Amanda Mackey, CSA, and Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, CSA
Los Angeles and New York; 27 Dresses, The Kingdom, United 93, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Fugitive
Mackey: If that's what they need to do a good audition, terrific. I don't consider it positive or negative.
Gelfond: I agree — whatever they need to get into character.
Mackey: There was one exception though. An actor came into a scene where he was supposed to be very angry, and he came in so angry that he threw a chair literally over my head when I was nine months pregnant. That did bother me.
Gelfond: There was another one, where we were in the room together and it was a very new actor. And the scene called for a knife, and he pulled a knife out on me. And Amanda had to leap up and say, "Please stop, just stop!" The guy was shaking with this knife, shaking as I'm reading with him. As long as you don't inflict harm — whatever you need to do other than inflicting harm upon the casting directors.
Matthew Barry, CSA
Los Angeles; My Sister's Keeper, The Notebook, Rush Hour 1 & 2, Con Air
No, sometimes I find it annoying, actually. It's like, actors have their process, but I like the break between character and reality. I understand each actor has to go through their process. Some people want to stay in character and be an asshole if they're playing an asshole. But if you're playing pregnant, are you going to be pregnant the whole time? If you are going to be a heroin addict, are you going to shoot up heroin? Come on. If it's an emotional scene, you're not going to make jokes. The good casting directors are going to be the ones to know what the situation is, kind of keep it quiet, give them their moment, and then you can talk about it. We're all pretty reasonable.
Sarah Katzman, CSA
Los Angeles; Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, Wedding Crashers, Scream
I personally prefer to see them break character, but if it's a tough scene and they need to stay in character, I understand it and I go with that. But I like to see them break character because I'd like to also see who they are as a person.
Ellen Chenoweth, CSA
New York; Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men, Meet the Parents, Terms of Endearment
It creeps me out a little bit if they come into the room in character. I think that's a little too intense. I don't really feel that's necessary. I don't feel like people have to overly dress or anything like that. It can be somewhat appropriate, but it doesn't have to be wild.
Meg Morman, CSA, and Sunny Boling
Los Angeles; The Grudge 3, The Hottie & the Nottie, Waitress, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Morman: It doesn't impress me, no. I think when I audition people I'm looking for two things: I'm looking for how as an actor they do the scenes, and I'm also looking for who they are as a person. Especially when you consider if you're coming in for a role that is particularly dangerous or violent or a negative-type person, I want to make sure that you aren't necessarily that way — that you can act that role but that I don't have to worry about people on set being uncomfortable around you when you're in the makeup trailer or whatever. So it's important to me, also, just to get to know who an actor is and what their personality is like.
Boling: I'm fine with people coming in as the character, and we do the scene, and then after we can chat. We don't need to be chitchatting, then I expect you to be able to burst into tears two seconds later. A lot of times we've done very difficult material with people needing to be in a lot of tears and very emotional material, and so when people come in and they are already in that zone, that's cool, and then afterward we can relax for a second. Unfortunately, we've also had people that came in, they were in their zone, doing their thing, and then we were all so stunned, their performance was fantastic, that we didn't say anything immediately, and the actor literally ran out of the room. Ran. And we had to call their agent and say, "Please call their cell phone and have them come back, because we really loved their performance and wanted to rework with them."
I would like to be able to see the other side, if it is possible. Especially if you want to rework the scene and the director wants to give you some notes and chat for a minute, it's better to be able to see who's underneath there for those moments than someone be so caught up in the character that they're not even hearing what the director is saying and can't digest that information because it doesn't really suit the character that they have created.
Amy Lippens, CSA, and Stephanie Laffin, CSA
Los Angeles; House M.D., Keeping Up With the Steins, Saw II, 1/4life
Lippens: Impress me? Maybe if I was in high school and I met somebody and I wasn't a casting director. So as long as they come in and they're giving their best foot forward, then I respect every actor.
Laffin: The one thing you do always give as a note is if that person is not from here and they're trying to do an American accent, they should [keep it] between takes or walk in with their American accents.
Lippens: That's a very good point. That really does help them be considered, because unfortunately not everybody can suspend their belief completely.