Breaking in Part 2 - Casting
Listen in to Part 2 of our Breaking IN series! This time, we talk about the casting process and why you should always give it a shot!
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derrick Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hey everyone, welcome to the Film Center.
Speaker:I'm Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And what we're talking about today is.
Speaker:Today, we are going to do part two of our last.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Now, as you guys know, this is usually your number one place for
Speaker:studio news, but it is not today.
Speaker:Not today.
Speaker:And not last time, either.
Speaker:Which is why I did not have it in the intro.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, that's not really studio news today.
Speaker:Or a little studio news.
Speaker:Maybe at the end if we have time.
Speaker:Maybe we did, because me and Nicholas we just had an interesting experience.
Speaker:But, this part two, we're Actually just having solely focusing on casting for
Speaker:well for the most part about casting.
Speaker:Yeah cast So if you guys missed our last one, it was pre production, right?
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:Go check it out and Nicholas where would you say because nicholas has
Speaker:more acting experience than I do?
Speaker:Nicholas from the actor's perspective.
Speaker:What is it usually like to?
Speaker:Audition when you're like a known nobody because you've been there You've been
Speaker:to the side where people don't know who you are You've been decided people who
Speaker:do know you are and you've risen up the ranks a little bit before you started to
Speaker:go to producing yeah, you've been in it.
Speaker:You've been in a show before right as a main character and also good stuff.
Speaker:So What is it like to audition when people don't really know who you are?
Speaker:It's pretty terrible.
Speaker:Yeah?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's, people treat you like cattle.
Speaker:Like a number.
Speaker:Like nobody.
Speaker:Do you have any suggestions for our audience out there for booking those
Speaker:first few roles to get the ball started?
Speaker:Or get the ball rolling, excuse me.
Speaker:Use that to your advantage.
Speaker:Ex, Hey, can you elaborate?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So I'll give you an example, right?
Speaker:So we do consulting for podcasting, right?
Speaker:We help people, that is something we do launch their podcast.
Speaker:We help people grow their podcasts, right?
Speaker:Yes, we do.
Speaker:The number one superpower that you have as a nothing, nobody podcast
Speaker:is that nobody is listening.
Speaker:That is, you about, so you use the same thing with acting, right?
Speaker:Which is nobody is listening, right?
Speaker:So you can be as terrible as you want to.
Speaker:And then And get your skills up, and get your skills up.
Speaker:Same thing as an actor.
Speaker:Whenever you are nobody When you're first starting out.
Speaker:When you're first starting out, it really doesn't matter that
Speaker:you're terrible as an actor.
Speaker:It doesn't mat All of that does not matter.
Speaker:That is what should empower you.
Speaker:You shouldn't be nervous.
Speaker:You shouldn't Whatever it is you feel.
Speaker:Because it doesn't matter.
Speaker:And that's what should give you all the confidence in the world.
Speaker:Because you're just starting out.
Speaker:No one starts off perfect.
Speaker:And the thing is what a lot of people, I think, The audition
Speaker:starts when you wake up.
Speaker:I don't get it.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Okay, so So, and also, for everyone's clarification, I personally,
Speaker:I did mostly theater acting.
Speaker:I haven't really been in too many films.
Speaker:He has more experience in television and movie acting than I do.
Speaker:One of the things is I've done both, right?
Speaker:But one of the things is in theater, is in film and TV
Speaker:acting that lets us more, right?
Speaker:But what I was saying is The audition, so you have a big audition, or you have one
Speaker:audition, or you have multiple auditions that you gotta drive around town for.
Speaker:Well, a lot of them are when we were doing stuff, you had
Speaker:to drive around town for it.
Speaker:You still might have to sometimes.
Speaker:You could do EcoCast now, but the point Is that the audition starts
Speaker:when you wake up, it starts as you're driving to the audition.
Speaker:It starts in the parking lot.
Speaker:It does not start when you're thinking about it, right?
Speaker:When you walk through that door, right?
Speaker:And the most important thing is that the audition is not finished.
Speaker:The moment the audition is finished.
Speaker:The audition is finished when you walk out of the building.
Speaker:And, sometimes, a little bit after that, just in case they contact you
Speaker:for callbacks and stuff like that.
