Working As A Casting Director

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Do you work for a company

I work for, fortunately, lots of different companies. The brilliant thing about being in England, we have such a fantastic selection of actors that companies from all over the world what to use actors in this country, therefore they use the casting directors over here. I work, purely on a freelance basis, for many, many different companies.

Do you have a set routine that you ask people to perform

I don’t really have a set routine that I ask people to perform. But there’s the usual drill where people come in name to camera, profile shots, show me your hands, and then you would just do the, sort of, if you were going up for any job really, say what have you been up to recently. But no, I don’t have a set drill, it does vary to what you’re casting.

Do you get to read the script before you agree to be the casting director

You always get to read the script before the casting, and of course by reading the script and understanding it, you understand what the director is trying to say and achieve, and therefore that makes you to bring in the right actors for the directors to meet, and that makes one’s job a lot easier.

Do you still take the job if the script is bad

If the script’s bad, I probably would still do the casting because sometimes you can’t always tell what is on the written page, how it’s going to end up on the screen. But if I feel that the director’s quite good and the budget’s in place, you go for it. Because sometimes we can be wrong, you can’t always tell. But often they’re not bad, fortunately.

Do you get paid for each role you cast

A casting director gets paid for the job, or for a casting session. A casting director’s pay is not per character, it’s per casting session. So therefore, on a commercial, it would be up to four characters, then after that point the casting director might charge per character; but basically pay is for a casting session.

How much can a successful casting director earn

Fees for casting directors vary so much, as they do for actors. If you were talking to an actor and asking them what they earned, I’m sure that their salary varies quite drastically from year to year. If they’re working on stage, same for casting directors, they earn a much lower salary than they would doing feature films. So, it’s very difficult to answer how much a casting director earns, but we do reasonably well.

How can you tell if someone has star quality

Star quality is always that very difficult thing to define. Yes, I would like to think that I can spot people who have star quality. I’m sure there have been occasions when I haven’t spotted people with star quality, but that’s the nature of the job. That’s my ability as a casting director: to spot people with ability, star quality. And how I interpret star quality is down to me.

How do you know what the director wants

I mean the only way that you know what a director wants is when the director briefs you for the characters. Sometimes, certain directors can talk to me and I have no idea, I’m none the wiser by the end of the conversation. And, there are many directors, most of the ones I’ve worked for, been fortunate to work for, that they know that I understand what they’re trying to say, and they often say to me “Oh, you know the sort of people I like” and indeed I do. That’s why I get reemployed by them.

Is it easy to please both the director and the producer

It is very difficult to please both the director and the producer. Often, the producer is more concerned with the budget, and the director is only ever concerned with the talent. So, the casting director is right smack bang in the middle of that, because the director will say “I don’t want to hear about we can’t afford X actor, just get him for me” and the producer will be breathing down my neck and say “yes, but you know we can’t afford him.” So it’s very difficult to juggle the two, but one will get used to that.

What is ‘casting against type’

Casting against type is casting an actor very much against how they are as a person, or as in roles that we’ve seen them play before. And I think it’s those parts where actors really, really get to shine and show how good they really are. You know, someone like Helena Bonham Carter always wants to get away from doing those sort of Edwardian “bustle-y” ladies and play something rather modern, and chic, and cutting edge. And when she’s done it, she’s been incredibly good. And that really is what all actors want to do. They never really want to play themselves, and I don’t blame them. They love a challenge and that’s very, very great when that happens. It doesn’t always happen for them.

Have you discovered someone who is now a big star

I mean there’s been loads of people that I’ve discovered along the way, I met, in an early stage in their careers before they became famous. Whether I would say I discovered them or not, I don’t know, but a very interesting thing is that I cast Ben Chaplin in a Burger King commercial, and he then, because of that, was seen by a Casting Directors in this country, then casted in a leading feature film, and he is now in Hollywood making a lot of money, and probably eating quite a lot of burgers.

How do you cope with a difficult actor

Some actors, of course, can be difficult but, as a rule, if they’re treated correctly then they are very lovely people. The best way to handle someone who’s slightly difficult is to talk about their career, so that you totally understand what they’ve achieved in their past and you know their credits, as the reason that you’ve brought the actor in is because you like them so much, and you like their talent and you believe in them, because often actors do a lot of soul-searching, particularly middle-aged plus actors who feel that they’ve achieved certain things and are still having to audition for parts. It’s very tough for them. I very rarely have to be interviewed for work myself, so I dread to think what it’s like when every week you’re going out and meeting people. I think actors who’ve reached a certain point in their career have to be treated properly, and if you do that, you usually won’t have a problem with them.

