I’d been told that Dino Ladki was an “up-and-coming” casting director. To me, that term means someone who is early on in their career, who hasn’t cast many big projects, and who is willing to take some risks, as their most influential casting decisions are yet to come. After meeting Ladki, I’d say he’s more the “next wave” of casting director: young, intelligent, and ready to take risks by nature. I don’t think his “up-and-coming” style will erode. Those qualities are the very things that give him his edge. More info at https://audition-tape.com.
First Casting Job
Ladki started out as a receptionist at Lorimar Television casting in 1993. He would certainly recommend starting out at a big place to get in the door. “It’s not really hard, getting a casting assistant job because they want fresh people,” Ladki said. “I mean, the jobs are few and far between but you don’t have to have a lot of experience.”
Road to This Position
In his three years at Lorimar, he worked as casting assistant first to Mark Sachs and then to Pamela Basker. “She treated me as an associate, even though that wasn’t the position. I was making my own lists. I wasn’t in readings, but I had a mental Rolodex of actors and I could make appropriate suggestions.” Ladki indicated that he didn’t want to skip the step of being an associate casting director. “I wanted to learn more.”
He started working for John Aiello as his associate, where Sliders was his assignment. “It was so much fun. One week it was kings and queens, the next week it was vampires.” With Karen and Mary Margiata, he worked on Hollyweird and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. “I did the pilot for Undressed for MTV and was then hired for a year contract to cast six or seven pilots for MTV. Those were acting pilots, not reality television,” he clarified. “After that, I did a Canadian pilot and indie film and then became an independent casting director at Carsey-Werner,” Ladki explained.
Coolest Casting Gig
Locust Valley, a pilot for MTV. While it didn’t get picked up, Ladki was “very fond of it, the cast, and the producer, John Feldman. He’s a really smart guy who knows what he wants, understands the casting process, knows actors,” he recalled. The shows Live Through This and Lyricist Lounge did get picked up, and Ladki remembered those as “fun to cast” too, as was the pilot for Undressed.
Key Things He Looks for in an Actor
Smarts! “It’s my opinion that there are no stupid people that are brilliant actors,” Ladki revealed. “I’m a big fan of ‘under-the-top’ acting. Subtlety is everything, even in comedy. It’s knowing how to get the joke from behind and surprise people.” He feels that acting is a very important, noble profession. “I’m a big fan of actors and acting. They portray what goes on in our world and in life and that’s such an important thing,” Ladki explained. “As much as they talk about how much shit is on television, the same basic moral stories are told over and over again. It’s basic right from wrong, from children’s shows to adult shows. They have these moral themes.”
His Favorite Audition Tale
This one, for Ladki, is bittersweet. The lead he’d first cast for the Locust Valley pilot had never done anything. “I found her in a preread and she went through the whole process. I worked with her a lot,” he remembered. “The day before the final audition was a Sunday and I worked with her for five hours. She got the gig. After the first table read, she got fired. They were on a tight schedule and didn’t have time to give this 16-year-old girl from Colorado a week of rehearsal. She was nervous and didn’t do the table read well so they fired her and I had to replace her, which I did – with someone else I like very much – but it was hard,” Ladki explained. The moral of the story? “It was important lesson for me because those five hours I worked to make it perfect for her, well, you can’t do it all for the actors. If I have to do that, then maybe I shouldn’t, because it’s not really helping anybody.”
Advice for Actors
“Persevere. Have confidence. Confidence is 90% of it,” he calculated. Oh, and if you want to shake someone’s hand, shake their hand. “If they don’t want to, don’t be offended because there’s a million reasons they may not want to. Be courteous, but ass-kissing is never necessary,” Ladki indicated.
He also recommended that the actor take acting seriously by studying constantly. “Be selective. Talk to a lot of people before deciding who to study with,” Ladki said. “Also, work as much as you can. Constantly perfect what you do by doing plays and showcases.” And lastly, Ladki suggested that the actor treat acting like a business, “in every situation except for the audition. In the audition, be the artist.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Him
“I look at every postcard, but I’ve cast very few people that way. I haven’t done a workshop in a while, but I have cast plenty of people in small roles from workshops. I look at some, but not all, unsolicited headshots and resumes. The thing about casting is, it’s always, ‘Hurry up and get a cast.’ It’s always a rush, there’s never enough time. I know a lot of people say they look at every single thing. I don’t believe them. It’s a nice answer, but they don’t,” Ladki revealed. In terms of priority, he looks at submissions from the top agencies first. “If I don’t see it there, I go deeper through the stacks, and sometimes that gets to the people with nothing on their resume. If they have a good look and at least have representation, I’ll see them,” he explained. Bottom line: the best way to be seen is through an agency’s submission.
His Opinion on Alternative Submission Methods
“I’ve tried to do some casting through [the Internet], but it’s not comprehensive enough to really do that,” Ladki said. “But for submissions, I do think the Internet is the future. In about four years, that’s the way everyone will submit.”
Trends He Has Observed in the Casting Process
“I think the trend is going away from ‘Teen Everything,’ if it hasn’t already,” he predicted. But, more than any trend, Ladki explained that substance is what we keep coming back to. “People get sick of the bullshit and eventually they want quality. They want the real thing.” He feels that mainstream producers have taken a cue from independents and that they are putting more substance into their big-budget features. “However, I think there will always be people who will make crap to make money.” Why? “Only because there’s people who will pay money to see crap.”
His Operating System
“I’ve worked on my mental Rolodex for quite sometime, watching credits on every single thing I see. I’ve learned to read the names in credits so I’ll recognize them next time,” Ladki explained. “I have a terrible memory, but I’ve worked on it. I remember actors’ names. That’s my mental thing. I make myself remember them.”
Highlight of His Week
“The only part I really like about casting is being in casting sessions. I love working with actors, bringing actors along. I think I’m proficient at raising someone’s performance if they need that. I think hopefully one day I’ll be a good director. I’ve got my five-year plan. I would love to do that, eventually, and I think casting is an avenue to help me do that. It certainly provides me the opportunity to work with actors and see what I can do with them at different levels of talent.”
Most Gratifying Part of His Job
“When the person that I want most gets the part and they deserve it.”
This interview was conducted on October 12, 2000, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.