Speaker:One of the things you should also do, is One of the, it's You say
Speaker:it's also like a numbers game, too?
Speaker:Oh yeah, no, of course.
Speaker:It's definitely a numbers game, but one of the things that you should
Speaker:do is, First of all, understand, the casting director wants you to be
Speaker:the person for the role, More than you want to be casted for the role.
Speaker:So we're gonna flip now, a little bit, and then talk about what
Speaker:it's like from our perspective.
Speaker:People are casting as you guys know, we work on a lot of different
Speaker:shows and stuff like that.
Speaker:And we've currently done some casting just recently and, we've done a casting
Speaker:a bunch of different times, but this time was I would say, more special, at least
Speaker:it was to, to me personally, because we had a more physical casting sessions,
Speaker:than we usually do, usually, it, it's just, usually just looking for that
Speaker:person who clicks as that character, or someone who could just really nail it.
Speaker:Nail the scene, excuse me and take direction.
Speaker:But in this case for us specifically for this show, we're also having to
Speaker:cast people who can fight, right?
Speaker:And these are not like people in the background or in the, we
Speaker:don't, and it's not oh, we'll just give them time to train.
Speaker:No, you need to be just already be a fighter to do this job and give you
Speaker:and this is like these are like the leads Right and then also be able
Speaker:to take direction take direction looking for those triple threats.
Speaker:Oh, I can take direction and I'm a great actor or actress and I
Speaker:can fight and I also looked apart.
Speaker:So I guess that's what quadruple.
Speaker:So what were you saying then about this is true Go ahead and tell them what it's like
Speaker:From the casting director's perspective.
Speaker:This is the first time I have been majorly involved in the casting.
Speaker:And As a producer, he just hires other people to do it.
Speaker:I usually just hire other people.
Speaker:But, it's absolutely game changing being on the other side.
Speaker:Because, we realize, you've probably heard it before, but you realize even more now,
Speaker:the casting director wants you to succeed.
Speaker:Wants you to succeed.
Speaker:It's not a single More than anybody else in the room, because not
Speaker:only does it make them look like they know how to do their job.
Speaker:And allows them to keep their job by finding the right person.
Speaker:And allows them to keep their job and let people know that.
Speaker:I'm actually competent at this job, because a lot of them aren't.
Speaker:Yeah I always say this, if you get a callback, it means you're
Speaker:doing something correctly.
Speaker:I always equate it to like, there's a whole bunch of people who can audition
Speaker:for stuff, and like, when you're Especially when it's like in, so those
Speaker:of you who are applying on, who apply on Actors Access casting networks,
Speaker:there's a couple other different ones backstage, or if you're being sent to us
Speaker:from someone like CAA some of your, some representation is giving it to someone on
Speaker:the production directly, which did happen.
Speaker:And we've casted some people like that, where, an agency
Speaker:will hit us up and be like, Hey.
Speaker:We think that this person is right for the role.
Speaker:We know xyz who's a who's Above the line and they said that we can send this person
Speaker:in and some of them have been great So the whole thing is it's like though from
Speaker:the jump literally everyone wants you to win I cannot stress that enough because
Speaker:then if we see someone if we see someone we like at least even for callbacks
Speaker:On the first stage of the audition process, which is shifting through
Speaker:thousands and thousands of people, right?
Speaker:Once you see someone, you're like, who's competent?
Speaker:Am I competent?
Speaker:A.
Speaker:Be able to, at least during your self tape, or at least
Speaker:during the first audition.
Speaker:Just be off script.
Speaker:Or at least try.
Speaker:Try.
Speaker:Take the directions in the sides.
Speaker:So the SAG union has made it oh, you can't, I think it's some rule now.
Speaker:Oh, you can't judge them based off of whether they have
Speaker:memorized the lines or not.
Speaker:SAG made that rule, but SAG isn't the one, isn't the one casting people.
Speaker:And plus you can say, hey, you're not allowed to judge someone.
Speaker:Yeah, good luck with that.
Speaker:Okay, Sag, then give me the money.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Give me the money.
Speaker:Then you cast this person, who can't read for some reason
Speaker:or is completely illiterate.
