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I think I lost an opportunity once, thanks to Dale Dye. I mentioned him to the assistant director of a movie that was filming in Boston. They wanted a local New England guy to provide some military advice to actors and extras for one scene, and the guy recommended to them couldn't do it -- he was deployed. He recommended me.
Everything was going well until I mentioned that the master of the kind of thing they wanted to do was Dale Dye. Very sharp question: "Oh, do you know Dale Dye?" I had to confess that I didn't know him face to face, we had exchanged paper letters when I was on active duty and he was writing and I was looking for writing and publication advice. And we exchanged a couple of letters, for which I remain very grateful. He was encouraging, and I'd always followed his work and respected him.
I do not know why, but instantly the tenor of the interview changed and it wrapped up very quickly. The assistant director, a very hard-working, personally neurotic guy led me out past the (famous) director, and didn't introduce me. I was surprised that two weeks later he called to tell me I didn't get the job, sorry, and he'd look forward at some other time. (I was surprised because I knew I hadn't gotten the job -- it was glaringly obvious). Thing is, his voice on the phone was the voice of a terrified man. He was very apologetic about not hiring me, and I wound up reassuring him it was perfectly OK, I wasn't desperate for work when I walked in the production office and I wasn't desperate when I walked out, I was doing a favor for another QP, but i knew from not meeting the director that I didn't get the gig.
I'm not particularly scary and I'm pretty low-key. I don't "look like an SF guy" as Hollywood people imagine them. All I can think is that the AD had a hard-on for Capt. Dye for some reason and I hosed myself by mentioning him. As far as the neuroticism is concerned, maybe he's used to angry displays from disappointed actors or something. For most of us, a bad day at the office has (or once had) a completely different meaning, and yet they think we're keyed up.
I've also been told that the opportunity I blew was a very rare one, because movie industry people far prefer guys with lots of movie industry experience, and there are plenty of them. And that a lot of their advisors, experts, armorers and what have you have thin or fabricated military backgrounds. (There was one guy who was an SGM in 19th Group out there who told a lot of Vietnam tall tales. He'd actually been injured in pre-mission training and never did a combat mission, poor guy; and then he came back to the Winter Soldier thing and was the SF guy with all the stories of torture and barbarism. He was a Hollywood military advisor guy. No wonder there's Rambo movies).
I was impressed at how hard the behind the scenes people work. They have some serious work habits -- wasn't expecting that, glad to see it actually. I don't see many movies because I like war movies and for 35 or 40 years all they've done is abuse the troops. I get old movies and foreign war movies on DVD... the foreign ones are starting to pick up the nihilism of Hollywood though.
Funny thing is, I never did see the movie, so I have no idea who they hired. I suppose there's some way to look it up.
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