Last time, I discussed the process that led me to begin The Third Age project. By October, we had a couple of episodes scripted, the whole story mapped out, but no one to play the roles. It was time to cast.

Casting in the pre-Internet days for a project like this would have been a major issue; you could either take out an ad in a trade magazine, or just use your friends. A word of advice — don’t use your friends for major roles unless they’re actually actors. Even if they’re “just like” the character, it’s hard to bring that energy on camera.

Luckily, the whole casting process has changed with the Internet. I was working on a shoot a few years ago and one of the actors told me about the site New York Castings. It’s a free site, where you can post ads for actors. I posted an ad for my film, The Perfect Dose, and was shocked when I got a deluge of responses. Considering this was a no-pay thing, I was hoping just to get enough people to fill out the cast, but I got over one hundred responses.

I did the same for this project, and got a similarly huge number of responses. From here, my co-director Jordan and I combed through the listings to figure out who we wanted to have audition. I’m not proud to say that this selection is based primarily on looks. As an actor, your head shot is gold; that’s changing a bit with online reels, but a good headshot gets you in the door. I’ve had a bunch of cases where someone comes in and looks nothing like the headshot. Maybe that’s disingenuous, but the goal is to get in the door; your talent will get you cast, your headshot will get you to the people you need to see.

We sent out e-mails to about fifty people, and saw about thirty people on a Saturday afternoon. My friend Alex, an actor, came in to read opposite the actors. Previously, either Jordan or I had read opposite the actor, and that doesn’t work so well. You become more focused on your own performance than observing the actor. But, having the same consistent read for everyone gives you an idea of what they can do. Alex is in the film as well, playing Mark, so it was a nice chance to see what he could do.

It was pretty crazy to have all these people show up to read for our film, to hear the words I’d written spoken by so many people. I love to talk with the actors after, get an idea about the person as well as the performance. We’re going to be spending a lot of time with these people, so it’s good to be compatible with them. But, just because you like the person doesn’t mean they should get the role. There was one guy, he had an amazing head shot and was practically cast before he came in the door. We talked for five minutes before the audition, about Deadwood, about his headshot, all kinds of stuff. I loved the guy, but then he read and just didn’t do it at all. So, we couldn’t cast him.