Ross Grayson Bell knew that finding success in Hollywood would be difficult. What the Australian-born producer didn’t realise was that he would run up a $60,000 credit card debt along the way. His payoff however was making the cult classic Fight Club.
Ross Grayson Bell knew that finding success in Hollywood would be difficult. What the Australian-born producer didn’t realise was that he would run up a $60,000 credit card debt along the way. His payoff however was making the cult classic Fight Club.
A 30-something guy with boundless energy, Bell has the measured intensity of a man whose work is his true passion. Hollywood is the cult, and making films, the means of worship. He has avoided the good life and
slept on the office floor to get where he is. And he’d happily do it again.
“I gave up a lot. I have not lived a high life. A producer only gets paid when they’re in production. I can’t spend because I never know when the next chunk of money’s coming in. But I’m in a better place now than I have ever been to make films.”
Bell left Australia in 1989 for a U.S. holiday. Even then he knew his dream of becoming a film producer was unlikely to come true in Australia. Today Bell works out of Quentin Tarantino’s offices, and is developing several projects. He is typical of many Australians living in LA. – a mix of talent and bloody-minded determination that Hollywood is where they want to be.
Breaking into the Hollywood film industry can be a long, expensive, lonely,
intimidating, and downright depressing experience. For every Russell Crowe,
Hugh Jackman, Anthony LaPaglia and Nicole Kidman, dozens of hopefuls have got into situations as bad or worse than Bell’s. In a place that attracts the best of the best, an API award or Logie counts for nothing if no one has ever seen your work. It is common to sit through 50 meetings and dozens of auditions and never receive a part. Those who come over and choose to stay live a frugal exstence, working illegally in shops or bars to pay rent. Most pack their bags and return home.
And it’s not just finding work that’s hard. You also need a visa, credit rating and social security card, none of which ever seem to come easily or cheaply. Australian cash doesn’t last long on the U.S. exchange rate, so getting a credit card is also a must.
While the legal and financial hurdles are high, so too are the social ones. “Amerians on the surface are very friendly, but don’t be fooled by that,” says David Pratt. says David Pratt chief executive of AustFilm, a group that encourages U.S. companies to shoot movies in Australia, Pratt has born the
brunt of American business practices. Pratt says Australians are not great self-promoters – a skill Americans excel at – and get lost in the crowd.
“LA. is one tough city, and they will chew you up and spit you out very quickly. The thing about L.A. is it is very much a ‘me’ city. It’s all about yourself and geting ahead. Surface stuff here is really important. It’s a very age-ist town, and it’s all bout beautiful people, so God help you if you’re fat and ugly. That sounds awful, but it’s exactly what it’s like.
“If you are not passionate about your craft and what you want to do in the industry, then what the hell are you doing in this city? Because apart from the amazing weather, why would you be here? It’s expensive, it’s tough, and you’ll get trod on very quickly. It’s very hard to get ahead. And it doesn’t take months or weeks, it takes years.”
ROSS GRAYSON BELL
Producer Ross Grayson Bell got his Hollywood break when he was discovered sleeping on the floor of his boss’ office in 1989. Bell had found a position “interning” for legendary straight-to-video filmmaker Roger Corman. While he wasn’t being paid for the privilege, Bell was happy to be working for a man where, legend has it, Jack Nicholson. Jonathon Demme, Ron Howard got their starts.
“I had nowhere to stay, so I used to sleep in the ofRce,” Bell says. “Roger came in one morning and found me asleep and said, ‘Who the fuck are you?’
I said, I’m Ross Grayson Bell, I work here, and you don’t pay me’.”
Corman invited Belt to write a scene-by-scene breakdown of Lethal Weapon.
That led to Bell writing the screenplay for To Die Standing. While Corman sponsored Bell’s visa, he wasn’t put on the payroll and had to work for a paltry $US300 a week for the owner of an affiliated company.
Bell’s struggle with debt even provided the inspiration for a late change in the plot of Fight Club from collapsing a building onto New York’s Natural History Museum, thereby symbolically destroying history; to blowing up credit
card company buildings.