Quotes About Casting

There are always discussions about casting stars in lead roles in theater - especially when you're working with commercial producers - and it's not something I'm against, not at all. But any casting has to be right for the project.

Stupidly, in our industry, producers pay precious money to sign stars whom they might not even use in the film. Producers believe stars make hits; actually it is the script that makes a film successful.

The government should take a decision on whether to allow Pakistani actors in India or not, but I think directors and producers will themselves not cast Pakistani actors seeing the kind of opposition the country is witnessing against them.

I was once up for a part, and the male star was also producing the movie. They were talking about meeting with him or having an audition with him, and then we get the message, 'He wants to have dinner with you.' I said, 'Is that the audition, or is it that he just wants to have dinner with me?'

If I was producing something, it wouldn't make sense to me to cast somebody because of who their father is because that doesn't put anyone in the seats in the theatre. I wouldn't go to a movie because that person's father is so and so.

All I can say is that with 'The Golden Compass,' I didn't get to make the movie I had planned to make. When I look at the film, at the casting and certain scenes, I'm very happy. As for the final product, I can't vouch for that.

I think that what 'Oz' did is it spawned a great generation of television production. But people know its place in television and just in great dramas. It's the foundation of my career. Most producers, show runners, directors, and casting directors put me in movies based on my performance in that show.

There's editing, and scripts to read and edit, and casting, and all the elements of production that just sort of take up the normal downtime that you would have as an actor. So there's not a lot of that for me.

I try to avoid typecasting by doing different roles.

There's something important, as an actor, about allowing yourself to be approached by people to do roles. People see different things in you.

When you cast cross-racially, another dimension is added.

There are directors who don't cast you for the way you act but for the way you are, the way you behave around the dinner table.

For female directors, there's a whole other set of things we have to think about, particularly when we are casting men, because there are some actors who have never been directed by a woman. Crew members, too.

I feel like a lot of directing is casting.

When I audition for something, I don't even want to think about who the other actors are in it, who's directing it.

I don't know what directing actors is all about apart from just casting well and then shaping their performances a bit, you know.

I once literally had a casting director ask my agent, 'Can she play anything other than a drunk?'

I had a casting director tell me to be blacker.

I choose movies, I never choose roles. I look at the script. I look at the director. I look at the other actors - and then the role.

In some cases, the casting directors have casted blindly and have not looked into my ethnic background.

I guess maybe directors see a face that seems to have been lived in. I know that my face has been lived in, yeah.

There are casting directors with lots of imagination, but also some with not as much imagination.

It's important for us to certainly cast some Christian actors who can speak to our audience when we market the films, but obviously we don't discriminate. So our crew and our cast, the beliefs don't really matter.

I find it embarrassing and disgusting to ask to do a part and be told I'm too pretty. How can I answer that?