Currently, he is appearing in the MAX series The Girls on the Bus and stars in the new indie flick The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, which hits theaters April 26. While he continues to act, he is also launching a coaching career, which he hopes will help younger actors better understand the craft. He spoke to us from his home in upstate New York, where he was recovering from minor surgery (don’t worry, he’s fine).

How did you start acting in the first place?

I started acting in high school. A guy who had graduated from my high school came back to direct a Bertolt Brecht play, and I auditioned for it. He cast me as the MC, who didn’t have that many lines in the play, but I read through it and thought to myself, “Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if all the projections that are done in Brechtian plays, that the MC is voicing the projection, so there’s a narration through the entire play?” I pitched this to him and he loved it, so I ended up having an enormous amount of dialogue. I had the most wonderful costume, top hat and tails, spotlight, and it was the beginning of like, “Wow, I enjoy this.” Both the idea of expressing myself in a dramatic way and also the beginning of realizing, “Oh, I have some kind of control or ability to create my own path. I can have an idea, I can express it, and it can be heard.”

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around doing a Brecht play in high school.

I don’t know. He just had an idea, and whoever was in charge of the drama program said “sure.” I mean, it worked. Also, this was 1976. But that’s where it all started. I never really thought about it as a career until I was in college and studying with this guy who ran a theatre company called Playback Theater, which was a psycho-dramatic, therapeutic, but entertaining form of improvisation. He taught this class on clowning, and I fell in love with the idea of it. I developed a character, and then went off and applied and got into circuses. I worked at Big Apple Circus and others and did that for a number of years as I was going to college. Also, I kept working with Playback and kind of fell into the drama program. I never auditioned for it, I just started taking classes, and then all of a sudden, I was graduating with a theater degree and loving it, but then realized, “Oh, I have to figure out what comes next.” I mean, I watched movies and loved movies, but it wasn’t like I wanted to be a movie star. I saw theater and drama as a way to express what I thought was happening in the world around me.

I never knew that you were a clown. Something I’ve always wondered. How do you fit so many guys into the car?

(Laughs) Yeah, I was more like Emmett Kelly. I was more of a solo clown. Never went into a Volkswagen.

Seems a missed opportunity, but whatever. Anyway, after college, you ended up in New York?

I studied with a guy named Bob Modica for years. That’s where I met [my wife] Ana, and I would say, at least once a week we have a conversation about Bob and what he taught us. He didn’t just teach us acting. He taught us about life and what it means to be an artist.

It’s been 21 years since we made that movie together, and it seems like you’ve been working pretty much nonstop ever since.

I would say that’s accurate. I think I’ve been pretty lucky. I would like it to be a lot more than it is, but everybody does. I’d like there to be a fatter bank account, but I feel like I’ve been working pretty consistently since, I’d say 1988. I’ve done commercials and movies and TV and plays, and when you’re going through it it’s hard to think of it that way, but I’m starting to coach, and going back through all my stuff, oh my God, there’s so much. It’s insane. I try not to look back that much because I feel like the best is forward. The best is out there. Hopefully, I’ll do that until the day I die.

I’m curious about your decision to coach. I remember working with you, and while others in the cast tended to be, I don’t want to say limited, but certainly had their specific lane, your approach was much more craft-driven.

Yeah, totally. I feel like that is how I come to it. Teaching-wise, there’s a population of young actors who focus on celebrity, which I think is a big problem.

I’ve gotten to experience these cathartic moments in my life and my career, being on stage or being in a film, getting something, understanding something, discovering something. It’s rare, it doesn’t happen in every single TV show or every single movie, but sometimes you get to have this incredible epiphany. I’ve experienced those moments, and I think that’s what feeds the artistic journey. It’s something that I want to imbue in another generation, that this is what to strive for.

How do you boil that down into its most basic sense?

