From the book, Acting in Film:“There’s no sure-fire trajectory to the movies, no one route to Hollywood. There’s not one book to read, or one café to sit in. Your performance in all public arenas is part of the screen test. If you’re in a bar where nobody’s ever seen you before, you’re being auditioned by the bartender. He knows that dude who comes in late Tuesday nights for a quick drink is married to the woman whose sister is the makeup artist on a sitcom. If you’re taking your little girl to school in the rain, you’re being monitored by the crossing guard. She changes costume and goes off as a part-time secretary to an off-Broadway producer. You never know when or how the people you meet are going to suddenly set off the chain reaction that will generate your break.
And you don’t stop campaigning just because you’ve made it, either. I remember doing a film with Shirley McClaine: Gambit. A tour bus pulls up pretty smartly as the actors are crossing the studio lot. Fans come piling out of the bus. The driver is trying to corral the actors into signing autographs on our way in. Most of the actors escaped the crowd through a side door. I, on the other hand, knew the bus driver had a job to do, and I was going to make him look good. I signed every autograph on that bus. No big deal, right? Until I tell you that the young driver of that bus turned out to be Mike Ovitz. See what I mean?”
