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Casting is Everything: Expert Advice on How to Cast for Success
So much of what makes a motion picture work at the level of technique (the subtle or dramatic use of color, special lenses, narrative-driven lighting, etc.) is generally intended to land just below the audience’s collective radar, supporting the story without supplanting it. At its best, moviemaking involves a certain artistic and technical sleight of hand to lead the eye and move the heart, all the while appearing to merely record the story as it happens. When it works, it’s great; but it doesn’t always work.
With so many elements at play, a lot can go wrong. A successful movie—one that really says what its creators intended—is like a small miracle. What most moviemakers learn early on is that all the technique in the world cannot save a half-baked story, and even great material cannot overcome a bad performance. In the words of Warren Beatty: “Casting is everything.”
MM checked in with some of movieland’s finest to see what wisdom could be garnered on the art of casting as currently practiced, including how the disparate demands of independent financiers, studio execs and the moviemaker can coexist and occasionally even fall in line with the film as written.
Bottom Line vs. Storyline
“Who would look good on the poster?”
Mindy Marin, whose casting credits range from 2 Days in the Valley to Snakes on a Plane, says that now more than ever, box office concerns set the bar for casting. “The times have changed dramatically in terms of how the studios do business,” notes Marin. “It is much more of a business these days, addressing the needs of the corporate entity… Which stars deliver opening weekend is more important than ever to corporate chiefs.” With box office attendance on the downswing, this trend seems likely to intensify. Finding the right balance between art and commerce is, according to Marin, “a chemistry of sorts—and no one has the exact recipe.”
Whether financing a feature independently or through a studio, the one certainty today is that those in a position to dispense largesse are going to make certain demands where casting is concerned. “Because movies are now more likely to have some independent financing brought in, even on a studio picture, who you cast is somewhat driven by who the money people think is worth something internationally,” offers writer-producer Robin Swicord, who made her feature directorial debut with The Jane Austen Book Club, starring Maria Bello and Emily Blunt. “These were discussions that weren’t happening when I was first making films—even when I was first making independent films. On my first feature, Shag, which was independently financed, almost everyone was unknown.”
The reality is that specific names will inevitably be requested—and often the same names. Say casting directors Sarah Finn and Randi Hiller of Finn/Hiller Casting, who cast Crash and In the Valley of Elah for Paul Haggis: “There is always a list.”
As in politics, getting your candidate elected requires a degree of skill—both diplomatic and strategic—and even then, some or all of the winning ticket may not be of your choosing. “Very few movies have no requirements in terms of cast,” admits Finn. “A lot of times you have to make peace with that, especially in independent films, which are often ruled by foreign financing. The people who have value in a foreign market aren’t necessarily as valuable here [in the U.S.].” Hiller agrees: “We find that a lot of times people will start out by telling us that we can cast whomever we want, but the reality is always that the cast has to work financially [in terms of box office sales].”
In the case of Crash, Finn/Hiller built a cast that, as a whole, was designed to equal the sort of box office draw one big-name star might get. “Sometimes,” admits Finn, “instead of one big name, financiers will take three to equal one, or six to equal one… [On Crash] we thought we had more than enough ‘names.’ But because the material was controversial, because Paul was a first-time feature director and because it was perceived as a darker film, it was a harder sell.” Ultimately, casting Sandra Bullock put them over the top and was what got the movie (which won the Oscar for Best Picture) made.
Putting Conflicts to the Test
“The Camera Never Lies.”
But what happens when the folks in the suits are not buying into your casting ideas? “I like the tool of the screen test,” says producer Laura Ziskin, who recalls how she and director Sam Raimi successfully utilized a screen test of Tobey Maguire to persuade studio execs that he was right for Spider-Man. “Once we put him on film, there was no question that he was the guy.”
Ziskin’s faith in the camera is an outgrowth of her collaboration with director Roger Donaldson, with whom she worked on 1987’s No Way Out. Donaldson chose to videotape all of the actors who came in to read for the film, even the bit players. “Sometimes,” Ziskin recounts, “though someone is spectacular in the room, the camera does something which is unique and unquantifiable [on tape]. I was completely struck by what a difference it made. In fact, Sean Young was not cast in the room, because there was a lot of uncertainty about her in the room. But when we looked at her on tape, she knocked us out! There was a quality the camera caught that you couldn’t really get in the room.”
Because the camera reveals so much, because it is able to show sides of an actor that even he or she may be unaware of, choosing the right person becomes all the more essential. Reflecting on Martin Ritt’s Murphy’s Romance, her first film as a producer, Ziskin recalls the director’s advice: “Cast someone who is already 80 percent the role.” Because, Ziskin continues, “The camera doesn’t lie—it’s a big truth machine.” Casting an actor who already possesses some of the qualities of the character he or she is going to portray gives moviemakers a significant edge over the camera’s revealing gaze and enables the director to take advantage of what’s already there. Though many actors have tremendous range and can seemingly disappear into any role, a piece of the person almost inevitably comes through in the character he or she is portraying. “Even with the most brilliant actors,” says Hiller, “there’s always an essence of who they are or a sense of what they connect to.”
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This story was published in the -- 2007 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
The Camera Never Lies/There's no post-production fix for a mistake in casting
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