To me, it’s all about the discovery. It’s that moment, in a scene, in a class, in a movie, in a TV show, if you can have that emotional experience, you’re getting closer and closer to a character, and all of a sudden, it’s no longer you, it’s the character that you’re developing. That is, I think, one of the greatest feelings in the world. It feels like you’re floating on air. It’s literally like you’re dreaming. You’re just living this whole other existence. If you’re not striving for that, then I think something’s wrong.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star Scott Cohen Talks Bertolt Brecht Plays, Joining the Circus and Why He Decided to Start Coaching first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star Scott Cohen Talks Bertolt Brecht Plays, Joining the Circus and Why He Decided to Start Coaching appeared first on Casting Networks.

Nayor has had an impressive career that began at Universal Pictures and saw her rising to Senior Vice President of Feature Casting before venturing out on her own. She recently worked on the latest season of the Amazon Prime series The Baxters, as well as the directorial debut of Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda, the Diablo Cody-scripted Lisa Frankenstein, now available to view on Peacock.

She spoke to us from her home office, where she was joined by Buster, the Pomeranian she “timeshares” with her stepson.

How did you get into casting in the first place?

I wanted to be an actress. I was in all my school plays in high school and college. I just loved being in theater, so I thought, “I want to go into theater in New York. But I want to learn what is needed of the actors, so I’m going to go in stealth and do an internship in casting and learn how to succeed in that field. Get the inside scoop.” I did my first internship at Manhattan Theatre Club, and within the first 24 hours, I decided that I love casting and that was going to be my path.

What was it that was so entrancing?

I had to interview a lot of actors for these equity principal interviews. I think it was a biannual requirement of all the Off-Broadway theaters for actors who either had no agent or didn’t have a good agent that they could meet the producers of the theater.

They put me in one of the smaller theaters with a table and chair and I was meeting everyone who was in line. I recognized a lot of those actors from seeing Broadway shows growing up and I thought, “Oh, my God, I don’t want to be in this line at 40, 50, 60 years old.” I thought, they’re so talented, I don’t want to compete with them, I’d rather see if I can help facilitate moving their career forward.

It’s amazing how many casting directors I’ve talked to started as actors.

I think it helps greatly in casting just to have a different dialogue with actors. A different understanding of the psyche of an actor. The challenges. The struggles. I think you have more compassion for the whole process, and I think it just makes you more well-rounded in the job.

It’s interesting, too, because every single casting director I’ve talked to has such a love of actors, and yet so many actors view them adversarially.

It’s true, we’re perceived as the gatekeepers, but we are always in the position of wanting to bring out the best performances, to help actors have the best environment. It makes life easy for everyone on both sides. I can be a hero with my producers and director to deliver someone wonderful who they love, so I want an actor to do well.

You do a lot of genre films. What led you down that road?

I was at Universal for the first 14 years of my career and was eventually SVP of feature casting there. In my first year in LA, I came out for two weeks to work on a Universal feature and stayed for 14 years. At the time, we had in-house deals with Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Ron Howard and John Hughes — amazing filmmakers, and I got to work with all of them. That’s where I met Sam Raimi.

I cast The Whole Nine Yards and Road Trip, and then because I worked with Sam at Universal on Darkman, he brought me onto The Grudge, and then I did The Exorcism of Emily Rose within the same year. Those came out and just happened to be big hits, and it seemed to open the floodgates for the genre for me. I didn’t want to be ungrateful to have a niche, so I thought I would embrace it and just go along the genre journey.

It’s been a blast, and I do enjoy the combination of comedy and genre like Lisa Frankenstein or Barbarian. I did one recently with the Barbarian team called Companion, with Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. It’s in the post, and it’s just hysterically funny.

Because of the nature of your work, I imagine you also discover a lot of talent, too.

I mean, it’s great. I put Gwyneth Paltrow on her first film ever, which was called Shout. I cast Tessa Thompson in her first film where she was one of the opening cameo kills in When a Stranger Calls. I think genre gives an opportunity for that over and over because you want to feel like you can relate to the people in the film, so you don’t need big movie stars.

