Loucas George, 55, spent more than a year working as the line producer for the ABC TV series “Nashville” in that Tennessee city before returning home to Los Angeles in May.
“It was very tough on my wife and my son,” he recalls. “I like Nashville, but if you’re coming home (for the weekend), you’d have to leave Friday while shooting was still going on and you’d have to come back on Sundays.”
He doesn’t see the situation changing any time soon.
“Not when the series receives a 32% incentive from the state,” George notes. “There’s a lot at stake. Each episode of ‘Nashville’ costs about $4 million, which is a lot of money for cast, catering, lumber yards.” George started working in New York as an assistant director in the 1980s then moved out to Los Angeles in 1991 because that was where the work was. He’s particularly perturbed that California has not done more to keep production in recent years.
“One of the biggest disappointments for a lot of us was that (former California governor) Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t able to do much.” he adds. “We thought that he would have understood.”
Asked what he’s been doing since he got home, George responds, “I’m mending with my wife and my 11-year-old boy.”
