Wade Skalsky ┃ The Understory Bard's Linkedin Analytics

When I was in LA I got tired of not getting hired as a TV writer for other people's shows. I decided to make my own show. To do that you have to get a pilot purchased, made, and picked up. Beau Bridges had read my script and was interested in playing the main character. He invited me to his house to talk about it. He offered me toast in the kitchen with homemade orange marmalade from the trees in his back yard. So I am sitting there munching on toast and Mr. Bridges starts talking. (can't really bring myself to call him Beau) "I loved your script. Great writing. I can totally see it. I do have a couple of suggestions that might make it easier to sell." Ok, what this means is he won't be attached to it unless I agree to the changes he wants. Totally normal when you are a beginning writer. You have zero leverage. You must be willing to compromise to get things sold in the beginning I am told. There are other ways to get things made but I wasn't going that route. "So you know that I am deeply involved in charities right?" "Of course!" No clue what he was shilling for, but all actors have some pet projects they like. He then goes into this long diatribe about saving the whales. I am not sure if he did the movie Free Willy because he was already into whales or the movie "whale radicalized" him. Then he starts talking about his work with Los Angeles street gangs etc. The pilot "NGO: Kyoga" took place in a land locked fictional country with two warlords fighting over the control of a city the NGO is launching in. I can really work with this gang angle, and its probably why he liked the script, because there are two fighting gangs already in it. The whales were going to be a problem. "One hundred percent Mr. Bridges." I said, still unwilling to call him Beau. "We can work whatever you want into the gang angle since that's almost the entire plot." "What about the whales?" he asked. "That's going to be tough since the story takes place in a land locked country in Africa." "I know. That is why I want you to move locations to Los Angeles." Cue the sad face music. He REALLY wanted those whales in there. It was at this point I looked down at my marmalade toast and started to question the contents of what I was eating. I briefly considered the possibility that I had been drugged and he was trolling me until I passed out so I could be sacrificed to Moloch. Alas, it was just marmalade. He was serious. It was then I knew I would have to keep being a lawyer. Kept writing though. Eventually escaped the law.