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What is a casting director?
Answer: “We are diplomats; we are counselors; we are negotiators. We are teachers; we are artists and visionaries. We are a key element in the creation and success of every theatre, film and television project ever made…” (continued in David’s answer below)
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Answer: “We are diplomats; we are counselors; we are negotiators. We are teachers; we are artists and visionaries. We are a key element in the creation and success of every theatre, film and television project ever made…”
— Mary V. Buck, former CSA President
When I create voice demos for my clients, I tell them that I’ve only got one audience member in mind when I’m deciding how to put together their demo: the casting director. She or he (and, oddly, it’s mostly she) has to be able to instantly determine whether you are suitable for the job, and then, whether or not she can safely recommend you to the decision makers for her project.
A common misconception is that casting directors actually cast roles all by themselves. This usually isn’t the case. Certainly, there are occasions when the casting director is given leeway to make a casting decision on her own, usually for smaller parts, but more often than not, her recommendations need the approval of various other members of the production team. The more expensive the project, the more layers of approval her choices need to reach.
From the beginning of the project, casting directors are involved with breaking down the script, creating audition sides (or, for projects that need to be kept secret, reviewing fake sides from the writing teams), identifying a pool of actors for each role to bring in for an audition, pre-reading new or unfamiliar actors, selecting a subset of those actors to audition in front of the production decision makers, and then make deals with the agents of the actors selected for the various roles.
Casting directors come from various walks of life, including being actors, or former actors, themselves. How they look at potential hires varies, and is as unique as the background and personality of the casting director themselves. Some casting directors are very actor friendly, wanting to help actors they meet, launch their careers and make them a part of their “go-to” group of castable performers.
You should make it your goal to have that happen with each and every casting director you meet.
Casting directors also vary in what types of projects they cast. Some are strictly television and film. Some are commercial. Some are stage. Often they will do all types of projects, but just like any other line of work in which you tend to get to know the hiring people from working in similar projects, a look at the project list of a particular casting agency usually tells you in what area of the business that office specializes.
This is important information for you to know as you begin to get to know this very critical aspect of your customer base. Casting directors are the first level of client that you need to get to know as people, and to influence to bring you in for auditions and to move you forward in the audition process to the next level of client: the production decision makers.
I like to compare acting careers with any other self-employed sales career, because that’s what you’re doing – selling a product, and that product is you. The casting director can open or close the door to the purchasers of your products, the writers, directors and producers of the projects you want to work on. Paid acting work comes from making those people say yes.
Casting directors, more often than not, are paid to say no, not yes.
Understand their process: all day long, they are dealing with hundreds, even thousands of headshots. More often than not, and increasingly, those headshots are digital, on a computer screen in little tiny thumbnails. Since your look is usually more important than your resume, that’s the first screening for them to say no…no…no…OK…no…no…Yes!…etc.
Once they’ve whittled the initial huge pool of actors for the role, they may go through another round of “no’s” to get the final audition group down to a manageable level, between 5 and 20 actors for each role. Any more than that, and the process of simply managing the auditions become very time consuming.
The producers that pay the bills are the people that get to say “yes,” or approve casting you for a particular role. The casting director then gets to call your agent and relay the yes to him and thence to you. And then you get paid acting work.
Casting directors don’t do all this alone: they have casting associates and casting assistants, and usually a group of enthusiastic interns, to help manage the process. Soon, there will be articles on those casting team members available here on Acting Answers as well.
What’s your answer to this acting question? Let me know in the comments below.