Speaker:Knowing your lines and being able to take simple directions will get you everywhere.
Speaker:And also one of the things that I thought was very telling being so deeply
Speaker:ingrained with the process in this particular TV show is that you think
Speaker:that you're just a number, but being throughout this process, that if you
Speaker:audition, if you are just competent, you might have a role in the show.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:There are so many times, including on our show where we have someone come in.
Speaker:To audition for a role, right?
Speaker:And, Nick, it happened, right?
Speaker:We were like, hey, switch him around.
Speaker:Switch him around.
Speaker:We were like, dude, you auditioned for this role, I think that I don't
Speaker:want you for this role, but for this other one, you'd be amazing for it.
Speaker:And we've casted people that way.
Speaker:We've had people come in and cast them in other roles that we
Speaker:think they're just dynamiting.
Speaker:So if a casting director or some other director is Hey, do you
Speaker:mind reading for this other part?
Speaker:It means two things one of which they really like you which means they want to
Speaker:work with you that Already puts you above like basically everyone right because
Speaker:it means they want to work with you Even though you're not right for the role.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:They like who you are because that's one of the things about being an
Speaker:actor is whenever you get rejected.
Speaker:They're not rejecting the role.
Speaker:They're rejecting you as a person That's what it feels at least right?
Speaker:That's at least how it feels.
Speaker:They don't like your rendition Of what you brought to the table and sometimes
Speaker:it's not even because they don't like it.
Speaker:It's just straight up politics, right?
Speaker:Which Nicholas, do you want to play a little bit about acting politics
Speaker:or Do we have three hours to do this?
Speaker:We don't have enough time we literally we'd have to do five episodes on the
Speaker:politics if you guys especially People out there who are actors, writers, any
Speaker:creatives, if you want to know what someone's saying, so they say politics,
Speaker:now most people who listen to the show, they're already professionals, but for
Speaker:those of you who don't and you want to know a little more about Hollywood
Speaker:politics and what the hell That even means one example would be that way
Speaker:back in the day before, before Twilight happened, I was supposed to, I was
Speaker:supposed to be in it, and what ended up happening was, is somebody's son
Speaker:needed a role, because politics, right?
Speaker:It's nepotism, it's this, that, and the other.
Speaker:That's what it is by politics, it's oh, okay, this person wasn't
Speaker:supposed to be in this role, but hey.
Speaker:This is my son screw this guy.
Speaker:It happens.
Speaker:It happens to me.
Speaker:It happens to everybody another thing that politics is like Okay, so we
Speaker:actually That not this project but another project I was casting for We
Speaker:really liked this one person for this side character role That she'd be great.
Speaker:She was gonna rock it.
Speaker:She was gonna kill it.
Speaker:She was everyone's number one choice and we have a few alternates like two
Speaker:or three alternates And then we casted the main character after her just
Speaker:because we found like us like we said earlier We want you guys to succeed.
Speaker:We want you to walk in there.
Speaker:Wow us like We even if you don't think you can do it We're your biggest
Speaker:cheerleaders because if we find you and you're the right for the role our jobs
Speaker:are done we want these jobs to be done You're supposed to treat the audition
Speaker:like it's your first day of work.
Speaker:Not that you're on set Yeah, first day on set not that you're auditioning
Speaker:for it You have to walk in there like this is just your first day on set.
Speaker:You've already got the role, right?
Speaker:So in this particular case We casted the side character, then
Speaker:we casted the main character.
Speaker:And these two were going to be in a lot of scenes together, obviously.
Speaker:The issue was, is that the side character actress that we were choosing
Speaker:originally looked extremely identical to the main character who we casted.
Speaker:And it really came down to, okay importance of characters.
Speaker:Is it more important that we have the right person for the main
Speaker:character or the side character?
Speaker:Obviously the main character.
Speaker:Obviously.
Speaker:So then it was like, We can't even use this other person for this project.
Speaker:And so we put her in our back pocket to possibly ask her to do something else.
Speaker:And she ended up being on this project, as as one of the lead characters,
Speaker:it's, that's what we mean by politics.
Speaker:And also the, there's a thing of like casting somebody where.
