It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super-casting director-man (or, yup, I’m casting another film in 3 weeks)
November 7, 2008
In the film I am currently casting, I have many older actor roles to fill. All the roles are for SAG scale either daily rate ($759.00) or weekly ($2634.00). The main cast is great, and these roles are small but significant. I think the script is very well written and it seemed to me that we would have our choice of whom we would want in these roles. Wrong, so very wrong. It has been really hard to cast the film! The older actors that we would just offer the roles to without auditioning want money (so do I), and would rather not work for a day or a week. I am not talking big A-list or even B-list names, but actors who you would see on television who work steadily, they just couldn’t be bothered with only doing one or two scenes.
It’s different in every film; you never know how actors are going to react to roles and offers.
I am in NYC and have been here for 3 weeks. I love casting here, and more importantly I really love being involved with the production office rather then sitting in a separate casting office, getting information late or not at all because I have been forgotten (poor me). The director of this film was determined to be at all of the casting sessions. In fact, he said casting was very important to him. Well, things didn’t really work out the way he wanted. The problem was that the rest of the film’s needs (locations, camera tests, A-list actors groveling for attention, little thing…) got in the way and out of the 20 casting sessions I had, I only had the director with me 4 times. This means that the director is looking at auditions on-line and based on my recommendation and hiring the actor. Just the way I like it! To be honest, it is easier for me to do the casting, especially day-players on my own, I don’t need the director with me, I just need to understand creatively what the director is looking for and then I provide it (hopefully).
Again, this production had a very small budget for me, and I did what would normally take 8 to 10 weeks in 3 weeks, which was fun, annoying and exhausting, but hopefully it will be rewarding as well as this is now my 3rd film that I have cast in NYC and I hope to do more. I like being bi-coastal!
I remember reading an article that claims supporting actors who are not A-List or B-List are leaving the industry because they are not getting enough work. The theory is that in TV shows, there has been a shift towards getting celebrities to guest star in roles that would normally go to an unknown. Therefore there is less work for them and they cannot make enough to cover the shortfall.
Have you found this to be the case, or is it a myth?
There will always be a request by producers to “cast-up” their films or television shows. It doesn’t matter what the budget is, everyone wants names in their projects. The reality can often hit a producer hard in that when they are offering scale, a honey wagon and that’s the deal, the actor (and reps) really have to think the script is incredible, or the actor is in such need of work, or that the actor makes big bucks and would be happy to appear in something “artistic” or different from material they are usually offered.
I can only speak for myself, but my experience is varied, I truly never really know who is going to be attracted to the script until I put the script out there, however I get a sense of the way things are going within the first few days of casting. Saying that, I do have a general knowledge of what a specific actor is looking for.
So, to answer your question: Productions usually have to pay to get names into their films, I think the problem is that actors (and many of us in the this industry) are not making our quotes anymore and the feeling is that the producers know they can say “take it or leave it,” to many of us, including actors. I think the main issue is the quality of the scripts being produced and the amount of projects out there. I read a lot of bad scripts and the amount of independent films being made are not high numbers and the ones that are being made aren’t offering a lot of money to actors. There are a lot of actors out there who are “unknown” who have a great deal of work under their belts, it’s a tough job just to get a job…
Hope this answers the question…