I think that’s a trick for the audience to feel like, “this could be happening to me, this horrible story. This horror could be visiting my front door.” That’s why it’s not Brad Pitt starring in a horror film because I can’t relate.

That feels like it segues well into my last question, which is what piece of wisdom or advice would you give to someone coming in to audition for you?

I would say, be relaxed. I think a lot of times, back to your point at the beginning, this fear or this anxiousness or nervousness that comes up because you feel like, “Oh, this person’s not rooting for me or they don’t want to see me succeed,” but it’s the opposite.

We do want to see them succeed. That creates a tension that I think inhibits creativity a lot of the time. Also, to be bold. Not to be fearful of making a choice. Sometimes people are so concerned with making the wrong choice that they go vanilla instead of taking bold chances, which I think are the auditions that are the most memorable.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post ‘Barbarian,’ ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Casting Director Nancy Nayor Opens Up About Genre Casting first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘Barbarian,’ ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Casting Director Nancy Nayor Opens Up About Genre Casting appeared first on Casting Networks.

Furthermore, Papsidera’s collaboration with Taylor Sheridan on his “Taylorverse” introduced audiences to several new franchise shows last year that he cast, including 1923, Lawman: Bass Reeves and Special Ops: Lioness.

In addition to these successes, Papsidera cast the Apple TV+ miniseries Lessons in Chemistry. The historical drama stars Brie Larson as a chemist who becomes a cooking show host, leveraging her scientific expertise to enlighten her primarily housewife audience on scientific principles.

In an interview with Casting Networks, Papsidera provided insights into the unique challenges of bringing the show to life, and his experience attending the SAG Awards for the first time earlier this year.

Were any actors already attached to the project when you came on board to cast?

Brie was already attached. She was a producer and had worked in developing the piece. Hannah Fidell, the original showrunner, called me and asked, in conjunction with Apple, if I would be interested. Hannah and I got off to a great start. I had seen the show she did with Kate Mara and Nick Robinson, A Teacher, so we talked about that when I first met her. I found out later she is friends with Jason Reitman, who I’m friends with and work with a lot (Author’s note: Papsidera cast the filmmaker’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its sequel, Frozen Empire.)

Were there any special requirements for casting this show?

We wanted to capture the time period in the right way to make it as authentic as we could to that world – in which women were second-class citizens in many ways. We needed it to come through authentically rather than cartoony or over the top because the show was also mixing humor with very serious subjects. I knew going in that it would be a mix of comedy and tragic things, but also with a very female-driven point of view. We wanted women to look like women, not just beauty queens. We wanted men to feel like they were from the 50s and represent that in the right way. Those were the biggest things we talked about.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

How do you accomplish that in terms of look and voice?

It’s subtle. It’s about vocal style and diction. The English language has been trashed over the years, so it’s very different now how someone speaks – in terms of what they say and how they say it – than it used to be in the 50s. During the audition, we had people with a perfect look but not the perfect tone. Others had the tone but looked too contemporary. We’d go back and ask them to do something with their hair, like pull it back, for instance, to try and fit those pieces together. Because some people can get the tone and presentation, and some need a little adjusting.

Shouldn’t casting directors be able to see past hair and presentation?

Yes, we do see it. That’s why we’re asking actors to make that adjustment. It’s not for us. It’s for executives and producers and directors. I’m working on something now where the person said to me, yeah, ‘He’s a good actor, but in that picture, his hair’s not quite right.’ I was like, you’re going to talk about somebody’s hairdo from a resume standpoint, as opposed to the role we’re talking about? Sometimes you have to help those people see the actors in the light that they are looking for. It’s a reality that we deal with all the time.

With Lessons in Chemistry, what were you looking for in terms of look?