Speaker:You're choosing between the two, right?
Speaker:And you like this person more, but the other person comes with more resources.
Speaker:You don't like them as much, but they are still good for the role,
Speaker:but they come with more resources and more politics on their side.
Speaker:Resources is, shows the unfairness of the world, in which you can hire
Speaker:someone because a lot of people know this oh, okay, like whoa, this person's
Speaker:an a lister so they're probably gonna get the role over me because they're
Speaker:gonna bring in a lot of people and Investors like to invest in people they
Speaker:know or are popular and yada, right?
Speaker:It's why studios will Allow influencers to be in movies without
Speaker:even seeing that they can act or not.
Speaker:Because they can't.
Speaker:Most of them.
Speaker:They cannot.
Speaker:They literally cannot.
Speaker:Then, but also with resources could also be marketing.
Speaker:There are some people who come in and because they're quote unquote
Speaker:industry plants, they come with a whole huge marketing team ready to
Speaker:give you money and blow up whatever project that you're working on.
Speaker:They make it huge.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Then again, it depends on whether that works for you in that situation.
Speaker:Nicholas and I have turned such agreements down.
Speaker:Mainly because it's okay if we took this deal, the project
Speaker:itself would be terrible.
Speaker:And yeah, it would get made, but then we would be known for
Speaker:making something super terrible.
Speaker:Comparative to, okay, if we choose this other person, it's not going to get made.
Speaker:As big at first we're relying on the quality and one thing people
Speaker:might not understand because I certainly Didn't understand it when
Speaker:I first got in the business Is that?
Speaker:I think people forget that this business and business in
Speaker:general is about making money.
Speaker:It's not about making movies.
Speaker:The reason why a whole bunch of rich people are at the top is because they
Speaker:don't have to worry about making money.
Speaker:That's why they can do whatever.
Speaker:But most people cannot do that.
Speaker:The movies are about making money.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And also, the studios do not care if they're bad movies or not.
Speaker:As long as they make money and As long as it strokes their ego.
Speaker:But also, they keep making movies so that their name stays out there.
Speaker:And stays relevant.
Speaker:And stays relevant.
Speaker:And they get more opportunities.
Speaker:And they get more names and get more, Chances to keep their name out there
Speaker:regardless of the quality of movies.
Speaker:That's what we mean by politics.
Speaker:That took a little turn, didn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, and there's more about that.
Speaker:And if you guys want to hear us talk more about it, send us a suggestion.
Speaker:But one of the things I always tell a lot of people when I'm directing and I
Speaker:have people I bring in for callbacks.
Speaker:Take that callback as if you're about to steal the show.
Speaker:I cannot tell you the amount of times I've had people, So I've
Speaker:looked at all the auditions.
Speaker:First of all, if you're literate, And don't be, I swear to God, I hate when
Speaker:people do this, We say, hey, this is just the type of person we need.
Speaker:We need a tall black guy for this role.
Speaker:And then a short white woman will apply.
Speaker:Oh, I'll see.
Speaker:I need a change the mind or creator, right?
Speaker:Or I'll say hey, I need a white guy with dark hair.
Speaker:And maybe I might change it here, maybe I'm not, but Unicornly at
Speaker:least look like him a little bit, or a white guy that's 5'10 or around
Speaker:that height or something like that.
Speaker:And then you're gonna have, some super tall Asian dude apply for it, and
Speaker:you're like, Dude, you do not match this description of this character.
Speaker:A 5'4 white dude that's got red hair, and it's so it's oh, I
Speaker:need someone to be a bodybuilder.
Speaker:This is the side character role, you need to be a bodybuilder.
Speaker:And then some guy who maybe weighs 90 pounds will show up.
Speaker:It's come on, man.
Speaker:You gotta at least unless you're an A list star, most directors aren't going
Speaker:to work with you to transform your body.
Speaker:Into the what you needs to be racially if it's a race thing, don't touch it.
Speaker:Just Is my suggestion to you, but especially in this current climate
Speaker:that you know, unless it doesn't mention the race then go for it, right?
Speaker:But I cannot tell you how many times that we've had there's a number one
Speaker:choice two, three, four, five And i'll be like, ah, you know what?
