| While casting the male lead for ARTEMIS ETERNAL, we
went from hundreds of actors to fifty to thirty to twelve to six to
two to one in the matter of five days. Geoffrey Owens, who I have
been working with for three years now, is the casting director for
the film. From making a list of qualities we were looking for to deciding
on callbacks, Geoffrey and I were on the same page agreeing on every
point during the casting process. For this and other reasons our method
proved to be rare experience.
On the final night of auditions we read a handful of terrific guys. Actor Todd Soley was the last to leave and as we talked in the lobby and I scheduled a 1:1 with him for the following day, he told me how much he was enjoying our approach to casting and that he had noticed that all of the guys reading during final callbacks were noticeably different. Although I was fairly certain I was going to cast Todd, I wanted to have meetings with the final two guys we had chosen. Mostly because this project is a long haul and I knew it would require a certain type of person to perform both inside and outside of the role. We were seeking the total package and were lucky to find it in a couple of actors, but most ideally in Todd's talent, personality and quality of professionalism that exceeds his years. I understood that he could handle the challenges of the project: This has been important because this road has turned out to be rougher than I had imagined. My casting assistants were Dusty Finn "Sideshow Dusty" from Sideshow Collectibles, who is a fabulous coordinator and who I've always felt belongs in production, and actor-beauty Wallis Herst; a true team player who I've performed with in the past and who served as our reader. Having people who I respected with me and had worked with previously made the process fun and allowed for me to cast efficiently. Casting is crucial and we were moving at a fast pace, and yet I felt confident throughout: Much of that I attribute to having the benefit of Geoffrey's expertise. So far casting has been one of my favorite parts of the project and everyone involved was thrilled when I confirmed that I had offered the role to Todd. There are no rules to production save the actual laws you have to abide (labor, taxes, otherwise): Really the key is to do what the story requires, and as you know by now I'm never one to abide a rule that doesn't do me any good. I decided to bypass the typical small, white-walled casting room along with the desk-and-camera setup that I have grown to loathe and instead hold casting at a theater space. ShakespeareFestival LA situated downtown was to be our set. Since SLA's theater company was in early rehearsal on a play, the space was completely struck and empty, and since it's rather large for a black box to begin with, it challenged the actors to control a large, blank space. For the male lead I was specifically looking for someone who can drive a scene and I felt that the test of controlling the space during audition would give me an additional sense of the actors' presence and authority. The challenges didn't end there, however: On first see I required all actors to prepare a dramatic monologue; just like a theater audition. This is fairly unusual for motion picture: Typically actors perform a few pages of sides and are out. I made everyone cold read on the first go as well; meaning the actors picked their sides up upon arrival and prepared in the lobby. I didn't record any of the auditions: Something I feel is a waste
of time. Furthermore, in this age of every scrap of behind-the-scenes
footage being used to promote films in a roundabout way, I don't
think actors should be recorded by a professional production unless
they are being paid. I understand the use of screen tests on multimillion-dollar
movies as a final step (they can save you time and money in the
long run), and at the same time hope to be skilled and decisive
enough to never require the use of one. The lack of recording challenged
us to be present and really test each candidate for flexibility
and other skills necessary to the role. Everyone who needed to see
casting was in the room and had to pay attention, and since I purposefully
chose a space I was new to, I wasn't too comfortable when I needed
to keep my edge. We took notes and conferred. We made some actors
wait and read twice, comparing, considering against the context
present in the screenplay… . We also tested actors on dialect, various
athletic moves, and conversation. I had them read opposite Geoffrey,
Wallis and myself. Geoffrey had the actors do a few things that
I had not seen before that proved brilliant, such as directing them
stalk the full length of the stage as they read - upstage to downstage,
diagonal - in order to test their physicality. We cast quickly,
imaginatively and specifically, and saved days of time and money
by being prepared and focused, and making strong decisions.
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