Casting Rhapsody

1.5 — Casting

There’s an old saying: 90% of directing is casting.

Once you start to develop an eye and ear for performance, it becomes painfully obvious when an actor is miscast. And there’s no fixing it later–it just brings the movie down.

I realized early on the importance of working with skilled actors, but I’d also learned there are a number of other characteristics to keep in mind when casting, some of which are project specific. Are they a team player? Are they kind to the crew? Are they a good listener? Everyone talks about chemistry between actors, but I’d venture to say the chemistry between a director and actors is just as important. With every actor I auditioned, I’d ask myself if I could see us really being able to get through to each other. With a lot of filmmaking, it’s intuitive to a certain degree. And of course, it’s always going to be a leap of faith.

Before grad school, I’d worked on a lot of sets where it was clear the director was not comfortable communicating with the actors. I felt bad for the actors, seeing them left to fumble through things, hoping they would happen upon something truthful. So, I made sure to take acting classes so that I could better understand what acting even is.

With Rhapsody, I knew I wanted to invest in a close collaboration with the lead actor. The story is a character study and the character isn’t always likable. I needed to work with someone who was comfortable exploring the uncomfortable. More than anything, I wanted to work with someone who was going to throw their whole self into it. I wanted someone who was hungry for a leading role. And of course, I wanted to work with someone who responded to my vision for the story. I wanted to find someone that gave me the sense that if they were to watch the movie I wanted to make, they would genuinely like it. I wanted an actor to be my co-creator.

We opened up casting for the leading role of Devon to all genders and ethnicities. I wanted to find the perfect person to work with and build the cast out around them. In hindsight, this is a process I’ll probably continue if not with everything I make, with most.

I also knew I wanted to work with a casting director who would give me honest input. I wanted multiple eyes on the performances. I wanted someone to talk through these huge decisions with. Luckily, I’d met Adriana Moreno (our casting director) at school–she’d worked in casting with nearly all of the school theatre productions and was actively pursuing a career in casting.

We received audition materials from hundreds of actors across Backstage, Actors Access, social media calls, and by word of mouth. More men applied than women.

There were a couple of funny moments in auditions in which it became clear people didn’t read the casting call carefully because more than a few men were surprised to learn that the character was queer while they were auditioning. The look on a straight guy’s face when he learns, mid-audition, he’s trying out for a gay character is priceless. You can tell an awful lot about a person in that moment.

We held auditions over Zoom, which I think is pretty much standard at this point, at least for an initial audition.

At first, it was really exciting to watch all of the self tapes, but we started to receive so many that it became overwhelming and I wasn’t able to watch them all personally. Honestly, we received so many that we weren’t able to watch them all. We started to prioritize actors with a music background (the character is a composer) and anyone who wrote a cover letter. I put more emphasis on the self tapes than reels.

Actor reels are tricky. It’s expensive to get one made that looks professional. I think a lot of people conflate high production value with good acting. This really isn’t the case. And if it’s an actor who doesn’t have a lot of experience, it’s hard to tell what they actually had to work with. Did they receive direction? Were they able to rehearse? Was production chaotic? It’s impossible to know, of course, but I give actors the benefit of the doubt. If someone didn’t have a reel, or it wasn’t the most impressive thing, I didn’t put much weight on it. At one point I stopped watching them and just relied on the self tapes.

In regard to character sexuality–I went in thinking it didn’t matter if the actors playing gay characters were gay. But, as we went through auditions, I realized it did.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a fan of Cate Blanchett as anyone else.

But, in auditions, it just felt different if the actor identified as queer. I felt like I didn’t have to explain as much. I also started to consider how completely rare it is for a queer actor to actually be able to play a role in which they get to show that side of themselves.

I wouldn’t say a straight actor shouldn’t play gay characters–I think part of the point of acting is exploring other human experiences–but, I do think at this moment in time, prioritizing opportunities for gay people to get to represent themselves is important.

As more and more actors read, I also started to feel that there was something about the character I hadn’t clocked before that was more interesting as a woman. As I mentioned before, the character isn’t exactly designed to be likable. She’s obsessive, guarded, and intense. During the reads, I started to get the sense that I’d seen men play those characters far more often than women. I decided that casting a woman would help the character feel fresh.

I was starting to feel down about my casting prospects–it was a tall order. A queer woman who hopefully had some kind of background in music, who could pass not only as a serious composer but as a university lecturer, who could work well with me, who could commute to Riverside, who understood what I was trying to do with the character.

One day I was scrolling through Backstage and I saw the headshot of an actress with a rather unnervingly intense gaze. I felt a pang in my gut. That’s her, I thought. She played piano. Her theatre work included a production of The Wolves, which is one of my favorites.

I pulled my wife over to my computer. “What do you think?” I asked.

“Good jawline,” she answered. Sure, I thought, but I saw something that was greater than the sum of its parts–it wasn’t one thing–it was a bigger, intuitive feeling.

“When I look at her, I see the character,” I said. “I think that’s her.”

My wife shrugged, like, sure, maybe, you’ve got to wait and see.

A back and forth ensued. Eventually, she sent in a self tape, auditioned, and went through some chemistry reads. I tried not to get ahead of myself, knowing I needed proof that my instinct was right.

In short, it was.

The first time we met in person was on the UC Riverside campus. We sat in a small conference room and read the entire script–her reading Devon–and me all the other roles. I showed her around campus. It just felt right. For the first time in a while, I had a sharp feeling that I was making the movie I wanted to make.

After we cast Devon, there were bumps in locking everything into place, but it worked out.

The actor who ended up playing Hazel (Devon’s partner) was in Taiwan during auditions and the time difference for our Zooms was gnarly. Casting Devon’s mom, another “unlikeable” character, was a big task! For that role, we ended up entering into a SAG agreement to open our pool of actors.

When I was finally able to lay all of the actors’ headshots down next to each other and see their faces with the character names, it felt real.

I had a lot of takeaways from the casting process. A good script attracts good actors. Sometimes it’s better to just close your eyes and listen–sound carries truth. If you can’t identify strong performances, if you don’t know what kind of performances you like–study them–take an acting class.

Most importantly, don’t settle. It’s always worth waiting and fighting for the right thing.

After we’d been shooting for awhile, I realized time and time again that the real joy of making the film was getting to work with the actors. It was so much fun to see them be themselves in between set ups and then drop into character.

Once (I think during rehearsals), I was talking with one of the actors about process. I asked what excited her about a director. Organization and preparedness were her answers. This made me laugh because it seemed so simple.

She asked what I look for in working with actors. A lot of words came to mind. Curiosity, intelligence, willingness to explore, work ethic, a sense of humor. But also, it was something more than that. It took a moment to put it into words, the feeling I knew I had when collaboration was open, brave, and generative, always leading to new ideas and discoveries.

“I want to go somewhere we couldn’t go on our own,” I told her.