Speaker:We'll just throw in this sixth person just because Cause whatever, we
Speaker:need another slot, I need another person in here, and whatever.
Speaker:And that sixth person ends up being the one I cast.
Speaker:Yeah, the dark horse.
Speaker:Because that person really puts their all into that callback, and they
Speaker:resp you know, they go up there and kinda like Nicholas you said, they
Speaker:act like they already got the role.
Speaker:One of the things I think that we might be neglecting to say is the
Speaker:difference between the ecocast auditions and then the in person auditions.
Speaker:So when we initially were casting off of ecocast, off of video auditions, we had
Speaker:our list of people that we liked, right?
Speaker:Now Everybody.
Speaker:We don't know how many takes it took.
Speaker:We don't know how long they took.
Speaker:We don't know what they did.
Speaker:They could have taken a they could have been their 85th take of that one shot or
Speaker:that one scene And or that one monologue and that's why it's great comparative
Speaker:to what you're about to say comparative to Coming into the audition now And it
Speaker:completely flipped everything on its head.
Speaker:Now, we had maybe one or two people that were consistent on Ecocast
Speaker:and in the in person audition.
Speaker:But for the most part, our top prospects listed out.
Speaker:We're not our first choice.
Speaker:Completely flipped it on its head.
Speaker:And that happens a lot.
Speaker:And, what you that's.
Speaker:What you want as a director, when you're dealing with casting, when
Speaker:you're the director of the film in our case, we're talking about
Speaker:a TV show so I'm show running it.
Speaker:It's not really directing but when you're involved in that casting process
Speaker:you want to have that really good sixth sense, don't really think Oh, you Like
Speaker:the politics part we talked about that, but when it comes to the straight up
Speaker:casting there's like a Visual that you will get you'll look at it someone and
Speaker:say like they just said though Said the words the right way or something about
Speaker:that and whatever that little inkling is in the back of your mind that hey
Speaker:Like especially you if you have your list of callbacks you need an extra
Speaker:space Reach out to that sixth sense.
Speaker:It sounds really stupid.
Speaker:But think about who you truly want to be in this role Who you, and then be like,
Speaker:okay, if all of the people I want were gone, who would I think could handle it?
Speaker:Not that they're right, not that they're the best choice for the
Speaker:role, but who could handle it?
Speaker:And really take that role.
Speaker:And, a lot of times it's those six, ten choices, which have been phenomenal.
Speaker:One of the things that I would.
Speaker:Sorry, do you want me to cut you off?
Speaker:The the person that Nicholas was referring to, not person, the people,
Speaker:excuse me, that Nicholas was referring to, as in, the certain people who
Speaker:are like, oh, you just see them, and you're like, oh, they were consistent
Speaker:with the self tape, and in person, those are just straight up outliers.
Speaker:And I, and here's the thing that people don't understand, you
Speaker:can't count on outliers, right?
Speaker:And you can't count yourself as not an outlier.
Speaker:Because here's the thing.
Speaker:Every single person who wants to be an actor or actress
Speaker:is an outlier for some role.
Speaker:There is a role out there that you are perfect for, you
Speaker:just don't know what it is.
Speaker:Comparative to for me, no one would choose me to, play a younger Michael Jordan.
Speaker:They'd be like, what?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:But I could be a really good role for, I don't know Cat
Speaker:Williams cousin or something.
Speaker:What were you going to say?
Speaker:We had, what I'd like you to do, is I'd like you to talk,
Speaker:especially about that six cents.
Speaker:Because we had a person that we weren't even going to consider.
Speaker:We didn't like them, they didn't provide a good audition on their self tape,
Speaker:but something told you we should have this person there, and what happened?
Speaker:Can you give me a little bit more of a hint of which person you're talking about?
Speaker:We were talking about the fact that What does this person look like?
Speaker:Cause we can't really see the difference.
Speaker:She was she was blonde.
Speaker:Oh, I actually know what you're talking about.
Speaker:I do actually know what you're talking about.
Speaker:This person What happened was, is that she was not our first, second, 3rd, 4th,
Speaker:8th, like literally I had we had all of our choices and We just needed a spot.
