What makes a good casting director?

January 12, 2011 2:13 AM

What makes a good casting director?

Having watched a couple of telly series that have completely different audiences and storylines but some of the same actors (whom I never even recognised until a second viewing) I can't help but wonder what is that you look for when casting people and how do you do it?

posted by moody cow to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: I worked in TV advertising and the casting process was similar to that of TV and film. It starts with the sript/story outline where the producers/writers/etc develop character outlines to aid in the casting process. A lot of times the production team has someone in mind for the key roles (or the stars are attached already). If the star is attached at the onset, they may be involved in the casting as well. The various parties will go back and forth tightening up the character outlines. A lot of the treatments will be things like "we want someone like Ileana Douglas with an interesting face (but not too interesting like Danny Trejo), but so sort of Asian and in her early 20s. And so on until there's a sketch. There's a meeting with the casting people (sometimes a production has a favorite one of those, too) and they go through the characters and and tighten things up and get clarification as to how strict some of the points are -- does this Ileana Douglas like person have to be Asian? What about Latina? because they had in mind a perfect person that read for another project. The casting agent will then have her* team start combing their files and looking for people to bring in to see. There may be a "casting call" to find people in the trades and even Craigslist. Meanwhile a lot of actors have agents who are shopping the people around. They're also eliminating people based on availability.

(In my role, I heard that James Cameron had seen the main actors from our campaign on TV and said he wanted him to read of a part. Another guy was ultimately chosen (they sort of have the same "look") but my guy read for it (and really flubbed it. In that case he may have skipped the whole casting agent part of the process and went straight to an audition. Or he could have just gotten an automatically gotten onto the casting agent's select reel.)

The casting agent will bring in people for each of the roles and videotape as well as take polaroid. They'll send along their selects to the production office and start narrowing down and collecting feedback from the production office on if they are going in the right direction. If the production office likes people, they'll bring them in for an audition and move forward.

When I reviewed casting selects videos, I'd see working actors from commercials all the time. Oh,that's the guy from the Ford ad. Oh, she was in a douche commercial. That guy looks familiar! Oh, he was the guy in Boy Meets World. Everyone will need to agree that won't distract from the story. Ed O'neil has successfully been able to walk away from Ed Bundy, but he's a familiar face on Modern Family. But that he was Ed Bundy 20 years ago doesn't get in the way.

On TV and movies, there's those character actors. You know "that guy". Guys like J.K. Simmons who was a neo nazi in Oz, and a psychologist on Law and Order. He's been in feature films and now he's in a Farmer's Insurance commercial. Lance Reddick was a badass but compassionate cop in The Wire and now he's in a similar role on Fringe. BD Wong was the priest on Oz, and also is on Law & Order. These character actors get a lot of work because there's overlapping production staff which would help connect people. And then a casting note saying "We need a guy like Lance Reddick" and they say, why not use Lance Reddick if he's available?

All of this happens as a team and there's a lot of back and forth and the minding of money. Almost everyone in is in SAG or AFTRA an pay is initially talked about in terms of being for scale or 1.5 scale, or double scale, etc. Many of the people you see a lot have representation. If they can't come to terms, they'll have to go back to square one and get someone else. If the production company loves a person that is more expensive they'll find room in the budget. The good casting people have ballpark ideas of the rates people will want so they can save time if the production and the talent aren't in the same ballpark. In the casting process often characters are called back to read with each other and chemistry. In TV pilots an actor can get recast if everyone liked the show, but hated the character. Sometimes that is learned when during test audiences. Other times it makes it to air and either the character get written out. Or recast and never really covered why the person changed.

So the tl;dr is it just isn't the casting director. But it is a collaborative process and there's no real formula. They've found new talent that have gone on to be household names or "that guy" type actors. But a lot of it is a case of who you know.

* in my cursory proofing of this, I seemed to subconsciously typed "her" referring to casting directors. There are men casting directors, of course, but they're the minority. In the spots I produced I don't think I ever met a dude casting director.
posted by birdherder at 10:12 AM on January 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Having worked in casting (just as an assistant and associate) and quit from disillusionment, this is going to sound bitter. But here it goes.

A big part of casting is making your client happy, and for some clients, that means getting high-profile actors into the production--often even more than it means getting good actors into the production. That's why a lot of Broadway and off-Broadway shows have film and TV stars will little-to-no stage presence. They're going to draw an audience. And even if the more discerning audience members aren't 100% happy with the stars' performances, too bad. You already paid.

Most directors and producers come to the casting directors with lists already in hand. A good casting director will be able to look at that list and know which actors are completely unrealistic ideas and which ones are highly likely to consider the project. But the CD will still make an effort to approach the unlikely actors if the client feels strongly about it.

A good casting director has an excellent memory. They come up with their own lists, made up of big names, and likely actors that they saw in a small independent feature three years ago, and actors who played small supporting roles in off-Broadway plays that the CD saw to observe a completely different actor, and up-and-comers who don't have the name recognition, but would still be damn good in the role.

When coming up with these lists, or when setting up audition sessions, casting directors try to give the director a wide range of options, but still limit it to their very best ideas. Talent is more important for stage casting than film/TV. When it's film/TV, type is more important. At least that's the way it goes in New York. I'm under the impression that talent and training are important for everything in the UK. And LA might care about talent, but a lot less about training.

Also, casting offices get a lot of pressure from talent agencies to audition the agencies' clients. Often, it's tit for tat. If they have some big names, you give their new actors a chance too. And if the agent and casting office have a particularly good relationship, the office tends to frequently audition the same group of people from that same agent. And every casting office also has its own list of favorite actors, which accounts for why you see CDs casting the same actors again and again.

And lastly, the Casting Society of America has gone on record as saying they are not "casting agents." Agents and casting professionals are two different things...at least on the U.S. coasts. Not sure if the title "casting agent" exists anywhere else.
posted by zerbinetta at 10:30 AM on January 12, 2011

But that he was Ed Bundy 20 years ago doesn't get in the way.

On the other hand, that sort of thing can also help. The fact that he was Ed Bundy and usually plays a certain kind of "American Dad" character, but now we've flipped that on its head and he's playing a very different American dad.

Nathan Fillion is also a good example of this - not too many people saw him on Firefly, but enough people did that he'll create exactly the right associations playing Richard Castle. He'll also bring the right sort of fanbase in as a potential audience, and stands to attract a slightly different potential audience if the show does well.
posted by Sara C. at 12:26 PM on January 12, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for your expansive and enlightening answers. Obviously clueless, I thought about casting as just a process in which you had certain magical powers picturing an an actor in a certain role based on physical appearance and acting skills. Your responses have left me wanting more, I'm particularly intrigued by the apparent difference in selection criteria between the US and the UK.
posted by moody cow at 2:28 AM on January 13, 2011