The Life and Struggles of a Casting Director Assistant

Being an assistant to a casting director is by no means an easy job. The assistant has to do all the dirty work; running around strange cities to tell perfect strangers that they look exactly like a bit character in a big new movie and would they please, please come to Hollywood? The assistant also has to type up all the long, warm and fuzzy letters to established actors, asking them or their managers for an audition. The casting director himself, or herself, as is the case, has the easy job- lining up the final picks and selecting the people who are best cut out for the job.1

I worked under a Mr. Barnaby Brown, a man with an unfortunately comical name and very little humor. He sent me out a few years ago on an assignment for a very-much feted Civil War movie entitled "Mason Dixon." It focused on the love affair of a Union soldier for a newly released slave-woman in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. Instead of being filmed on location, however, the studio built a huge Southern style 'street' on a backlot. Since Mr. Brown was unable to find locals that could fill in the role of extras, I had to write letter after letter to C-list and D-list actors.2