ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

8 years, 3 months ago - Paul Campion

I always work with a casting director. They will be able to work with you and advise on what level of actor you may be able to approach, who's might be available, and who's hot or upcoming. Actors agents will generally respond better to approaches from casting directors.

8 years, 3 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

You need to know upfront what your budget/offer and dates are. Nobody can commit without dates. It's always a bit of a wriggle between availability and budget, and things can run right up to the wire!

Known cast can be a lot more expensive than you may imagine - someone who's done US TV drama in a featured role but never done a feature might easily be £10k/week for instance, plus hotel/car/private dressing space. They are also likely to look at the overall production/script/budget and even whether the director has worked with known cast before.

Do you have a rough feature budget in mind, Matt? Under about £1M I wouldn't be in a rush for known cast for their own sake as the 'names' you get have no sales value.

8 years, 3 months ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

There are several takes on this but you must pay up for IMDbPro so you can look up agents' details of names and go for the UK, not US contact if you have a choice as the US ones either ignore or are plain rude unless you fax over a HUGE bank statement! The London agents are always polite although some never answer emails. Casting agents usually want payment so that doesn't always work. My cast for www.MargeryBooth.com - so far - is a mixture of personal contacts and direct approaches. Once your project is up on IMDb then some actors will approach you. Also Star Now qv is useful and postings are free! You will need a Casting Director eventually to do all the formalities. Network like mad!!!

8 years, 3 months ago - Amy Barnes

Sorry, I wouldn't go for Star Now - in my experience the quality of actors isn't that great! You can find British actors' agents through Spotlight - so you don't need to pay for IMDB although if the film is on there with some of the crew details etc then yeah it does look more attractive. Totally agree on sorting a budget. Most 'known' actors - more their agents - wouldn't look twice at something without a nice fat budget attached to make it worth their while. I don't know how much a subscription to Spotlight is from the other casting side - being an actor myself - but if you are determined to cast it yourself, I'd definitely cast it through there, otherwise a casting director is the best bet as they already use Spotlight and can do that for you, and definitely know their stuff in terms of what actors might be right. I've worked with Anji Carroll for example in the casting room - she is amazing, she can reel names off and often knows their schedules so knows if they'd be free or not and as she's a casting director, agents often respond to her. It's fascinating to watch! Otherwise if you think known actors might not actually be terribly important to you, you just want good actors, then I'd plump for Casting Call Pro to find some decent ones, and always ask for a self-tape once you've made your shortlist. Good luck!

Amy Barnes
www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/9252-1207-4899

8 years, 3 months ago - Nathalie Hickson

Hi Matt, I am not at that stage myself but I did meet a quite famous actress who has an agent Piers Nimmo & have seen another agent Hamilton Hoddell has well known actors. Otherwise get to different film networking events as get to meet people & I have met casting directors at these events. Let us know how goes.

8 years, 3 months ago - Vanessa Mayfield

If you don't want to pay for IMDB pro but wanna check out who's repp'd by who you can head over to spotlight, (which is basically the home of UK casting) search for actors and it'll tell you who their agent is - you do need a paid account to post castings, but it's basically the most legit way of doing it, and as most people have mentioned it's usually with a casting director -
most big agents will not take you seriously unless you have a good CD and a budget - or are hugely known yourself.
It's often a chicken of the egg senario of need a budget to get a name, need a name to get a budget - but casting directors are used to this and a lot of them are happy to help out and advise!
For the smaller parts you can also, obviously, post casting calls through Shooting people - and often good actors have mates that are good actors, and we all love it when we can get each other jobs so don't be afraid to ask people you know for recommendations!

Vanessa
https://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/4853-4533-5197

8 years, 2 months ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

Amy - I've only used Star Now for small parts - top ones I use a casting director for those I don't know personally- which is the best way. Nearly all mine on www.MargeryBooth.com are known personally.

8 years, 2 months ago - Mark Wiggins

Many years ago (back in the 90s) I worked on a Short that had a very big named film/TV Star in it. The producer and director had originally approached the actor's agent only to be told that their client didn't do short films. It turned out that the Production Designer's family were friends with the actors family and they approached the actor directly via that route. The actor said "Of course! No one's ever asked me to do a Short before!" Turned out the agent had unilateraly decided that their client didn't do shorts without asking their client. Just goes to show, if you've got a direct route; use it.