The Casting Conundrum

I’m directing a commercial tomorrow that I’ve been prepping for all week.  Casting was on Friday and we saw lots of great actors.  From which, I found my perfect cast.

I love working with actors during casting.  I try to get a feel for who they are, if they’re talented, if I like them, if they’re creative and energetic, if they’ve got ideas.  I also find out how directable they are.  And frankly, I get to test out some of my own ideas a bit.  And I do this by creating a warm, open environment - one actors find comforting and freeing.

But something happened this time around that may have changed my mind.

At the fitting, one of my talent commented on how easy the audition was.  How this person felt more comfortable and relaxed than any other audition they’d been on recently.  This was said in a manner of thanking me.  Which I appreciated.

But I also noticed that with more people around at the fitting this actor was less relaxed, more desiring of attention from everyone.  As I watched this, it occurred to me that I may have been doing myself a disservice all this time by having casting sessions that are too easy on actors.

The question is, if I’m creating atmospheres in casting that are more comfortable than the atmospheres I’m able to create on set - something infinitely harder to control than a small casting office - I won’t find out how my talent works under pressure until the day of the shoot.  That’s a pretty big risk.

Hm.  Well.  We’ll see how the shoot goes tomorrow.  I may be in the process of finding a new appreciation for cold, hard casting.