What Does a Casting Director Do?

Producers, Directors, Filmmakers of all kinds, contact me to help them find talent for their projects.

First I find out a bit more about the project: Is it a film or a commercial? When does it shoot? How many actors are needed? What will they be doing? How much will the actors get paid? Is it a SAG-AFTRA project, or non-union?

Once I have all this information, I put together something called a "breakdown". I then promote the project in places where I can find specifically those kinds of actors needed for the project. If it's kids, then I have a few sites where I post the notice. If it's character actors, I use other sites. If it's even harder to find, I'll post this notice around the web, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram as well.

I receive all the submissions from the different actors. These are headshots, and sometimes videos, and sometimes just an email. Then, I contact the actors -- just the ones that fit the description -- and have them do a self-taped audition and send that in. Once I receive these tapes, I review them. These get narrowed down again, and sent on to the producer or director to review. Together, we decide and agree on who to invite in for a callback.

I schedule these selected actors for a live video session with the director to meet them and go over the project. Sometimes we need a "reader" to play the other part in the scene, to help the actor in their audition.

Of course, sometimes we still do callbacks in person when we need to.

Once all this is done, and the final choices are made as to which actors will be booked, I contact them, and offer them the roles. Most of the time, they accept the role. Occasionally they don't accept the role because there is a conflict, such as another film shoot with a schedule that overlaps our project. In that case, I then offer the role to the next actor on the list. I send confirmation that they are "booked", and hand over all of their information to the production team, so they can be contacted by other departments such as the wardrobe department.

So, this is what I do.

I'm NOT an agent. I do not get paid a percentage of the money the actor makes. In fact, how much money the actor's make has nothing to do with the compensation for the casting director. Think of it like hiring a cameraperson, or a sound person. I'm just contracted with the project on an individual basis, and negotiate my fees based on the needs of the project, and how much work it will require from me to find the talent asked for. Some projects have lots of people in them. Some projects have only a few. But just because a film or commercial only has 2 or 3 people in it, doesn't mean that it's easy to do necessarily. Less people doesn't always equate to "less work". Some character descriptions are so specific it can take a lot of searching to fill the role.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what I do.

If you are looking to get cast in a project that I'm working on, it's important that you fit the description of the character that I need to find.