Speaker:We need just one more person just to fill out the look we have five people it's
Speaker:ironic that you say that I was actually saying about the same person cuz We
Speaker:had five actual people in front of her.
Speaker:Hey, you know what solid choice, right?
Speaker:This is my perfect choice This is my second perfect choice is my third
Speaker:like these top three choices When they saw their self tapes Indisputable
Speaker:top of the rung then four and five.
Speaker:I was like, you know what?
Speaker:They're not as indisputable as the other ones are but they're still really good.
Speaker:We need another spot And because we rented out the place for a certain amount of
Speaker:time And we actually this is something too that you want to do when you're casting.
Speaker:You want to make, you want to stick to your own personal rules.
Speaker:For our personal rules, we're like, we're going to have X
Speaker:number of choices for each person.
Speaker:Regardless of, so for us it was six.
Speaker:For this level of callbacks, we were like around three or four
Speaker:of call of like auditions anyway.
Speaker:So it wasn't like first rounds.
Speaker:But for us, we were like, we need at least six for each person at this stage.
Speaker:Each character, excuse me.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Really, I was looking through the other ones and what ticked me off of that
Speaker:sixth sense is I just literally, I was like if I take the character that
Speaker:I'm imagining, like I'm imagining what this person may look like and just
Speaker:throw that out of the window, just throw it completely out the window.
Speaker:Don't think about what the character looks like.
Speaker:Think about instead, could this person have that character's personality?
Speaker:That's where that sixth sense comes from.
Speaker:Does this person seem to naturally have the personality that I think that I need?
Speaker:And that's why I was like, you know what?
Speaker:I don't think that, I don't think that she did the scene as
Speaker:well as I wanted her to do it.
Speaker:I didn't think that, that she looked the part.
Speaker:That was a big thing for us.
Speaker:She didn't really look the part.
Speaker:But, my sixth sense was like, sixth sense was like, but her personality
Speaker:is like, Matching for me, and it just seems she sent in not only one version
Speaker:of, cause we had a couple different sides, like three of them, we had three
Speaker:scenes, she sent in three of each scene.
Speaker:So it was like, she put a lot, she put a lot of work into it.
Speaker:And she seems like she has that personality.
Speaker:So then when she came in, I was, everyone else came in front of her, right?
Speaker:Cause they were we had them at blocked out at different times.
Speaker:And I am so glad that sixth sense.
Speaker:Sixth Sense worked in that instance because when that sixth person, when
Speaker:this actress, when she started her audition Everyone knew she was the one.
Speaker:And this is crazy It's because we already had the one earlier.
Speaker:Our number one choice had come in and dominated like we knew what she was
Speaker:going to do We're like, okay, cool.
Speaker:Our job is done.
Speaker:We're just gonna sit here and just watch everybody else mess up, basically.
Speaker:We're gonna just keep comparing them to this first choice But I kid you not
Speaker:that number six came in and she wiped the floor with everyone else One of the
Speaker:things that she also did, and what needs to be known, is give different variations
Speaker:whenever you're in the audition.
Speaker:If they want you to do it again, that means they like you, but they
Speaker:want to see something different.
Speaker:Don't do the same version that you just did!
Speaker:They're testing to see if you can take directions.
Speaker:So it's like this, if I'm hiring someone to run my lemonade stand.
Speaker:Okay it's not good enough that they know how to make lemonade.
Speaker:I also want them to not curse at my customers.
Speaker:I want them to, and if I say, hey be nice we had to do this.
Speaker:I want to know that, you're going to cooperate with me.
Speaker:That's usually what that's about.
Speaker:Or maybe you might have, maybe someone might have done the scene,
Speaker:not in the way someone's imagined it.
Speaker:But at the same time, a lot of times it's a, yeah, we do like you.
Speaker:So we want to see it again or else we'll be like, all right, cool.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:That once was good.
Speaker:I see you at the, usually the second time I was like, can you take
Speaker:direction and can we work with you?
Speaker:If I give you some notes, how would you use them?
Speaker:I don't care what the director says, now do it like you were underwater.
Speaker:Come on, bro.
Speaker:That might sound crazy to you, but it's I'll give it a shot.
Speaker:And that alone is so much.
