Asked to name a project she really enjoyed working on in her 25-plus-year career, casting director Carol Nadell looks up, thinks, then says, "Well, of course, there was the time I had to find Jesus Christ...."
Nadell, who runs Selective Casting (www.selectivecasting.com), along with David Cady of Donna DeSeta Casting (www.donnadesetacasting.com), Charles Esposito of World Casting, and agent Michael Raymen of Don Buchwald & Associates (www.buchwald.com), took a break from their schedules to talk about their experiences in the industry, what actors need to know to land a part, and locating the Lord for a gig in the Ozarks.
"I don't know if other people found him where I found him," says Nadell with a smile. "This was for a theme park run by the man that makes [the collectible figurines] Precious Moments, and they needed Christ for a special effect, so I had to find Jesus. A lot of street-type people came in to audition, but I found someone who I knew through the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was very angelic. As a matter of fact, he had done some covers for Time magazine when they were doing major stories on religion. He did the part and finished the job. But then, four years later, they called me up again, and I had to bring Jesus back, this time with Adam and Eve."
Like Cady and many casting directors, Nadell started as an actor in New York, though she quickly realized she didn't want to "live against traffic," she says. When she started casting, she also realized how much she enjoyed finding talented actors to fill parts.
All four of these professionals give similar basic advice: Be on time, come in with your own ideas, look like your headshot, know your abilities. "[Your headshot] should be the way you look on a good day, not heavily made-up, not heavily coiffed," says Cady. "If you're the preppie type, you shouldn't get a picture taken in a leather jacket with three days' scruff. It's not who you want to be, it's not who you think you are, it's who you are. [An incongruous headshot] tells you something about the actor. You want someone who has an accurate sense of themselves."
Raymen, who works as a commercial agent exclusively, is even more focused in his advice: "I never have people read copy in the office. Whether or not they have tape of themselves, I try to talk to the person and get a sense of their personality. There's a sort of personality that 'pops' on screen for commercials. Then there are actors who would do great Shakespeare but might not necessarily work well in a 30-second commercial spot. The best commercial performers are the ones for whom that combination of talent and personality intersects, of course. Improv really helps because it teaches you to create something alongside someone else, rather than just doing shtick in front of an audience."
Raymen and Esposito agree that actors should be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity, no matter where they may be. "I don't quite understand it when I ask an actor for a headshot and they say, 'Oh, I don't have one on me. I'll send it to you,' " Esposito says. "Or 'Don't you have the copy I sent in?' You should always, always have a headshot and résumé ready."
He adds that it's a good idea for actors to have specific kinds of work in mind when they're starting out: "When I ask someone what kind of work they want to do and they tell me that they want to do voiceover and commercials and theatre and film and television, it's not quite as impressive as someone who says that they have a good improv skill set or that they have cartoon voices they can do."
Cady helped cast the most recent X-Men film, as well as the upcoming The Covenant and Deck the Halls, so he's worked a lot with actors who have an immediate visual appeal. But in recent commercials, he notes, it's not always those actors who get the job: "The advertising world has started to catch up with the reality of life. We just did casting for one particular breakdown in which the client wanted a Caucasian husband and an Asian wife, and that would just never have happened four or five years ago. With a Hispanic near-majority in this country, you see a lot more Hispanic people being represented in advertising. It's much more creative now. You're not just looking for blond, blue-eyed white people."
Nadell agrees: "I worked on a project for the State Department and the Smithsonian that was very interesting. They had the idea that they wanted to make a film about Americans to be shown in embassies. I had to find—and these are the actors, mind you, not the roles—a South Asian female with a dramatic flair who was in college [and] whose parents were born in Southeast Asia. The other role was easier—he was a white high-schooler born in California. Oh, and both actors had to be involved in volunteerism."
But part of being a good casting director, Nadell says, is thinking creatively—knowing not just what the client wants but what the client may not yet realize he or she wants: "A lot of times people will say, 'Oh, I need a 60-year-old white man to play a judge,' and of course I'll recommend an actor fitting that description. But I'll also bring along someone who doesn't fit that description but who has the talent for the role, and frequently [producers] take my advice."
It's not just the industry that has changed, however. Nadell points out that actors themselves have changed significantly during her career. "At one point, being an actor was something you whispered, especially if you were male, because it was assumed that you couldn't support a family," she says. "I think what's happened now with consumerism is that everybody wants to be an actor, and frequently for the wrong reasons. Everybody wants to walk down the red carpet at the Oscars. It's a dream that gets sold to a lot of people. You need to believe, of course. [But] when people list the reasons they want to act, they don't mention the work or the creative process."
While the three casting directors agree that they tend to find actors through the same avenues, Raymen, as an agent, says he meets them in different ways: "I go to tons and tons of showcases, including all of the schools—NYU, Juilliard, Yale. And, of course, I'm a Fringe-aholic." Though vacation plans limited him to just a few shows at the New York International Fringe Festival this year, "I've never seen fewer than 30," he says. "I think my max is 34. I've certainly signed people straight from shows, though. In fact, when you have a show at 2 and then another show at 8, you get out of your 2 o'clock and say, 'Oh, that [show] looks good. I might as well try that one while I'm waiting.' And last year I signed two people from one of those in-between shows."
All four professionals see actors moving freely between mediums as a necessary and healthy thing. Raymen, who signed Billy Crudup and Michael C. Hall when they were still at NYU (and continues to submit Crudup for voiceover commercial work), says, "I try to see my clients' stage work as often as possible. It gives me an idea of their range, and frequently I see someone else in the show with potential."
Cady is also encouraged by actors who want to stretch their range: "There's an actress I'm thinking of, a Juilliard graduate, who's just a terrific, terrific stage actress. She books commercials all the time. When an agent says to me, 'I've seen this person—they're terrific on stage, they're great at commercials,' that says to me that they're a great actor with a lot of range. I'm never going to hold it against an actor that they want to do everything. I think they should want to do everything."
Nadell, Cady, Raymen, and Esposito will be among the participants at Back Stage's Actorfest NY on Oct. 14.