Cajun Casting

Ok, so for this film I am casting, there has been this role that we have gone out to everyone we could think of for the part. We have not been having a lot of luck with it, because the part is for scale, it requires a lot of improvisation and it is part of an ensemble. Also, the age of the character is 50+. So, this is a hard role to cast, because anyone 50+ worth anything is going to want more than scale and not be attracted to the deal we are offering in order to play this role that shoots for 3 weeks.

About a week ago I decided to go through my on-line submissions via Breakdown Services. Up to this time we have been going to actors based on ideas floating around between producers the director and myself. Of course everyone had a list, but no one read it, not because they didn’t care but I think because everyone was so busy that they really rely on me putting pressure on them (producers, director) to make a decision and if they respect my opinion they wait for me to chime in with who I think would be good as well.

I try to suggest only the actors that I would want in the film if I were the director. But things don’t always go that way and for the past few weeks, for this one particular role, we have been going all over the map creatively (or not) to figure out who this character is.

After a few more auditions, I was finally getting a sense of who to put into the film and my sensibility for the role went younger than what the director kept beating into my head: that the role had to be over 50 because it is part of the on-going joke in the film. So, I looked on-line at the submissions and there right in front of me was the actor I should have gone to from the beginning. He is a fantastic actor with loads of credits and is recognizable to audiences but not so recognizable that he takes you out of the context of the scene or the film.

I called his manager and within the few hours that I spoke to him, he was on a plane from New Orleans on his way to L.A to play the role. He liked the script and he was cool about the money. He just wanted to work. Which, I respect… a lot. One can’t always offer actors the money they actually deserve and when I am looking for an actor for scale, it can take a lot longer to find the right person because of all of the reasons previously discussed. But if an actor wants to work and they aren’t doing anything else at the time, if they have the right attitude they will usually do the job. It’s just finding the right actor at the right time.

I know I am being vague with all of this, but I don’t feel comfortable ever mentioning names or the actual jobs I am working on, mainly because I don’t want anyone to feel that their privacy is compromised, but let’s just say that I have gained a lot of respect for various actors who I have been casting over the last few weeks. I have seen a lot of really cool actors take parts that I didn’t think they would do because of the money.

Of course their reps hate me…but I can live with that…