Childhood friend, James Dean, influenced
Levey's Career.

To say that film director William A. Levey knows a thing or two about talent would be a terrible understatement.  In 1977, while returning to his office, he noticed a young woman crying in the reception area.  He asked the receptionist why the girl was upset and was informed that the woman wanted to audition for the film he was directing, but was denied a reading.  When Levey asked why, the receptionist told him that the woman did not have an agent and those were the rules.  Never having been one who was big on rules, Levey invited the young woman into his office for an audition.

"The girl was very nervous during her audition,"Levey recalls.  "So I told her to come back tomorrow with her resume and head shot and read again.  The next day she returned with Polaroid photos of herself.  She informed me that she had no resume because she had never acted in anything before.  I let her read anyway.  She read badly.  However, I saw something special in her, so I gave her the part."  The young woman turned out to be Debra Winger:

Two years later, Levey found himself fighting Columbia Studios producers to cast a young carpenter he had met on the lot of the film.  The carpenter:  Patrick Swayze.

Also, in 1985, he cast an eager Belgian actor in a short film for no pay.  The actor only wanted a copy of the film so that he might obtain an agent.  Well.  It obviously worked.  The Belgian actor was Jean Claude Van Damme.

So how did the director, who has 12 international feature films under his belt and who has directed such luminaries as Linda Gray, George Hamilton, Shirley Jones, Jennifer O'Neil.  Mickey Rooney and Joanne Woodward, cultivate his uncanny eye for discovering talent?  Was it natural ability?  A carefully learned technique?  Luck?  Actually, none of the above.  Levey attributes his abilities to growing up in Sherman Oaks next door to the legendary James Dean.

"Jimmy and I were very close friends.  I spent every day for a year with him, and I watched his electric capability.  I was incredibly mesmerized and magnetized by him.  He had a lot to do with why I'm in this business and why I can recognize potential in actors," Levey explains.

Levey himself was bitten by the acting bug early in life and easily glided into a professional career as a child actor, portraying Tom Sawyer in "The Tom Sawyer Show" on NBC-TV in the mid-fifties.  However, his interest behind the scenes led him in a different direction.

At age 15, he was hired as personal assistant to Groucho Marx.  "Groucho had a reputation for being tough-grouchy.  However, he was never that way toward me.  I think he was impressed that I showed him such respect.  He in turn showed me the same respect."

Levey quickly graduated to film editor, camera operator and eventually director.  He has written, produced and directed numerous films and is proud of his track record.   All of his films have been made on schedule and on budget.  Most have also made a profit.  Not an easy task in a town famous for skyrocketing budgets and overblown schedules.

Levey, like many of us, used to believe that talent was the most important attribute an actor could possess.  Now he does not.  "I believe that being in the right place at the right time is just as important as talent," he explains.  "That's why anyone in Hollywood has just as much chance of becoming an actor as anybody else.  Just turn on your television during prime time.  Many actors you'll see do not necessarily have that much talent, but I would be willing to bet that they were in the right place at the right time and they were prepared."

Prepared?  Could Levey be referring to formal acting training?  This from the man who for 25 years scoffed at acting schools and believed that experience was the best teacher?  Well, in a word- yes!

Recently, Levey was asked to head up the Mazutzky Theatre Academy (MTA), an acting school which will be opening in the coming weeks.  The school is rooted in the Russian Theater, which stresses making acting as real as possible.

"I hate to use the word 'acting school,' because I do not think you can learn to act.  I believe you can learn to react.  You can learn how to be self-confident and how to do cold readings or how to audition.  Everyone is born with a certain amount of talent, ranging, say, from 0 to a million.  And everyone has a different amount.  They are never going to be able to raise that amount, but they can certainly increase their skills.  I've definitely changed my opinion of the importance of acting schools," Levey confesses.

With the Mazutzky Academy, Levey hopes to find diamonds in the rough and develop them into working actors.   When selecting actors for this school, he says he will not require a formal audition.  He does not wish to penalize someone simply because they do not read well initially.  Instead, he will require a personal interview, during which he will be looking for that undefinable, intangible "thing" that suggests potential.  He also intends to take a few inspiring directors into his classes as well.

The main focus of the academy will be scene study for film acting, but cold reading and audition techniques will be stressed.  Levey plans to bring in agents, casting directors and other industry professionals as guest lecturers.  Eventually, he plans to produce plays with MTA that will feature his students.

Levey says that MTA will eventually build their own theater, but in the meantime, he is searching for theater space to lease.  He will be interviewing for students soon, so interested actors and directors should watch for his announcement.

"You don't come to Hollywood not to become a movie star, It's everyone's fantasy, and that's okay," Levey says,  "This is the dream capital of the world."

And for Debra Winger, Patrick Swayze and others, their dreams became a reality by being at the right place at the right time and by being prepared for an encounter with William A. Levey.