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A star is
Introduction
Casting is a part of film that most people never think about – but once aware it, you may be surprised how these decisions are central to the experience of a movie. Suffice it to recall the legends of Hollywood casting – Casablanca for example. The first choice of study for the role of Rick George Raft, then a major leading man. Only when Raft was not available the study was accepted reluctantly minor contract player Humphrey Bogart, known mainly for playing gangsters in a series of crime films of the second order. Matching Bogie with Rick became the actor into an icon for world-weary, cynical heroes with hearts of gold – and provided the film with almost mythical status. Who knows what would have happened if George Raft had been the only to murmur "Here's looking at you, kid" – but it is difficult to imagine a new kind of hero of the film would have been the result. Bogart seemed so well that, once cast, the part seemed made for him – although it was not really the first choice anyone.
Or think of The Wizard of Oz with first choice Shirley Temple as Dorothy. When MGM podía''la no American Wedding, "which received Reluctantly the role of Judy Garland, then known for his teen musicals with Mickey Rooney. Of course, even without Judy, Oz have provided the magic, a gripping story and an impressive score, but Garland brought to the film its extraordinary combination of vulnerability, nostalgia, sweetness and hope – qualities that made a potentially good movie into a great one.
Or think of The Godfather, initial candidates to be Ernest Borgnine and Ryan O'Neal. It only takes a moment to picture the two in the role that Marlon Brando and Al Pacino ultimately played. At this point, the papers seem to have been written with Brando and Al Pacino in mind – but that's only because he finally gets cast in them, was hardly a foregone conclusion. Also, Charles Grodin has long been known as the man who rejected the final part played by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Perhaps the film would have been equally good with Grodin in the top – but at least it would have been a different movie if Grodin, Hoffman, was the only stutter, "Mrs. Robinson, is trying to seduce me?"
The essence of a good casting decision is to simply take for granted. Just when you imagine a cast being different do not you realize how great a impact of an election can cast. To take a relatively recent example, think of the movie Good Will Hunting, which introduced Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to a public broader. We do not play this movie, so we're commenting on it just as spectators. In that film, Matt plays the innocent math genius, Ben is strong and know your friend – launch options that seem to work very well. Now imagine that the two actors exchange roles – think of Ben as the math whiz and Matt as the working class man who has left behind. We are not saying the film would not have run that way, but it becomes a different picture. Imagining these roads there is no help improve the kind of magic that can be generated when a character actor, talent, and mesh perfectly with the style role.
The two of us we have been casting directors through the last three decades of Hollywood history. We've got our start in what we think, even then, as the University of Zoetrope, working with Francis Ford Coppola in his extraordinary effort to create another type of Hollywood studio. Francisco is a true artist who dreamed not only of make their own films but also innovating to create an environment in which other film artists could collaborate on a new kind of American cinema. Unfortunately, your adventure utopian only lasted a few years, but for those of us who were privileged to be part of it, was a life changing experience.
When Zoetrope studies was low, we went on our own. We founded the company and began casting the relationships with some of the most exciting young directors Hollywood: Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Chris Columbus, and later John Hughes and Wolfgang Petersen – the men of art and the integrity of which we are still lucky enough to work with today. Throughout 1980 and 1990, also put in films by directors like Tim Burton, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, Jerry Zucker, and many others. Then, in Zoetrope, we have discovered such stars as Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell, Tom Cruise, John Cusack, Matt Damon, Benicio Del Toro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Anthony Edwards, Emilio Estevez, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Scarlett Johansson, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, Michael Keaton, Kyle McLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Dylan McDermott, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan Forrest, Winona Ryder, Nicollette Sheridan, Elisabeth Shue, Kiefer Sutherland, Patrick Swayze, Lili Taylor, Billy Bob Thornton, Bradley Whitford, Whitaker, and Robin Wright (later to become Robin Wright Penn). More recent directors we have worked with include Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and Nancy Meyers (Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday), while between our findings XXI-century as are Paul Bettany, Daniel Craig, Linda Hardy, Josh Lucas, Mike Vogel, and the boys of Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
We gave some of the actors in his first parts. There were others whose talent recognized, and if they were not able to give them a role, at least able to help pay the rent until something better came. And then there were those who had worked maybe a little – but gave them the part they put on the map.
You would think with such a list, we would both be unshakable confidence every time a new script crosses our desk. Oh, no. Like the veteran actress who never overcomes his stage fright, none of us have learned enough to greet a new film with equanimity. By the time we take on a new project, the anxiety sets in. The typical Hollywood script contains functions from fifty to one hundred actors, excluding extras – the faces in the background with no speaking parts. (Fortunately for us, "extras" casting – an entity in itself generally -. in charge of office) The volume of the pieces can be daunting, let alone the commitment we both feel to the search for suitable candidates who are truly for each function, the actors who will be the director's vision and help the movie reach its best potential. We take our example of Konstantin Stanislavski: "There are no small parts, only small actors."
Casting is a complicated and delicate, and almost alchemical business. To be a good director casting, you need instinct, patience and the ability to remember hundreds of different faces, voices and actions. You also need the kind of empathy that lets you know, almost before he or she does, what your director wants in a specific part, and the sympathy that allows you to put a nervous actor at ease or to help a potential star actress find great hearing that you feel you can give. Perhaps most importantly, you need the kind of faith lets go wild thinking in miracles – to know that the party is gone unfilled for months will finally be released, to find the artist has eluded you for so long, to see the talent the awkward but brilliant kid that no one else will be considered. When this kind of faith is rewarded, is an emotion like nothing else we've ever known. These are the times we live in times that make the anxiety that is worth – and the closest we ever know the magic.
Taken from a star is: The Adventures Casting some of the big Hollywood movies Hirshenson Janet and Jane Jenkins with Rachel Kranz. (Published by Harcourt, November 2006, $ 25.00US; 0-15-101234-2) Copyright © 2006 The Casting Company, Inc.
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About the Author
Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins have been partners in The Casting Company since 1981 and have worked with directors Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, John Hughes, and Wolfgang Peterson, among others. In 1999 they were named first-ever “Casting Directors of the Year” by the Hollywood Film Festival. They both live in Los Angeles.
For more information, please visit www.janeandjanet.com
Emma Watson & Rupert Grint