If you believe in the power of superstition, you probably avoid black cats, handle mirrors very carefully, and never walk beneath ladders. And if you’re an actor, you know never to utter the title of a certain Shakespearean tragedy inside a theater.
Yet 1993 UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Tammy Caplan broke that cardinal rule of acting to produce her first feature film, “Never Say Macbeth,” which will be screening Nov. 1 as part of the Foundation for the Advancement of Independent Film’s festival in Anaheim.
The film, which Caplan also appears in, takes the famed curse head-on ““ the main character utters the forbidden word inside a theater where his ex-girlfriend is acting in a production of “Macbeth,” setting off a chain of mishaps.
The idea for the movie came to writer and coproducer Joe Tyler Gold after he was in a play where he discovered he was the only actor who did not believe in ghosts, inspiring him to write a script exploring one of acting’s biggest superstitions.
The fear and superstition aroused among actors when “Macbeth” is uttered dates back hundreds of years. Legend has it that Shakespeare used real Wiccan spells in the play’s text, incurring the wrath of witches who have cursed all productions ever since.
Not even Shakespeare himself was immune. According to myth, during the play’s original staging in 1606, the actor playing Lady Macbeth died from fever backstage, so the bard was forced to fill the role.
Stories abound about accidents and eerie happenings during productions of “Macbeth.” Laurence Olivier had a brush with death when a stage weight crashed next to him during a 1937 staging, Charlton Heston endured severe burns from tights that had been mysteriously soaked in kerosene in 1953 ““ the list goes on.
And now Caplan and the rest of the film’s cast and crew have their own stories to add: The director of photography’s storage space was broken into and all his equipment stolen, one of the actors suffered burns from an allergic reaction to makeup, the theater where filming took place lost power on the last day of shooting, and the day before the final sound edit, the sound editor’s hard drive crashed.
“I have to say that on our own shoot, a lot of crazy things did happen. … It was like in doing a film about the curse, we brought the curse upon ourselves. Making a movie, things are bound to go wrong, but never to the extent that they happened during “˜Never Say Macbeth,'” Caplan said.
However, despite the high incidence of mishaps, Caplan still doesn’t believe in the curse. “I think it’s all a coincidence,” she said. “It could be that by the time I make 20 films, less things will go wrong. This was our first feature film, so I would have to say it was a pretty big learning experience.”
Mercedes Martinez, a 1998 UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television alumna who appears in the film, is not so skeptical. “I think superstitions are really silly but I got to say I think the Macbeth one is real,” she said.
You will never hear Martinez, who was stranded one night at the theater when her car battery died, say “Macbeth” inside a theater. “I didn’t really have to say it ever during the making of the movie since my character knew not to, and outside of conversation, I call it the Scottish play, which is the way you can refer to it without cursing yourself,” she said.
Though Gold originally wrote “Never Say Macbeth” as a play, he realized the script could easily transition to the screen as an inexpensive independent film.
Since the film was entirely self-financed ““ “We got donations from friends and family, and when that money ran out, we paid for it ourselves,” Caplan said ““ production was a group effort and pains were taken to cut cost as much as possible.
Since it was an independent effort, Gold and Caplan recruited friends and past colleagues to join their project. The majority of the cast and crew knew each other already, either through a UCLA connection or through the Pacific Resident Theatre, a company in Venice where many of those involved work.
School of Theater, Film and Television acting Professor Scott Conte, one of the film’s actors, said the cast and crew’s connections improved the filmmaking process.
“It’s always better than working with a bunch of strangers because on a film you don’t get a lot of rehearsal, so when you already have a nice relationship with people, it helps you to be able to do what you need to do and makes you feel comfortable and safe,” Conte said.
“I think that’s a great way for actors nowadays to get their foot in the door. Instead of waiting for someone to give you a job, get together with other actors and artists and create your own film or play.”