Many casting directors started down their showbiz path as aspiring actors. I was one of those. Carlyn Davis was another. We both headed to LA to pursue our dreams but boomeranged back east to go to college. While both Carlyn and I ended up in casting, she knew it was what she wanted to do while in college. (It took me a little bit longer to figure that part out.) Carlyn likes to say that she figured out that she “enjoyed being the ‘doctor’ behind the microscope” rather than “being the specimen being studied.” So, how is casting done in DC? Read on!
Casting in Washington, DC
When I tell people that I’m a casting director from DC, they normally look at me strangely: “I thought everything happens in NY or LA!” That’s true — the big stuff does. But actors in this market can actually do film, TV, whatever, during the day and do an Equity show at night. And then you can proudly say that you are an “actor” and not a waitress or something. But nothing comes easy. You have to work hard. Get your training. Figure out your market. Each market is uniquely different. Build your resume and most importantly remember that show business IS a business.
Before you approach anyone and make yourself look totally green, prepare yourself. You only get one chance for a first impression. Make sure you have the training and the right headshots, etc. No one wants to start with someone that has no idea about the business. To get noticed, actors have to be persistent, understand how each casting director previews talent, and always continue to “fine tune” their instrument. I enjoy hearing stories of folks like Tom Hanks still going back to basic acting classes. That shows dedication. If a casting director is not calling you, don’t give up. That just means it’s time to roll up your sleeves and work harder. And make sure you have a top-notch headshot from an incredible photographer like Joe Henson or someone that really knows what they’re doing. And as I’ve been saying since the early ’90s, I love color headshots!
DC is filled with interesting people that I would most certainly bring in for a read on my feature castings. And I love that I do not have to go to NY! The downside of this market is, there are no agents. We need really, really good franchised agents here. I have come across many folks in my 14+ year career that have tried to become agents or managers, but I don’t think they had any experience so they didn’t last. Other than that, this is an excellent market for talent. We are the third largest industrial and the sixth largest commercial market in the nation (I guess the secret is out). I love that every day is uniquely different than the one before. It’s always nice to have something new to talk about every day after work. But I’d have to say the best part of the job is to hear the excitement in the performer’s voice when you tell them they just landed a role. It doesn’t get much better than that.
How casting works for us truly depends on what we are working on and what the producers are looking for. I always like to (when production gives me a lot of time) preread a lot of folks so that I can find a character that is truly interesting. Generally, when casting commercials, you bring in a lot more choices than you would for industrials. And again with features, if the producers give me time, I like to do prereads. A lot of time I’ll have my staff run two studios at once so that I can peek in and at the end of the day, review the tapes, and get the casting assistants’ opinions on the day’s sessions. Then I make my decisions for the callbacks. After the callbacks, I make my final few decisions as to whom I’ll submit and recommend to the director and producers.
To get started with us, actors need to snail mail a photo/resume to one of our offices. Then, if we are interested, when we have time we have general open calls. We invite the selected talent in to do a reading. Ten years ago, I would have said actors must be in SAG for us to consider them. But now I have found so many interesting nonunion folks that I’m open to see anyone. If they do not have an agent, we give them the freelance paperwork to fill out and put them in our database to consider for future castings. We do not accept walk-ins and find it inappropriate.
A typical day once production begins means getting up at 4am and getting into the office to make sure we had no cancellations and production does not need anything. Then we keep prepping for the days to come and of course the never-ending changes. Generally, if I’m lucky, I’ll have 30 seconds to cram a bite of food in. It’s hard work and I am constantly on the phone trying to solve that day’s newest problems (actors backed out last minute — car trouble, kid sick, whatever). Now I need an exact person — sometimes the same exact size — as the person that just backed out. And I need them in two hours.
That’s why I love CarlynDavisCasting.com. I developed this site shortly after the Internet came to be. I’m proud to say it was one of the first sites in the nation to have a searchable, interactive database that shows actors’ photos, resumes, comp cards, audio demos, and video demos (every actor should have a video demo now, by the way. Headshots are going to be a thing of the past here soon. Demo reels are very important in today’s technology. Make it professional. Don’t try to home produce unless you really, really know what you’re doing. And for my purposes in this market, keep it relatively short. Maybe a good opening with something interesting lasting about 15 seconds. Have it bleed into the next piece and keep that one around ten seconds, etc., to about a minute. Unless I’m casting for a big principal role on a production, I generally do not watch a demo more than about 20 seconds. I know right off if that person is right for the job. Know how to email your demo and submit hard copies on DVD (or check which media each casting director would prefer to see). We use CarlynDavisCasting.com every day for castings — primarily for day player castings. We use ExtrasNow.com for selecting background performers.
To be considered to be added to the CarlynDavisCasting.com site, you must first submit your headshot and resume through the mail. Then we’ll go through and find who we think might be interesting. At that point, we contact the performer and invite them to a general open call where I require them to do a one-minute monologue and then I give them a script to do a cold read. I videotape everyone and have over 3000 actors on tape, all at my own expense (remember, I was a starving artist so I totally know where actors are coming from). There is no fee to be on the CarlynDavisCasting.com site, but you have to be darn good to get into it. And many times, my office is so busy, we postpone open calls for months, so it can take a long time for consideration. Everyone is freelance so it makes my job twice as hard. Truly as a casting director, I should not even have a database. I should just be able to call managers or agents for them to submit to me. But in a sense it’s like I’m mother to the freelance market, hence my large database.
I so totally get the reasoning behind maintaining a casting database. In fact, I have my own casting wiki made up of every actor I’ve ever scheduled for a preread (oh yes, and I do keep up with the no-shows), invited to callbacks, or cast in a project. I can only imagine the vital need for such a database in a market with so few agents there for support. Agents and managers are an integral part of the filtering process for populating fictional worlds, so to work in a market such as DC, it seems as though casting directors have to be all-encompassing. As always, I love seeing casting directors in other markets embracing technology to such an extent. Awesome stuff!
About Carlyn Davis
Carlyn Davis is the president and founder of one of Washington, DC’s most highly respected casting companies, Carlyn Davis Casting, Inc. Having casting offices in both Falls Church, VA, and Baltimore, MD, Carlyn has been a casting director for over 14 years. Credits include over 30 feature films, television, MOWs, pilots, commercial spots (both radio and television), print, and thousands of industrial training videos.
Recent feature credits include The Good Shepherd and Step Up. Carlyn also was recently hired by Disney to do a local search for the feature Stick It. Her office successfully cast the lead role of “Mina” starring opposite actor Jeff Bridges. The local talent that received the role got a two-month contract in LA.
Carlyn was the first member from the DC/VA market to be voted into the Casting Society of America. Carlyn still stands as the only casting director in the DC market that is a CSA member. Carlyn holds a BS in Theatre from Radford University.
This contribution originally ran at Bonnie Gillespie’s online column on May 1, 2007.