameo, and it's not a SAG film- said actor can be fined by SAG, so they have to appear either uncredited or under a psuedonym. If it was a LEAD role, the actor can get a waiver from SAG under the guise that they are doing the performance "for the art"- such was the case with DRAWING FLIES where all the SAG players in major roles took credit, like Jason Lee, whereas in A BETTER PLACE he used a psuedonym because it was a cameo.
: Vincent