San Francisco Frontiers - Casting directors finally get their due at Oscars

After nearly a century of handing out golden statuettes, the motion pictures Academy on Sunday will present its first Oscars to the professionals -- often women -- who create the perfect alchemy on set.

"I'm really happy for us all," Nina Gold, a nominee for her work on Shakespeare family tragedy "Hamnet," told AFP.

"I hope that people will see that casting is a creative -- really, truly creative -- endeavor."

Gold, a Briton in the casting business for more than 30 years, knows that her work -- which lives or dies on the performances of other people -- is somewhat difficult to quantify and evaluate.

But casting is as essential to a film's success as screenwriting or costume design, which have been honored at the Oscars for decades.

For "Hamnet," Gold not only suggested Jessie Buckley -- the clear frontrunner for best actress -- to play William Shakespeare's wife Agnes, who is haunted by the death of their son.

She also made sure that Paul Mescal, who plays The Bard, was a good fit for Buckley, organizing a script reading to ensure their compatibility.

"What makes a good casting director is a sort of intuition for not only spotting somebody's talent, but for putting together the chemistry of a whole picture, how each thing fits in," said Juliet Taylor, one of only two casting professionals with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

- A film's 'therapist' -

The casting director is one of the main creative forces as a film takes shape, says the 80-year-old Taylor, who was once Woody Allen's key partner and who worked on classics such as "The Exorcist" and "Taxi Driver."

She was also responsible for getting Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Joaquin Phoenix their first roles.

Once a casting director has read a script, they must be able to plug into the filmmaker's artistic vision in order to suggest the actors that can best make it come to life.

"It's a little bit like being a therapist. You have to learn to really appreciate people for what they are, whether you like them or not," Taylor said with a laugh.

Casting directors must rely on their extensive knowledge of the film and theater communities, and hold auditions in person and by video.

Gabriel Domingues, nominated this year for his work on "The Secret Agent," chose many unknown actors to create scenes evoking 1970s Brazil under the military dictatorship.

Sometimes, casting directors find talent in the streets.

That is how nominee Cassandra Kulukundis recruited her background cast of immigrants for "One Battle After Another."

Since the advent of the internet, the possibilities have multiplied exponentially, "Sinners" casting director Francine Maisler, the Oscar favorite, told AFP.

Director Ryan Coogler told her he wanted to make a "very personal" film, and was particularly interested in making sure that the role of Sammie, the young blues musician at the center of the plot, was perfectly chosen.

Maisler launched a worldwide search and ended up with Miles Caton, a young New Yorker who was opening on tour for R&B singer H.E.R. until he was tapped to make his film debut in the blockbuster vampire period piece.

"We got this tape in, and it was just undeniable how special he was," Maisler said.

- Guiding directors -

The profession relies on a casting director's ability to subtly guide a filmmaker towards their ultimate goals, according to Maisler, an American who has also worked with A-listers Denis Villeneuve, Greta Gerwig and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

But if the director and his casting pro don't agree on an actor, alternatives must be offered without any dispute, she explained.

"I'm not going to push back on Jacques Audiard," who worked with the French director on his western "The Sisters Brothers."

"This is his movie, and he has a special vision that he has in his mind," Maisler added. "What I can do is show him all the options that are possible."

This delicate work in tandem took on an artistic dimension in the 1960s thanks to pioneers like Marion Dougherty, who discovered James Dean and Dustin Hoffman, and was a mentor to Taylor.

Before Dougherty, casting was seen as basically a secretarial job.

But afterwards, many women went into the profession, Taylor recalled.

"That may be why it remained not that well paid and not that well recognized for such a long time."

X.Roberts--SFF