Casting (performing Arts) - Casting Director

Casting Director

For some major productions, the process of selecting actors for sometimes hundreds of parts may often require specialized staff. While the last word remains with the people in artistic and production charge, a Casting Director or "CD" (and sometimes the Casting Associate) are in charge of most of the daily work involved in this process during pre-production. A Casting Director is sometimes assisted by a Casting Associate; productions with large numbers of extras may have their own Extras Casting Director.

The "CD" remains as a liaison between director, actors and their agents/managers and the studio/network to get the characters in the script cast. Some Casting Directors build an impressive career working on numerous Hollywood productions, such as Mary Jo Slater, Mary Seaway, Lynn Stalmaster, April Webster, John Desiderata, Tammara Billi, Marci Liftoff, John Lyons, Bill Dance, Av Kaufman and Mindy Marin.

At least in the early stages and for extras, casting may be decentralized geographically, often in conjunction with actual shooting planned in different locations. Another reason may be tapping into each home market in the case of an international co-production. However for the top parts, the choice of one or more celebrities, whose presence is of enormous commercial importance, may rather follow strictly personal channels, e.g. direct contact with the director.

The resulting list of actors filling the parts is called a cast list.