Speaker:Because a lot of times actors will just give the exact same rendition, because
Speaker:they practice the audition so much, that they can only perform it that one way.
Speaker:I want to see if you can take direction.
Speaker:I want to see if you can do exactly what I need you to do.
Speaker:I liked your base version.
Speaker:Now we're building on top of it.
Speaker:And also, one of the things that, that I would like to That I thought is super
Speaker:important during casting on the actor side as well Is you do not have as
Speaker:much competition as you think you do?
Speaker:Oh my gosh If you do not have as much competition as you think you do people
Speaker:don't believe us when we tell them Los angeles is super small because out of the
Speaker:five million people that live in this city There's probably about I would say 300,
Speaker:000 that are competent for this industry.
Speaker:There's only about 100, 000 that are actually gonna have the
Speaker:chops to actually make it in.
Speaker:And then there's only probably about 50, 000 that are really worth it.
Speaker:And, out of everyone who consistently works in the industry, there's
Speaker:probably some like 2, 000.
Speaker:You do not have as much competition as you think you do.
Speaker:If you understand anything, understand that.
Speaker:I had a prime example of something like that happened
Speaker:to me before I did a TV show.
Speaker:And before the TV show, obviously you're waiting in the wings.
Speaker:Obviously you're waiting for your turn.
Speaker:And the character was a deadpan monotone type person, right?
Speaker:I was next up, I was on deck, and I heard from the door, this dude going
Speaker:all wild and crazy and blah blah blah.
Speaker:Then you have, didn't you say he had a whole bunch of I'll, disclaimer, I was not
Speaker:there, but I have heard the story before.
Speaker:Didn't you say that he was Like dropping his tone, like going crazy with the
Speaker:guy, like going all over the place.
Speaker:So whenever you hear something like that, you get petrified because
Speaker:you're like did I not get a side?
Speaker:Did I not?
Speaker:You think you're missing something or you were gonna do it wrong or something?
Speaker:Was I not prepared?
Speaker:And I get in there and you, and then you also say should I bring that up?
Speaker:So there's a bunch of questions.
Speaker:And then tell them what you did when you got in there.
Speaker:So when I got in there, I was just straight up honest with them.
Speaker:I said, Hey, listen, cause you're not supposed to talk about the
Speaker:person who just auditioned.
Speaker:Yeah, it's supposed to.
Speaker:But I was like I'm acting like I already got the job.
Speaker:I just heard the guy do that.
Speaker:Did I miss something?
Speaker:Was I Did I not get something?
Speaker:And the funniest look that the director and the casting director
Speaker:gave me was no, I said, this is how It's written in the side.
Speaker:That is deadpan, right?
Speaker:That is deadpan monotone type.
Speaker:Is that how you're supposed to play it?
Speaker:They're like, yeah that's how I was like, so what is he doing?
Speaker:They were, we have no idea.
Speaker:And again, this goes back to being literate.
Speaker:People, if you can read, not only know your lines, but if you
Speaker:can read the lines, you can also read the part that says deadpan.
Speaker:And don't be like, oh, I'm not gonna do what's in the script.
Speaker:That is the fastest way to get fired.
Speaker:Actually, that's actually, that is the number one way that we not only we, but
Speaker:like every casting director that I have known and worked with over the years.
Speaker:The number one thing is are you gonna do what's actually in the script?
Speaker:I cannot, this, yo, do you wanna tell them about Too Hype?
Speaker:Is that something we want to get into right now?
Speaker:How, let me see how much time it is.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So we're not going to be able to talk about Dune or the D Box thing, but we'll,
Speaker:I'll save D Box and Dune for next time.
Speaker:We'll save it for next time.
Speaker:Yeah, we'll save Dune, Box, and D Box for next time.
Speaker:Nicholas I'm relying on Nicholas here because I don't even know how to describe.
Speaker:We had sent out a breakdown for kind of a douchebaggy type person that is just
Speaker:like, he's just real full of himself.
Speaker:If you think if Hypebeast were a person That's what we needed.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And we had somebody sent in An audition of three videos mind you the first
Speaker:there are there's there are sides that we sent with words on It's a scene
Speaker:that you're supposed to do right?