Do you cast all the roles on a particular production

Once you’re on board and working as a casting directory, you always cast all the roles on production. However, if it becomes regional, pan-European, or trans-Atlantic then they would use a local casting director. But, once you’re on board as the casting director in the UK, normally you would cast all the characters in the production.

Is casting for the stage different from TV work

Casting for the stage is very, very different from casting for TV and film. Because ages become very different and there are certain actors who are better on stage than they are on TV or film and vice versa. So, you have to cut your cloth according to whether you’re doing TV or stage. So, somebody who you’ve seen be terrific on TV or in a film isn’t always as strong on stage. So, you have to become aware of that as a casting director, and it’s something that a young budding casting director should be aware of; to watch people on stage and see how different they are on screen or TV and see whether they work.

What kind of productions do you cast for

I’ve been so lucky. In the last twenty-two years, I’ve been casting for productions in film and television. I’ve appeared as myself, which is always a lot of fun to do. I’ve cast for lots and lots of top award-winning commercials. So, I’ve really covered almost every sort of production. I once cast a musical. I’ve now been offered another stage production. I’m just about to start another film. So I’ve been really busy. I’ve never stopped. In fact, the bad thing is, it just means that time goes so quickly. You know, really, you look back. What has happened to twenty-two years?

What happens if the director hates the people who you’ve cast

When working on a project, if a director doesn’t like anyone that you’ve brought in for a particular role, you then have to sit down and discuss the matter with the director and ask him what he didn’t like about the actors so that you can bring in another selection of actors, who the director will hopefully like. Sometimes a director doesn’t know themselves until they start looking at actors and hearing the lines being read, how they want it played. Directors often will be honest about that.

Is casting for adverts different from TV work

In TV and commercials, there’s also a difference. There are some excellent actors who are fantastic onscreen and on television, and you get them in for a commercial and they go to pieces and they’re terrible. And, of course, vice versa. There’s some great actors who, or great people, who are good at commercials and are not so great when you give them much more to do.

Is there a golden rule of being a casting director

The golden rule for being a casting director is to meet as many people as you can in all kinds of walks of life. Not even in just the acting profession, which I know will sound like a strange thing for me to say. As the years have run by, certainly for the last 22 years since I’ve had my own company, you find yourself looking at doctors, nurses, and policemen, and seeing how they look and how they behave because that’s how you will have to cast possibly one of these characters. It helps you understand different characters and different types, and that’s a very interesting part of the job.

How do you deal with rejects that become angry or upset

If an actor becomes sort of upset or angry by being rejected I would try and talk them through what I think went wrong with the casting, how I think in the future it would help them if they could alter something, either about their personality, or maybe sort of have some more acting lessons, or whatever one could steer them in the right direction that in the future will help them.

Is casting for child roles different in any way

Casting for child roles is always difficult, and it’s very different to casting adults. To cast child roles, you have to see a lot more, and you never quite know how a child’s going to be from day to day and that makes casting child roles quite difficult. Being a child actor once myself, I’m very sympathetic and understanding to kids, and I like working with children a lot. I think that casting child roles is difficult because people don’t like children who are too polished, too professional because then they think they’re precocious. We all like nice natural children, and it’s quite difficult to try and get a child to be accomplished as a young actor and still hold on to the qualities of being a child. And if you can do that, that’s quite an achievement but that makes it quite difficult.

How do you reject candidates

Rejecting actors as candidates is always a tough part of the job of a casting director. Fortunately, you ring their agents and you tell them, and they have to do the final rejection. Rejecting candidates is never nice, but it’s got to be done.

Do actors fear casting directors

I personally don’t think actors fear casting directors. I sometimes hear stories that they do fear casting directors and really, I always say to actors, as a casting director I’m only as good as you are, so if I’m doing something that frightens you or that you fear, tell me because I’m trying to stop doing it because actors are the tools of my industry and my profession. And, as I say, a casting director is only as good as the actors are and if they’re lousy because they fear me, I’m lousy.

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