Bella Hibbs, casting associate at Good Faith Casting’s Phoenix branch, has the biz in her blood. “I’ve been officially working [here] for four years,” she says, “but growing up with my mom in the industry, it feels like my whole life!”
Her mother, longtime casting director Faith Hibbs-Clark, used to take Hibbs to the sets of indie films and commercials. “I remember being on set, getting to see the moviemaking magic, the actors’ headshots and résumés. It’s all been embedded in me from a young age.”
That exposure comes in handy at Good Faith Casting, Arizona’s biggest casting company. Hibbs points out that while they connect talent to producers and agents—including for such feature films as “Jarhead” and “The Savages”—they do not represent actors themselves. It is true, however, that the company’s founder discovered a young Emma Stone at Phoenix’s Valley Youth Theatre and offered to tutor her. “She would go to our house and do private coaching,” Hibbs remembers.
Phoenix actors, she adds, are smart to keep their skills honed in that scene. “We personally love theater actors because they’re consistently working, and they come in memorized. In Arizona, when you get an audition you don’t want to waste it; it’s not like in L.A. or New York where you have three or four auditions a day.”
Those looking for commercial, print, and indie film gigs should join the Arizona Production Association, and stay updated with online resources like Good Faith Casting’s Facebook page. “As with any industry, you really have to put the time into it and invest fully,” says Hibbs. “If this is just a fun, part-time thing you want to do, that’s fine. But realize that for other people, it’s their passion and dream, and they want to go forward in their careers. So if you commit to it, commit 100 percent.”
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