Fuck-Up #19
“Cast the Person Who Looks the Part”
Why it is never good to cast looks over talent
“Casting is 65 percent of directing.”4
—John Frankenheimer
The Fuck-Up…
New filmmakers often suffer from a crippling inability to change how they envision certain aspects of their film. They have an image of how specific elements should look and have trouble allowing that image to evolve, whether it’s for better or worse. Perhaps this is most true in the way new filmmakers envision their characters.
During casting, someone who looks almost exactly the way you imagined the character might walk into the room, and you will want to cast that person. However, casting based on appearance over ability is a very rookie mistake and one that you will be ...
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