Done right, casting is an invisible act

April 26, 2018 4:14 AM

Nina Gold's role is an invisible one, and yet her taste has shaped much of what we watch, from The Crown to Game of Thrones. A Guardian long-read which touches on class, diversity and #metoo.
posted by threetwentytwo (14 comments total)

Interesting throughout. The unpaid, unacknowledged and unwilling collaborator thing

Even when they do get in the room, actors can feel their great unacknowledged role in a production is helping a casting director work out what they don’t want.

is a factor in lots of creative ventures (both artistic and academic) and often means being vulnerable to opportunistic behaviour or exploitation. Gold at least seems wary of her power.
posted by hawthorne at 4:55 AM on April 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is it weird that two years ago (almost to the day) another Grauniad writer already told her story?

(Had the pleasure of working with Nina back before any spotlight on her work, and she's the real, indefatigable, deal; so no negging, just wondering!)
posted by progosk at 5:31 AM on April 26, 2018

I don't mind two interviews from the same subject; the last casting director interview I remember reading was from 20 years ago. That casting director explained that she'd gotten into the biz because she had a good memory for names and faces. This is better! Though the low-glam description of the position from the 20-year-old interview might explain why casting is more of a woman's job...

I like that they touch on the weird psychology of the position. Nina Gold is the potential entry point for every actor's Big Break. It sounds like she bears up under that well, but I would be miserable dealing with it.

My favorite casting director moment is fictional. In GLOW, after Alison Brie's character loses out on yet another part, the pragmatic casting director is moved to explain that she was never in the running. She brings the actress in to prove to directors that they don't really want a "normal girl." (Obviously Alison Brie is too breathtakingly gorgeous for that line to actually make sense, but if you imagine someone plainer it makes sense.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you love interviews/profiles of casting directors, here's a good one about Allison Jones, who may be the most underrated figure in comedy of the past 20 years. (She's cast for Apatow, Feig, Daniels, Shur...)
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 8:02 AM on April 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Great writing in that piece. I recently started to appreciate casting more (or notice bad casting). Thanks for sharing.
posted by exogenous at 8:10 AM on April 26, 2018

This documentary about Marion Dougherty is quite something, as well. She fought very hard for the recognition of casting on movies and TV shows.
posted by xingcat at 8:10 AM on April 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I recently started to appreciate casting more

This is what led me to read and post the article, because i've (finally!) watched up to s.4 of Game of Thrones, and the casting in that show is magnificent. It doesn't surprise me that it took 200 auditions to find a perfect Arya at all.
posted by threetwentytwo at 9:01 AM on April 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

> Great writing in that piece.

Yes, by Sophie Elmhirst (name the author, people!). One great sentence out of many:

She collaborates with people for whom losing their shit is an essential part of the job, who have a tenuous grasp of the truth, who exist in what McEwan refers to as the constant state of “controlled panic” that is film-making.

Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 9:14 AM on April 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is what led me to read and post the article, because i've (finally!) watched up to s.4 of Game of Thrones, and the casting in that show is magnificent. It doesn't surprise me that it took 200 auditions to find a perfect Arya at all.

For me, Game of Thrones is like the The Golden Compass or Hitchhiker's Guide. I don't like them overall, but the casting is just so perfect that sometimes I'll watch just for the pleasure of seeing Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter and Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel/Yasiin Bey as Ford Prefect and Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. Casting can't completely rescue a bad project, but it can make up for a lot.

(I should add that I don't think Nicole Kidman would've had to audition for the role or anything, but casting was great down the line for those films.)
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:41 AM on April 26, 2018

I loved the bit at the end:
On the drive back from the drama-school showcase, Gold had considered whether acting was a psychologically healthy thing to do. “Probably not,” she said. “But when it’s good, when you’re doing it, you must feel on top of the world. That feeling of doing it and nailing it. The highs must be incredible.” She thought for a minute. “It’s like when my kids were in the school play and when it was over they’d cry for three days because they’d had such a good time. It’s sort of like that, but for grownups.”
posted by tuesdayschild at 9:49 AM on April 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Speaking of the Hitchhiker's Guide movie, the Movies With Mikey episode on it spent quite a lot of time (rightfully so) raving about the casting. With all due respect to the BBC version, Orlando Jones and Martin Freeman are Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell is Zaphob Beeblebrox, etc. etc. all on down the line. You can even make an argument that casting Zooey Deschanel in the (sorry, Douglas Adams, but it's true) MPDG/sexy lamp role of Trillian was smart meta-casting.

Anyway, this is just to say, kudos to Marcia Ross.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:58 AM on April 26, 2018

How fascinating. Thanks for the post.
posted by Ziggy500 at 12:46 PM on April 26, 2018

I've often watched British movies and TV shows and marveled at the casting - it's good to know that the same woman is responsible for so many of them! In contrast, I feel that American movies and shows aren't quite so well cast - sometimes there's less of an emphasis on finding the perfect person for a role and more on just casting an extremely conventionally attractive one, particularly for female roles. It can be really jarring, especially when the actress is supposed to be average looking per the script.
posted by peacheater at 5:38 PM on April 26, 2018

This was an interesting interview... I've noticed Gold's name cropping up in so many things from it was first brought to my attention by, I think, the director's commentary on the Hot Fuzz DVD.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:55 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]