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Casting
Tlic next p/uise. Most trying of all film jobs ', the casting director's task fully explained.
by Nathalie Bucknall
DURING the assembling of the cast for Ramon Novarro's Son of India, the producer. Director Jacques Feyder, Novarro, and the others who were gathered " in conference," were faced with one role that it seemed impossible to fill. While Feyder was new to Hollywood, the others felt that they knew everyone who had ever appeared on the screen — and they could think of no one.
The role was of an Hindu ascetic, one of the most important parts in the picture. He must look the part physically without too obvious a make-up. He must have a recognizably spiritual quality to his face, manner and voice. He must look very frail, but must be actually physically strong. And, above all, he must have had both stage and screen experience. For the role was extremely important and he would be called upon to express subtle nuances in both pantomime and with spoken word.
So desperate did the situation become that there was some talk of rewriting the role to make it less exacting. Before doing this, however, one of the casting directors was called in as a final resort.
On the spot, and from memory, he gave them the name of the very man they wanted (Nigel de Brulier, famous for his " Richelieu " in Douglas Fairbanks' The Three Musketeers) though that actor had not appeared in a single picture in the last five years !
And the average casting director in the average studio performs a feat comparable to that about one hundred times a day ! Instantly, from memory, he can give you the names of two thousand people, physical descriptions of each and at least two pictures in which each has appeared ! If he could not — he would not hold his job !
That is no exaggeration. Though he has a most extensive filing system, listing some ten to fifteen thousand persons available for work in pictures, the pressure and speed required are such that it would take him at least a week to do a day's work if he should consult his files for each request.
In the first place, the calls are not spread evenly through the day. Usually, a director docs not know until the late afternoon what his requirenjents will be for the next day's work. The great majority of the calls, therefore, bunch themselves in the last hours of the day.
At a quarter to five, let us say, an assistant-director wiU telephone that such-and-such a director expects to reach the accident sequence tomorrow, and will require: " Fifty ' walk-throughs,' New York slums, hot