Richard Hicks is president of the Casting Society of America. Founded 1982 by a group of casting directors in film, television and theater to look out for the interests of the casting community, Hicks says it has paid off in dividends: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Tomorrow night, the CSA will hold the 2016 Artios Awards, which honors the people whose vision helped shape the year’s most iconic performances.
Observer: Casting is one of these jobs that is so behind the scenes that a lot of people probably aren’t even clear on the extent of your responsibilities.
Hicks: Exactly. It’s a big job, but it’s almost always finished before production is done. It’s a conversation between the casting director, the director of a project and the producers. Almost nobody else. So it’s harder than some, to show how we do what we do.
Observer: What are the qualities of a really great casting director?
Hicks: Good casting directors are a combination of left brain and right brain: they are often very creative and have to think in broad perspective. You must know a billion actors, know what you think about a billion actors, and how what you know about them relates to this particular project.
And at the same time, it’s organizational. You have to be able to move efficiently through the process so that the director and the production team can focus on other things.
We’re kind of an inquisitive bunch, we’re a group that doesn’t take a judgmental eye, because you have to be open to almost everything, and then you have to factor what you know into the project you’re working on.
Observer: How is it determined that a casting director has done such exemplary job that they should be nominated for an Artios Award?
Hicks: It’s about how the casting work contributes to the quality of what we see. So two examples from this year would be Star Wars and Straight Outta Compton.
Star Wars in casting Daisy Ridley! John Boyega! Casting a whole load of fresh, new people enlivened the film and allowed everybody to feel like they were seeing something new.
I look at the cast of Straight Outta Compton, and I’m blown away, because here’s this whole group of people who were known to the casting community but not mostly to the general public. Matching the real-life version to the actor version in a way that feels harmonious, and you don’t, as an audience member, spend any time thinking about it.
Observer: Let’s say you just graduated from school and you want to become a casting director. How do you break into the industry?
Hicks: You can definitely start by working at a casting office. There are hundreds of casting offices around the country, and people who are interested in casting can go to our website. You can sign up to receive email blasts when someone is looking for help. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door.
Observer: In your career, what was one of the biggest curveballs you’ve been thrown in an audition?
Hicks: When I was doing Curb Your Enthusiasm, we were looking for Larry’s dad. And in comes old Shecky Greene followed by the even older Shelley Berman. And Shecky, to his credit, was very good. Kind of “Borscht-belt.” Really jokey. Then Shelley Berman comes in and starts auditioning with Larry, improving, and it’s AMAZING. They just made the whole thing up. And they are just doing it right in front of you… it’s times like that, where I’m like “Oh my god, I’m just happy to be in the room.”
Observer: Is there anyone in the industry right now that just personifies for you what a good casting director looks like?
Hicks: Juliet Taylor. She’s cast Woody Allen’s film for the past 40 years. I go to see the movies that she works on because I know that I’ll be surprised to see somebody in a role, and yet they’ll be good, and I’ll want to have known them.
Observer: Who decides on the awards?
Hicks: Individual CSA members will put their project forward, and then the nominations are decided by the entire casting community. The entire CSA membership decides on the–I’m making it up, but let’s say 25 possible nominations, and they are the ones who bring it down to five. So it’s a little like the BAFTAs, where the community of members creates the nomination list. It’s not a top-down thing. It’s really an accolade that’s a reflection of the enthusiasm for a project in the community.
