Before the advent of GPS and smart bombs, hitting distant hillside targets with an artillery battery (even if the targets were fixed and dug in) was not a simple proposition. Maybe once in a great while, under perfect conditions, you might hit your mark on the first or second shot. But most often, like everything else in battle, you'd examine your objective, use all the tools and intelligence at your disposal, formulate a plan, gather the best people you could find to execute it, and then try to get close. Usually, the first volley falls short. So, you re-examine your target and your tactics, adjust accordingly, and try again. You repeat this process until, ultimately, hopefully, you've walked your artillery fire up the hill right into your intended target.
I know what you're thinking: what the hell does this have to do with making a movie?! The simple answer is:
EVERYTHING.
With the change of a word here and there, I just described the entire casting process and the job Joseph Middleton and his crew have been doing. Over the last several weeks, they have fixed their sights on a set of targets at the top of the mountain (The Roles), used all the tools (Pre-reads) and intelligence (Experience) they have at their disposal, picked the best people they could get (Available Actors), and started walking fire up the hill. And I'll be goddamned if they haven't gotten closer and closer to hitting the mark dead center. We typically do two 2-hour sessions per week and each one has gotten progressively better since the breakdowns went out and Joseph & Co. have had to wade through the subsequent cavalcade of audition requests; 600 for "Tucker" alone the first day or two (that's probably not out of the ordinary, but it sounds like a lot so blow me).***
If you were to ask Joseph, he would tell you that the first session after the breakdowns went out fell far short of the mark. It was the first week where he really had to separate wheat from chaff in the pre-reads and he wanted the session to have at least a couple bright spots. You know, make a good first impression and all that stuff. Of course, he's being too hard on himself, but that's the sign of someone who takes his work seriously and is very good at his job. Don't get me wrong, the session wasn't great. But it wasn't so awful that Joe should beat himself up or consider a different line of work.
The slow, methodical walk to the target at the top of the mountain is best exemplified by the search for "Tucker." Thus far we've read two actors for Tucker who were very, very good--one about whom you've already read, and both choices we would be content with in the final analysis. Still, there is this momentum, this push, to find the perfect Tucker. To hit the target dead center. There is this collective hope that we will be sitting there in the room and an actor will walk in, read it cold, and we will jump to our feet as a shaft of light breaks through the blinds and a chorus of angels strikes a single harmonious note: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Being a newcomer to this industry, my assumption is that this is the hope of all directors, producers, and casting directors when it comes to finding the right actor for the main character. Do I think it's going to happen that way for us? Honestly, I don't think so. After all, can the world really handle TWO of Tucker Max? I think what is far more likely is that we are going to get really close; so close that we can work our way to the target without much effort, rather than having to rely on landing a direct hit.
If it can be done, however, I trust Joseph & Co. to be the ones to do it. Any doubt was washed away last week as we hung out in his office prior to the start of a casting session. We were commiserating on how hard it's been to find the perfect Tucker and he was telling us how difficult it's been for him to find actors who understood the character enough just to come close to making it past pre-reads. "They hide behind their smiles," he said. Tucker asked him if he was sure he was describing the essence of the Tucker character to them correctly. "Oh yeah, I've got it down." he said. That's when Joseph Middleton unfurled a 30 second extemporaneous monologue replete with incisive, pithy observations about Tucker's motivation and character that nailed the role like Christ to the cross.
We were blown away. Thinking about it today, I realized that up until last week, understanding this Tucker character was Joseph's real first target. Each pre-read and each audition was just another step as he walked the fire up the hill to it. Finding the actor to play the role would only be a by-product of this understanding; a target only reachable once the previous one had been hit. Well Joseph & Co. reached the first target last week. Now, we all hope, it's just a matter of homing in and waiting for the angels to sing.
*** A fuller discussion of the casting process can be found here.
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