Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
The prevalence today of the independent casting director
is one of the results of the end of the studio system. In
the 1950s fewer films each year were produced, as
opposed to financed or distributed, by the studios. The
number of actors under contract dwindled to insignificance by the early 1960s. Casts now had to be assembled
from scratch. Independent casting directors who were
hired on a film-by-film basis emerged to fill the need.
The first to build lasting careers were Lynn Stalmaster
and Marion Dougherty. While Dougherty, based in New
York, learned her craft in the breakneck world of live
television drama in the 1950s, Stalmaster worked out of
Hollywood, casting TV episodes just as the film studios
began to reconvert many of their soundstages for the
production of television series. Stalmaster’s first major
theatrical film was I Want to Live! (1958), a realistic
biopic of Barbara Graham, a convicted murderess executed in California in 1955. Its producer, Walter Wanger
(1894–1968), and director, Robert Wise (1914–2005),
specified that they wanted the film—beyond its star,
Susan Hayward (1917–1975)—to be populated by
unknowns, people who would look like ordinary cops,
petty criminals, reporters, and prison guards. Stalmaster
brought the director little-noticed TV actors, stage actors,
and some nonprofessionals. I Want to Live! was one of
the first films to give screen credit to a casting director.
Generally, in contemporary post-studio era cinema,
prospective actors for a film’s roles are brought to the
director by the casting director, who has already auditioned actors, most often through auditions made known
to agents and publicized in actors’ trade papers. Casting
directors also rely on re´sume´s and head shots they have
on file, as well as their memories of actors who recently
made good impressions at auditions for other parts. Once
the casting director has winnowed down a list of plausible
players for each role, he or she brings in the director, who
sometimes has actors come in for ‘‘call back’’ readings,
with the casting director present. Some directors look at
videos that the casting directors have made of actors
reading the ‘‘sides,’’ or scenes. Sometimes a director will
use a combination of these. If the lead has already been
cast, finalists for second or third lead and other supporting roles might read for the director with the lead actor;
other times, candidates for a role read with professional
audition readers.
This process, which has held sway in essence since
the 1960s, grew along with the new Hollywood in which
independent production, talent agencies, and freelance
talent govern the way films are made. The job of the
casting director is usually to find all the roles below that
of the star whose participation is necessary to attract
financing for the project in the first place. As casting
director Jane Jenkins said in 2003, ‘‘We bring in the
100 people that Mel Gibson has to speak to over the
course of the film. That’s what we cast.’’ (Gillespie,
Casting Qs, p. 380).
Stalmaster maintains that he rarely sees a miscast role
(Parisi, ‘‘Dialogue’’), and at the level of the roles that he
and his colleagues cast, that is largely true. A supporting
role for which there is no pressure to choose a star can be
cast by the actor who is best for the part. There are
notable examples of star-making roles whose casting was
influenced by casting directors. For example, Marion
Dougherty convinced John Schlesinger (1926–2003) to
meet the little-known Jon Voight (b. 1938) for the role
of Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), after Dustin
Hoffman (b. 1937), a star coming off The Graduate
(1967), had already been signed.
Casting directors have yet to win a union or guild
and, as independent contractors, do not receive benefits
or have retirement plans. A professional organization, the
Casting Society of America (CSA), was founded in 1982
and boasts 350 members. CSA gives annual awards, the
Artios (Greek for ‘‘perfectly fitted’’). Casting directors
have lobbied without success for a Best Casting
Academy Award. An Emmy for television casting, however, has been awarded since 1989.