How did veteran Broadway Actress and actorpreneur
Betty Buckley get the role of odd recluse Mrs. Jones in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening”?
A video camera and bubble wrap!
New York casting director, Doug Aibel contacted Buckley’s agent, Tim Stone of Stone Manners Agency, about a possible part in “The Happening” and e-mailed her some scenes to her ranch in Fort Worth, Texas.
Doug Aibel asked Betty to record herself performing the scenes and overnight the DVD to him in New York. After purchasing a video camera, as she did not own one, she shot the scenes only to find out that her video camera was not compatible with her Macintosh computer! What did she do then? Buckley took the camera to the store in order to burn the footage to a DVD. When that did not work either, Betty decided to wrap the camera in bubble wrap and overnight it to Aibel.
Maybe it was her outstanding audition or perhaps just the unusual way she presented it, but she impressed M. Night Shyamalan and Doug Aibel enough to win the role of Mrs. Jones.
Actorpreneur Betty has had an astonishing record on Broadway, in films and on television. Her Broadway credits include starring roles in 1976, Pippin, Cats, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Song and Dance, Carrie – The Musical, Sunset Boulevard and Triumph of Love. She won a Tony award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 1983 for Cats.
She also has a long list of Film and TV credits. In addition, she has recently been signed to Playbill Records, which released two of her recordings; one was made when Buckley was 19 and has been issued both on CD and vinyl.
A new album with Quintessence was released on February 14, 2008.