When you are casting sometimes it’s easy to have blinders on. You see what’s written on the page, and the description of the character, and you get a mental picture of what this person looks, sounds and acts like. In your search you can get very fixated on finding the replica of who fits that bill. And that can be a mistake. What we forget are that actors are just that – actors. They sometimes bring things to the table, and to a role that we never could have imagined. And this can open up the material to whole new possibilities.
I learned a big lesson when we were casting for the part of a curmudgeonly office drone – someone who was both physically and literally repulsive. I sat there and examined the names of the actors who were being brought in by the casting directors and caught sight of a name I was quite familiar with. I thought what on earth are they wasting our time with him for? I turned to my colleague and said just that. “Why? He doesn’t fit the bill at all!” Then he walked in the room and morphed in front of my eyes.
The moment he stepped over the threshold of the door he took on the role and it was astounding. His attractive facial features changed to something I can’t quite describe, his whole body language and posture had made a huge shift, and he had found the voice of this man: in this guise I wouldn’t have recognized him if I’d passed him on the street. I sat there and watched him dumbstruck. This role was different than anything I’d seen him do before… and I’d seen him in a LOT of productions. I would have never fathomed in a million years he had it in him, but he did. He got hired for the part.
This man took what was in the script and breathed new life into it. The words coming out of his mouth and the way he delivered them gave it a whole new meaning and dimension. Never again would I turn my nose up at an actor before they had done their thing, and been given the opportunity to audition. Sometimes what you think you want can change in a moment when you realize there are more possibilities than you imagined.
I worked on another show where a young actor was brought in to read for a part. I thought he was an awful fit and this time I was right. He couldn’t get to where this character needed to be. He wasn’t right for this role, but I believed he was perfect for another part in the series. All because I had seen him perform at a script reading one night and realized he had something in him that nobody else had seen – innocence. He wasn’t being brought in because he had already been turned down for the other part, and I insisted that he be given an audition. It was suggested I was wasting everybody’s time, but he was given the opportunity… and he blew everyone away! Once again he was hired when everyone in the room were cold fish about him even being there. What was thought to be a waste of time ended up being the discovery of someone who no one in that room could visualize playing that part until they’d actually seen him do it.
That brings me to another point. Trust your casting person but also be doing your part. They are only human and work based on their own assumptions. They can be just as limited in their thinking as you can be, so I believe it always makes sense to be doing some leg work yourself and looking to see who’s out there instead of just trusting they are going to be miraculously put in front of you. Sometimes depending on how booked up this person is, and how many projects they are juggling at one time, they are going to turn to the tried and true actors they know instead of putting the work in. If you think your casting person isn’t delivering the goods don’t be afraid to find a replacement. I witnessed this once in my career and the alternative really paid off big time!
Also sometimes, yes, physical traits or ethnicity are imperative to a role. If you’re making a movie about the mafia you are in fact going to need someone who can look and play Italian. That’s a given. But if there are no limitations why not cast color blind? Why limit yourself and the pool of actors you are looking at? Don’t get caught up in an actor’s last name. In Kat Castaneda’s article “Becoming White” for this site she stated the following “There are over 100,000 actors living in Los Angeles, and that does not include non-union actors. Of the roles offered, around 75% of speaking roles are given to Caucasians.” Don’t get caught up in the nonsense. Think outside of the box!
Same goes for comedy. I was privy to a project once where the people doing the auditioning became fixated on people who had done stand-up comedy. In my humble opinion this was a very limiting approach, because a lot of comedians don’t have acting chops. They sounded like they were delivering a line, or were doing the old nudge nudge wink wink every time they said a joke (yes Roseanne Barr I’m talking to you). To me who turned out to be the standouts on that show were actors who had no comedy experience… but they just intuitively got it. They just didn’t have the opportunity yet to demonstrate their skills. Comedic timing is something you’ve either got or you don’t. Really great actors can work on it and learn it, but you don’t have time for a learning curve during filming. You want someone who’s got the flare – and that may not come in the most obvious package or be seen on a resume. You have to take a few chances during the auditioning process. You may initially think it’s a waste of time but it’s not. Who thought Robert De Niro could be funny? I sure didn’t!
Same goes in the other direction. Some individuals who have come out of comedic backgrounds are astoundingly good dramatic actors. And how would you know unless you gave them the opportunity to read for the part? When I think about this the first person that comes to mind is Jim Carrey… the rubber faced and probably most physical comedian the world has ever seen. He came out of sketch comedy, and to me was the most unlikely casting choice for the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, because I could not comprehend he had a subtle bone in his body. If it was my film, and someone had brought up his name, I would have laughed and asked them if they were completely insane.
He was the most unusual choice I can think of for the lead, but it worked and I can’t picture anybody else playing that part. The filmmakers took a leap with their choice to play the love interest of Kate Winslet – one that no one else would have considered at that point in his career, and it was very effective. I would also be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to the late great Robin Williams! Director Bennett Miller said recently in the Hollywood Reporter that he likes to cast comedic actors like Steve Carell in dramatic roles because “there’s always a sharp aspect to their troubled psyches that the world rarely gets to see.”
I think it’s imperative when you are casting to always go in with an open mind. My colleague Ken Gord says “ I can’t tell you how many times you go into a casting session with a certain type in mind – police detective, male, 30’s – and you’re casting a different role and think, wow that person would be a great police detective – that female in her 60’s. So, in order not to be too on the nose you have to free your mind to everything.”
I am just sitting down to watch auditions for three parts and am reminding myself of that, while I’m reminding you. The show requires three hot commodities, but it’s not always the stereotypical best looking people who are going to shine. Sometimes the X factor can be found in the not so obvious packages.
Next time you are casting think about character and depth and charisma, and someone that your audience is going to be stuck to like glue. Someone they are going to be compelled to either keep coming back to again and again, or will happily sit through two hours in a darkened theater to see what is going to happen to them. If you’re sitting there watching an audition wanting to hear more, and you don’t want the actor to walk out of that room, that’s a very good sign your audience will be stuck on them too.