No Pay, Nudity

Narrative Feature by Lee Wilkof, 2016, 92 min.

Aging actor Lester Rosenthal (Gabriel Byrne), who has lost his way with his career, with his family, and with his friends (Nathan Lane, Frances Conroy, & Boyd Gaines) finds out that the way out is through. The film captures the less romantic side of show business, chronicling the daily slog of a makeshift family of actors huddled in the Actors’ Equity Lounge, trying to break big, book a job, or just breathe the air. The idea for the movie actually came to Wilkof in an “aha” moment. He says, “It was 15 years since the last time I’d been in the Equity Lounge, and it was just not a place I went often.” But when he did drop in a few years back, “The same people were there that I had seen 15 years earlier, and I said to myself, ‘There’s a movie here.’” A comical and poignant film depicting aging actors and what they do to extend their professional viability. Fiercely funny, and heartbreaking, filled with great performances. Winner Special Jury Prize Achievement in Filmmaking at the Stony Brook Film Festival

Woods Hole Film Festival Year Round