Casting Directors Quotes

I had been doing summer stock every summer while I was in college. We did a showcase, like most good conservatories do - monologues and things that agents and casting directors come to see. From that I got an agent. ~ Randy Harrison

People have nervous tics they don't know about, and I would advise asking around. Ask the casting director, 'Is there something I'm doing?' I would see people unconsciously rocking back and forth. I roll my lips. I bite my lips and roll them. ~ Olivia Wilde

I've always thought that as long as directors and casting directors don't see me as just Harry Potter, I'll be OK. People have shown a lot of faith in me, and I owe them a huge debt. They're letting me prove that I'm serious about this. ~ Daniel Radcliffe

There are casting directors with lots of imagination, but also some with not as much imagination. ~ Max Von Sydow

When I first started out, it was very, very difficult to even get in the room with directors or casting directors because they would see that I hadn't been to drama school and wouldn't want to see me. Now, I feel like it's changing. We have this new generation of a lot of writers, directors and actors who are just breaking through, and they're doing it for the passion. ~ Kaya Scodelario

I was rejected by casting directors during the day. I attended class in the evening, then rode 90 miles on the train home. ~ Norman Fell

I don't plan, because everything goes against my plans anyways. There's absolutely no point in planning anything. I'm just enjoying the moment. I'm meeting with a whole lot of people - casting directors, directors, agents. I have things going on everywhere, but I have no solid plans. ~ Tena Desae

L.A. can be pretty insane because there's so much show business here, but I also know a lot of kids who grew up in Manhattan who are some of the most normal, nicest people I know. Casting directors always say Chicago people are just nicer. ~ Matt Walsh

When I came out here, my manager thought that casting directors might think I'm a girl, and when I did Threat Matrix, they thought Jamie was a little light. ~ James Denton

When you first get out of doing a show for a long time where you played a teenager, casting directors and producers all still look at you as being the character that you played for so long. ~ Danielle Fishel

In any of the big acting cities, there are breakdowns that the casting directors put together for the projects that they're working on and then they get sent out to the agents and stuff like that. It's difficult to find projects, sometimes, unless your agent or manager is submitting you for those specific projects. ~ Bostin Christopher

I love America. I eagerly became a citizen. I have no bitterness toward those casting directors who dismissed me because of my accent, nor toward the producers and directors who wanted to cast me but thought the audience wouldn't accept my accent. I think they're selling their audience short. ~ Persis Khambatta

The only casting directors who'd be willing to call Tommy in on the basis of this headshot were the ones curious about what it was like to be murdered. ~ Greg Sestero

I'm not in a position where I get to pick and choose roles. I usually go on auditions in long lines and embarrass myself in front of casting directors, and with a lump in my throat and my ears burning, I walk past reception and smirking actors as I go to the parking garage and go back on the highway. ~ Henry Rollins

When I started out modeling, there weren't casting directors and there weren't stylists, so you just dealt directly with the designer. We were all much closer back then. ~ Naomi Campbell

I think that what 'Oz' did is it spawned a great generation of television production. But people know its place in television and just in great dramas. It's the foundation of my career. Most producers, show runners, directors, and casting directors put me in movies based on my performance in that show. ~ Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

For film, I audition just like everyone else, because it's a different set of casting directors. ~ Neil Patrick Harris

When I was a Hollywood press agent, I learned how the Hollywood casting system worked. There was a roster of actors who were always perfect as doctors or lawyers or laborers, and the directors just picked the types they needed and stuffed them into film after film. I do the same [with
my characters], book after book. ~ Richard Condon

I randomly went to a casting session in my hometown in North Carolina, and the casting director introduced me to my manager. I really lucked into it! ~ Maddie Hasson

'Mariah' was the first series-regular role for me, and that really came about because of 'Secret Honor.' That really was a direct result of that. Because now I had an agent and was submitted for that part, for James Malone. And ... I was the casting director's first choice for James Malone. ~ Philip Baker Hall

I'm so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it's unusual ... those people have always been close to my heart. ~ Scarlett Johansson

You have to remind casting directors out here that you don't just do one thing. There's a lot of people who do just one thing. ~ Stephen Root

I used to put that I studied with Stella Adler on my resume. I never met Stella Adler. But if you told a casting director you studied with Stella Adler all the sudden they'd let you in the door. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

