Casting Director Lucy Bevan's Audition Room Tips

CF Blog | June 7

Acclaimed casting director, Lucy Bevan boasts a long and impressive resume which includes casting for Maleficent, Cinderella, Jungle Book, and more recently, Beauty and the Beast. Based in London, she selects talent for British independent films, theater, television as well as American studio films. Her early work includes the British comedy film St Trinian's in which she cast Gemma Arterton, Paloma Faith, Russell Brand, and Lilly Cole in their first feature roles. Among her other casting treasures are Tom Hiddleston who she placed in his first feature Unrelated; of course, Hiddleston is now known by so many as the dark trickster, Loki. "There was just a fantastic confidence about him," Bevan insists. She also cast Eddie Redmayne in his first film Like Minds after seeing him perform in the play The Goat. When reflecting on what qualities she notices in the actors who "make it," she says: "An important thing is that there is something of themselves that shines out. Often you go to drama schools and you see people doing a version of Judy Dench or Jim Broadbent or Kenneth Branagh, but my attention is grabbed by the people who just have a really strong sense of themselves. When there's something unique about them and you can really see that coming out."

MixKnowledgy recently asked Lucy Bevan what practices actors might want to avoid when entering the audition room. She answered that while many actors exhibit acting mastery, those abilities are a distinctly different from auditioning skills. "That's another set of skills that I think is as important to learn because in order to be brilliant at your job once you've got a part, you've got to get the part in the first place." Here are a few of the audition tips she mentioned.

Come in cleanly; leave cleanly

The first basic tip is to show up on time. Now, sometimes the journey of traveling across town to the audition doesn't go a smoothly as planned. In such instances, she suggests that actors avoid making excuses. Bevan puts it this way: "If you happen to be late because something went wrong or there was a traffic nightmare or whatever, I don't want to hear about it. Leave all of that stuff out the door. So, for a start, I wouldn't even know if someone was late sometimes because I didn't do the scheduling; my assistant does it. And an actor will come in and be, 'I'm so sorry, and oh my goodness, traffic was this or that'--and I'm already bored. I don't want to hear about it. You know, I've been seeing actors all day, I'm busy, I want to work, I want to get to the point...Be disciplined. Come in cleanly; leave cleanly." Likewise, she is a firm believer in not trying to prolong the audition in any way. "When it's over, it's time to go, thank you very much, shake your hand, off you go...leave all your suitcases and your bags, and your cups of coffee, leave that all downstairs or somewhere else or outside."

The most important thing for her to know during an audition

Regarding the audition performance, Bevan says, "Be really prepared with the scene that you've got. Be prepared so that you're ready to take notes and make adjustments. So you read the scene with me and I think it's good. But what I want to know for this actor is: Can they take direction? It's the most important thing for me to know." Thus, actors need not doubt their performance if the casting director asks them to try the material in a different way. Instead they can demonstrate the vital Thespian skill of versatility.

Terry Gilliam's 17-Year Attempt to Film 'Quixote' Finally Achieved

CF Blog | June 5

"Success is not the absence of failure; it's the persistence through failure." - Aisha Tyler "Sorry for the long silence. I've been busy packing the truck and am now heading home. After 17 years, we have completed the shoot of THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. Muchas gracias to all the team and believers. QUIXOTE VIVE!"

So writes the inimitable Terry Gilliam in a Facebook post on June 4, 2017 concerning his 17-year odyssey chasing and battling his cinematic windmills with the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Gilliam has spent nearly twenty years trying to get the archetypal adventures of Don Quixote to the silver screen and he's been upended at nearly every turn. But now, with the completion of the surrealistic movie's photography, Terry has finally conquered his demons and wrapped the once-thought-to-be-cursed motion picture. Indeed, the so-called curse of Quixote is chronicled in the 2002 nightmarish documentary Lost in La Mancha in which Gilliam, along with Johnny Depp and a beleaguered crew, battle gale-force winds, flooding, hail-damaged equipment, F1 jet fighters, financial difficulties, and even a serious injury while attempting to shoot the moribund project. Ultimately Terry and crew packed up their bags and headed home with tails between their legs.The celebrated director of Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, among other iconic films, considers the story of Don Quixote to be an obsession. "All my stuff's been about reality, fantasy, madness, sanity, and Quixote encompasses all of those."

In total, Gilliam attempted to make the film eight times, thus making it recognized as "one of the most infamous examples of developmental hell in film history" according to Wikipedia. Indeed, he once referred to making the film as the "Sisyphean rock that keeps rolling back." When asked why he would continue to pursue the project that caused him so much strife and frustration, Gilliam answered, "Oh, I don't know, pigheadedness, stupid--I really don't know anymore. I'm beginning to actually think, 'If it doesn't work this time, I'm gonna dump it.' I've wasted far too much of my life doing it. If you're going to do Quixote, you have to become as mad as Quixote...It's kind of a determination to be crazy and unreasonable. Every intelligent person around me says, 'Walk away from it.' But those are reasonable people."