Speaker:And the first one was of him performing his rap performance.
Speaker:He sent us a camera video, vertical camera video, of him on stage at
Speaker:an empty bar mitzvah rapping a song that was pretty terrible.
Speaker:Pretty terrible.
Speaker:And, as you're, hand to God, we're telling the truth.
Speaker:We don't know why he did that.
Speaker:We didn't ask for it.
Speaker:We were like, we were looking, we're supposed to looking for his audition of
Speaker:the seed and he just sends this tape.
Speaker:And then there was two other videos.
Speaker:Would you like to describe the other two videos?
Speaker:One video was really short.
Speaker:I don't think he meant to send it.
Speaker:Yeah, it was like two seconds and Two or three seconds and basically it was him
Speaker:at a school or something like that and someone's Hey, yeah, the camera works and
Speaker:it was also a vertical and then the third video was about five seconds of the scene.
Speaker:By the way, disclaimer, this scene is about a minute and a half long.
Speaker:He sent us five to ten seconds of him saying one line just repeatedly.
Speaker:And then, that's it.
Speaker:He didn't even do any of the motions, no slate, by the way, nothing.
Speaker:We didn't know who this person was.
Speaker:We had to like, look it up.
Speaker:And we were just like, we don't know if this guy is actually the character, or
Speaker:this man is a genius, because he had us encapsulated the whole casting process.
Speaker:We were like, we gotta see this dude.
Speaker:There is something to be said about really standing out.
Speaker:Because this person, but it only, he only stood out to us because
Speaker:it's within line of the character.
Speaker:He was the character.
Speaker:If he would have done this for one of our more serious characters, I'm like, this
Speaker:guy's an idiot and just passed over him.
Speaker:Because the character were were casting for, is a too full of himself douchebag
Speaker:to submit something like this where it seems like he's too full of himself on
Speaker:stage rappin Was perfect on the mark.
Speaker:Perfect, right?
Speaker:We were like, what's better than acting?
Speaker:Somebody who is actually that person.
Speaker:An actual douchebag.
Speaker:I don't know, and in fact, when we, so we gave him a call back.
Speaker:We were like, it's crazy.
Speaker:Maybe we could do like an extra person.
Speaker:Something that our casting director said was like, hey man, you don't want to hire
Speaker:the person who's actually a crackhead.
Speaker:You want to get the person who's really good at acting like a crackhead.
Speaker:Because you have to work them offset.
Speaker:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker:But at the same time, we were like, you know what?
Speaker:Let's just bring this person in.
Speaker:Nicholas, do you want to describe what it was like having him for a callback?
Speaker:So we gave him a callback because I was like, I just want to meet the person.
Speaker:I don't even care about the callback.
Speaker:I don't care about his acting.
Speaker:I want to know why he did this.
Speaker:And we had the callback.
Speaker:And He didn't know who we were.
Speaker:He arrived on time.
Speaker:First of all, excuse me.
Speaker:This is done.
Speaker:He arrived on time.
Speaker:To the callback audition and didn't know who we were What was happening?
Speaker:Nothing.
Speaker:In fact, we told him we're like, hey, man, you auditioned for this role.
Speaker:He's no, I didn't I'm like, bro We had you're here now.
Speaker:How do you what?
Speaker:And I'm like, yes you did he goes, we had to show him his audition For him to be
Speaker:like, oh I did audition for this role.
Speaker:We had to prove it to him.
Speaker:And the only reason why we humored it, is it was just so dead on for the character.
Speaker:But then, in the wise words of our casting director, we had to choose
Speaker:someone who wasn't actually crazy.
Speaker:We actually ran out of time.
Speaker:Nicholas, do you have anything to say?
Speaker:Any closing thoughts real fast?
Speaker:Yeah, you do not have as much competition as you think you do.
Speaker:And remember that the casting directors are your biggest fans.
Speaker:Guys this has been Film Center.
Speaker:This is part two of our getting into the industry series, or some
Speaker:series, or whatever they call it.
Speaker:I'm Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we'll see you later.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at FilmCenterNews.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:Sign up for our newsletter and get the Hollywood trade straight to you.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next week for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been Film Center.
