So I write melodies – thirty, forty, fifty – then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.
When New Labour came to power, we got a Right-wing Conservative government. I came to realise that voting Labour wasn’t in Scotland’s interests any more. Any doubt I had about that was cast aside for ever when I saw Gordon Brown cosying up to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street.
As a director on ‘The Office,’ there’s a tremendous weight that comes with directing features. I was being asked to direct a show that had already won an Emmy for Best Comedy. Steve Carell and the cast had already won the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards.
It’d be very difficult to cast me as a ballet dancer. Everybody is, in some sense, controlled by their size and their gender. I’m not going to be allowed to play the part that Denzel Washington plays.
‘Dancing With The Stars’ is a little family. The cast, we’re all together – we’re a really friendly competition.
When you lock a movie’s release date and then move it two months, it’s just not good. It’s good for everything but the cast, crew, and people who are creatively trying to make a film.
We were younger. And it’s basically like looking at football classics. You see things that you did, you see things that you could’ve done better and you think about all the good relationships that you had with the cast.
Some of the roles that are challenging are more in theater and TV. In movies, there’s a tendency to cast actors in roles that have been successful for them. It has to pay for itself.
I am generally cast as the dependable, affable, loving, friend-wife-girlfriend.
When I first began doing TV pilots, my expectations were high. I didn’t understand that world. So when ‘Weeds’ took off, I was so happy. Especially as I was just a guest star in the pilot. But once it got picked up, they made me a regular cast member.
If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them.
If you cast the right actor, it not only compliments your work, it elevates your work.
Rough Riders took 13 weeks to shoot, plus a week of training. The same guy trained us trained the cast in Platoon. Except, instead of radios, we used bugles to signal.
Anytime you’re on camera, 95 percent of whatever character you’re playing, unless you’re Daniel Day-Lewis – or maybe, no, pretty much just him – you’re cast because you’re you.
I tell my students, if you ever become comfortable with your role as criminal defense lawyer, it’s time to quit. It should be a constant source of discomfort, because you’re dealing with incredible moral ambiguity, and you’ve been cast into a role which is not enviable.
I did plays in high school, and I usually got cast in the comic role, which I really enjoyed.
To get a script like ‘Death Proof’ and to get cast in it just affirmed that I want to do character work; that’s where my heart is. Maybe I will get to it again, maybe I won’t, but it’s what I like to do is play something a little outside of myself. This solidified the desire certainly for me.
I’d love to play a femme fatale in a film noir. I’m thinking of one of those roles that Lauren Bacall or Bette Davis might have played. What I wouldn’t like is to suddenly find myself being cast, as many senior actresses seem to be, as the abbess in a convent.
As long as I keep getting cast, I don’t care if it’s typecast.
After all, at end of the day, when you’re breathing your last, it’s not your producer, director, or cast mates by your bedside; it’s your children. Keep that in mind.
A filmmaker chooses an actress keeping the best interest of the film in mind. If he doesn’t cast you, it doesn’t mean there’s a personal agenda. Change is constant, and if you have agreed to be part of this industry, you will have to go with the change. The films and filmmakers, even the audience has changed.
That’s the fun part about being a director. You get to say, ‘Oh, now that I’m in charge, I can try and cast whoever I want.’ They can always say no, but that’s okay.
There are so many people who come to me to be an actor, but I select only those people who I feel can fit my script. If they do, I immediately say yes. I don’t do screen tests. I talk to them and see how their mind functions. I read their mind and cast them.
My writing process is very organic. I start with an idea. I have the general story arc and the cast. But then I sit down to write, and things change.
It’s funny because before I joined the cast of ‘Heroes,’ I was an insomniac. I have suffered from insomnia for, like, so long. Now that I’m on the show, seriously – I sleep like a baby. I’m so tired all the time.
Denzel had made it apparent that he wanted me to bring my own interpretation of ‘Cory’. I was definitely aware of Courtney B. Vance’s performance in the original production, as well as that of Chris Chalk, who performed the role onstage with my cast back in 2010.
When I was five years old, my parents gave me a magic chest. I learned to cast spells, although of a childish kind, before I had learned to read and write.
When you think of the sacrifices our firefighters make, think about the service of soldiers in foreign lands and listen to their lives, you have to be careful that whatever you do, don’t cast a shadow on what these great people do.
I loved ‘Dirty Sexy Money.’ That didn’t have a long enough shelf life. I would’ve liked to explore that character and play with that cast longer. That was a lot of fun to shoot.
If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.
By confirming the importance of politics and politicians in Britain, we can build from the bottom up and begin to reverse the worrying anti-politics trend, which will empower the elite technocrats and leave defenceless the man or woman in the street with a mere vote to cast.
In his musicals with Garland, Rooney was the sparkplug for prodigious entrepreneurship – that era’s predecessor of the garage band, but with Gershwin tunes and an all-star cast.
I don’t assume that I am going to be cast as a Glaswegian landlord.
I like to cast actors I admire, one’s that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar.
The biggest mistake in student films is that they are usually cast so badly, with friends and people the directors know. Actually you can cover a lot of bad direction with good acting.
When I was cast as Gendry, I didn’t have any of the physical attributes the part required. I was astounded that I got the role, to be honest.
I think if people stick with ‘The Leftovers,’ it’s a very rewarding viewing experience. I wanted to be part of that – and what a great cast we got. I wanted to be one of those actors, in that show!
The higher the sun ariseth, the less shadow doth he cast; even so the greater is the goodness, the less doth it covet praise; yet cannot avoid its rewards in honours.
I think, as an actor, and particularly if you are playing the lead in something, you have to view yourself as the head of department for the cast. All of the other departments are accountable and have somebody at the helm who is leading them all the time, and I don’t think that the actors should be any different.
’17 Again’ was one of the best times of my life. The whole cast was really close. We were like a family. When we weren’t working, we’d all hang out. It was a great group of people.
As an actor, I’ve been all over the map, but since I’ve moved to Hollywood, people tend to cast me in these more imposing characters, which is actually really fun for me. I’ve always been way more attracted to playing that than the hero.
I love working with a cast and a group of people every day, which is different than recording because you’re usually pretty isolated and alone. They serve as a good balance for each other.
Before I was cast for ‘Brothers,’ we all knew that Karan Johar was looking for an actress for to play a mother’s role. I never thought that he would think of casting me.
As a professional actor, I don’t have much choice about what I’ve gotten into. I tend to be cast in comedies and I’m fine with that.
I value what I learned from being cast in the margins and what that felt like.
The statistics might have a Eurosceptic cast, but they are not exactly a fun read. Few of us want to wade through ONS graphs or European Commission tables.
It’s almost impossible to get a movie all together when there are two main cast members, let alone an ensemble cast with everyone’s schedules. It’s crazy if it works out.
I had a dream cast when Dan first went off and wrote ‘Ghostbusters 3’ by himself. It was so long ago that my dream cast was Ben Stiller, Chris Farley, and Chris Rock. That would have been cool. Now, a lot of time has passed, and there are a lot of young funny people.
There are certain storylines I shouldn’t have done, there are certain actors I shouldn’t have cast – guest stars, I mean.
A lot of times I think the cast members, the lead characters in a show really set the tone for the show. On some shows, the stars of the show will just be whining and complaining and spending the whole time texting their boyfriends on their Blackberries, and there’s just no attention given to the work.