I got space from Travis Air Force Base, went back to the Philippine Islands and made it a point to meet the only American casting director in the Philippines. I was off and running. ~ R. Lee Ermey

As I continue through my acting career I tend to wish I were a little shorter and a few pounds lighter so casting directors would call me in for more diverse roles. ~ James Preston Rogers

I would love to do a talk show. Naturally, I would love to do more films. I'd love to be able to see casting directors more willing to put in a character who happens to be deaf. I'm not talking about doing deaf storylines, but putting in deaf characters. I'd love to be able to do Broadway. ~ Marlee Matlin

In N.Y.C., I auditioned for mostly 'quirky friend' roles. Since casting directors in L.A. lacked a preconceived notion of me, I was able to reinvent my type a bit, which was essential in booking the role of Amanda on 'Ugly Betty.' I don't believe I would have auditioned for that role in N.Y. ~ Becki Newton

In my last year of drama school, I was Abigail in 'The Crucible' and Nina in 'The Seagull,' and I did some Shakespeare with the RSC. That's what casting directors saw me in, and I got put up for a lot of period drama auditions. I always get told I suit the costumes. I don't think I have a very modern-looking face. ~ Kimberley Nixon

I was very obsessed with Ruth Gordon. I really didn't foresee me having any type of career as a leading lady at all because it was just blonds. I just wasn't the type - I was told that by casting directors. I auditioned for Running on Empty [1988] and The Mosquito Coast [1986], and Martha Plimpton was just killing me. ~ Winona Ryder

I've now been doing this for ten years, and I actually got to skip a stage of going to casting directors, and now I meet with the directors, either for lunch or an audition room, and I still read sides; you're never going to get around that, but I'm not the best person to go on an audition. ~ Carly Schroeder

It is so great to go to a casting director and have them wanting to talk about the show that you are in. It's such a great icebreaker. It just makes the environment so much more relaxed. ~ Nathalie Emmanuel

I am half Puerto Rican, a quarter German and a quarter black. That was always a big issue for me - being mixed race - because casting directors tended to be very like, 'OK, are you Hispanic for this role?' 'Or is she going to be African American?' ~ Naya Rivera

Casting directors tend to be the unsung heroes in this business. ~ Brent Sexton

Deb Zane, our casting director on the Hunger Games was very sanguine, from the beginning, about just blocking out what everybody else says that they want. ~ Nina Jacobson

I'm not interested in going to casting after casting, trying to get into that game. So there is a part of me that knows that I will do more characters, even if I have to produce those projects myself to get those projects out there. If the right characters come along, I would love to. I would jump at the chance. ~ Sharlto Copley

Charlie and I believe our four criteria are essential if directors are to do their job - which, by law, is to faithfully represent owners. Yet these criteria are usually ignored. Instead, consultants and CEOs seeking board candidates will often say, "We're looking for a woman," or "a Hispanic," or "someone from abroad," or what have you. It sometimes sounds as if the mission is to stock Noah's ark. Over the years I've been queried many times about potential directors and have yet to hear anyone ask, "Does he think like an intelligent owner?" The questions I instead ~ Warren Buffett

Very, very broadly speaking, you can put directors into two areas: One for whom you work, and the other with whom you work. And I prefer the latter, for obvious reasons. It's a great relief to feel that you're working with someone rather than for someone. ~ John Hurt

And within two weeks, Peter Foo was already proven right. Business for the firm expanded in leaps & bounds as both old & new clients wanted to meet the lovely slave girl that he kept naked in his penthouse & to partake of the ambrosial Nectar that she served. So much so that the three million dollars that he had paid for her was fully recovered out of profits. And new orders that flooded the firm showed that his initial investment on the girl would increase in value tenfold within a year.
He had therefore acquired the lovely slave girl, Briseis,for free. And that was why Peter Foo was likened by the Directors to Zeus/Jupiter, the King of the Gods.[MMT] ~ Nicholas Chong

There are lots of actors who insist on speaking the lines themselves, and you hear the same thing from directors and the audience, but I don't think it's worth getting het up about. I think it makes more sense to use someone who speaks that country's language: that's what voice actors are for. ~ Tadanobu Asano

To televisionize any serious problem, the program directors face the task of making the message 'go down smooth' until the audience is delivered to the commercial. ~ Arlie Russell Hochschild

If you want to be a great director, be a great screenwriter. ~ Akira Kurosawa

If you have the right actors and you can give them the freedom to explore, you've done a lot of your work as a director. ~ Andy Garcia

I got nominated for my second film as best young director in the Aikido Film Festival in Japan. ~ Donnie Yen

Directors didn't know what to do with me in college. I didn't really sound like a belter. I didn't look like a soprano. But in New York, I was in the right place at the right time, where my unusualness fit the bill. ~ Jessie Mueller

I'm always in awe of directors because they're just holding so much stuff in the air. They've got so many decisions that they need to be making and they have to have the complete overall look of what the piece of artwork is. ~ Dominic Cooper

The core of a director is the person's tastes in what elements go together and how they go together. It's a puzzle. ~ Andre Ovredal

I feel that directors at times are like the janitors on the set. I am the secretary, I am the organizer, I am the maid, and I ask if they have eaten or rested. The best things are always out of your control. It's those moments that surpass the imagination that are thrilling. ~ Jane Campion

There's nothing more important in making movies than the screenplay. ~ Richard Attenborough

Now that I'm taking some time off from school, I've been reading a lot to make sure I don't forget everything. It's mostly classics and nonfiction accounts from actors, directors and writers from the '40s and '50s. ~ Fred Savage

I want to work with great directors and try not to put too much pressure on myself and just read things for the story and recognize when I'm drawn to something for the right reasons and try to maintain some sanity. ~ Rachel McAdams

[On the racial backlash about Hunger Games casting]: People should have ignored the five racist idiots. ~ Nina Jacobson

We see Him among the thousands of Galilee, anointed of God with the Holy Ghost and power, going about doing good: with no pride of birth, though He was a king; with no pride of intellect, though omniscience dwelt within Him; with no pride of power, though all power in heaven and earth was in His hands; or of station, though the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily; or of superior goodness or holiness: but in lowliness of mind esteeming every one better than Himself, healing the sick, casting out devils, feeding the hungry, and everywhere breaking to men the bread of life. We see Him everywhere offering to men His life for the salvation of their souls: and when, at last, the forces of evil gathered thick around Him, walking, alike without display and without dismay, the path of suffering appointed for Him, and giving His life at Calvary that through His death the world might live.1 ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

There are many directors in the middle range who've made mostly successful pictures, and then there are a few great directors who've had some successes and some failures. I suppose my life would be smoother if I wasn't almost totally enamored of the latter category. ~ Jack Nicholson

I don't really consider myself a horror director or a violent director at all. ~ Ryuhei Kitamura

When our brain feels too weak to deal with our opponent's objections, our heart answers by casting suspicion on their underlying motives. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I don't mind if the character is a small character, but I would just like her to have a journey in the film. Sometimes the characters are just there as a prop to further the man's story. The great directors I've talked to, I've said listen, I don't mind playing a woman that is a tiny part, but how does the story affect her? What can I play in the end that's different from the beginning? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense, because it's just like being a prop. ~ Jessica Chastain

I think it's hard for women to be directors, particularly in the feature world because, biologically, your peak career-making years are also your peak baby-making years, and that's just the truth. And those are choices women have to make. ~ Laura Ziskin

There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn't do that. I'm not a pro. ~ Martin Scorsese

Actors rarely stay in touch with directors after they've filmed together. We go back to real life. ~ Chloe Sevigny

Usually, those people don't even like actors and they can't wait until they get in the cutting room. They kind of break down in categories: directors who like to be surprised and some of them abhor being surprised. As far as directing, we all direct when we're acting in movies ... every single one of us. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I don't think I'm the best-looking actress around. I'm not Katrina Kaif; she is stunningly beautiful. There are some roles that might need a beautiful girl, and there would be a doubt in a director's mind whether he should cast me. But that perception will change with time. I'd like to believe actresses look better with experience. ~ Anushka Sharma

And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it's the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people. ~ Jason Reitman

Milos Forman is a great director, Jim Brooks is a wonderful writer and director. ~ Twyla Tharp

I'd like to decide who comes here. I'd like to be the admissions director of New York. ~ Fran Lebowitz

Whether you are buying a car or casting a ballot, choosing a job or planning a family, follow your moral compass. Don't let others define you. Don't let advertisers mold you; don't let zealots ensnare you; don't let conventional wisdom trap you ... you are part of a much larger whole. ~ Denis Hayes

I have my pride. I'm a director. I'm not going to go and recreate some other director's vision. ~ Fede Alvarez