Certainly, there was more softness back then. The look of the 1950s was not rail thin and lip injections, you know what I mean? You have to pay attention to those things. Women had curves, and men didn’t have their teeth perfectly capped or their hair filled in.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

But many actors – and in today’s culture – do have lip injections and filled-in hair because we live in a culture where that’s very prevalent right now. It’s also associated with youthfulness – and actors usually want to look as young as long as possible to extend their careers.

At the end of the day, you have to be a human being and do what you want to do as a human. That’s more important than what you do in life for a career to make money. Just be mindful of the fact it is going to inhibit you at times. However, it also depends on the piece you’re working on, and how important it is or isn’t. Not for every character, but if there’s nudity for women (on period projects), you can’t have augmentations because people will be like, ‘That’s not true to the time.’ All those things come into play.

Unfortunately, I think women are subjected to (scrutiny) more. Part of that is the male gaze and that whole mindset. It can be a hard line for actors to do what’s right for their career and what’s right to make themselves look beautiful and youthful and not surgery themselves out of a job.

Let’s talk about how some of the supporting characters were cast.

Stephanie Koenig, who played Fran, I had known her and thought she was a fabulous actress. My associate, Jennifer Cram, who I’ve worked with on and off for 19 years, wrote and directed her own film [Sick Girl], and Stephanie was in it. I produced it, so we knew what Stephanie could do. She’s one of those actresses who got the tone, look, and style all at once. The [showrunners and studio] didn’t even know what she had done. They just were blown away by her audition. We weren’t bound to have a name for every character so we opened the doors and had people read to find the most realistic people that we could set this world.

Aja Naomi King, [who played Harriet Sloan,] was brilliant in her audition. She was such a force. She and Patrick Walker, [who plays Reverend Wakely,] through their performances and auditions, acted their way into elevated writing because the writers started to write towards them, and beefed up that storyline during the process because it wasn’t there initially. The writing was enhanced by their casting.

Kevin Sussman, [who played the cooking show producer Walter Pine], I’ve known for years and always loved his work. I honestly thought on some level, the producers would be drawn to a big name for that role. But Kevin read, they watched his tape, and they said, he’s perfect.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Speaking of bigger names, how did Lewis Pullman come aboard as the Brie’s leading man?

He was coming off Top Gun: Maverick. He had other stuff that he was about to go to, but we made the schedule work. I was thrilled because not only does he read incredibly intelligent, but he has a real sense of humor and can do physically comedic stuff. I was thrilled that we got Lewis and I thought he and Brie had an amazing chemistry.

You were invited to attend the SAG awards for the first time in your career this past February because of Oppenheimer, which you cast. The room must have been filled with actors who have auditioned for you over the years. Any memorable encounters?

The SAG Awards were a lovely experience because I got to see so many actors that I don’t get to see on a regular basis because they’ve all become big stars! I congratulated Margot Robbie, and she said, ‘It’s all because of you.’

What did she mean by that?

I was her first meeting when she came to the United States from Australia. I flipped for her. I happened to be doing the remake of Charlie’s Angels, the television series. I immediately got Margot into that, and she tested. The studio was like, “We don’t really see it.” I’m like, “What?” A week later, she was cast in [the short-lived ABC series] Pan Am, and that was her first big project in the States.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post Legendary Casting Director John Papsidera Talks ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ and More first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Legendary Casting Director John Papsidera Talks ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ and More appeared first on Casting Networks.

On the MAX series The Girls on the Bus, he has been cast as the ghost of legendary gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. It’s the first major streaming role for the actor, whose work on the show is earning kudos, even among a stellar cast that includes Melissa Benoist, Carla Gugino, Griffin Dunne and plenty more.

PJ and I have known each other for more than a quarter century. We bartended together when times were tougher and have seen and read each other’s work over and over again through the years. Seeing his success now is especially gratifying, considering how many times I watched him in less than stellar Off-Off-Off Broadway fare in which he was by far the best part. He was at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in between acting gigs, when we spoke. It was the first time he’d been interviewed in years, and the first time I’d interviewed a good friend, so strap yourself in. We cover a lot of ground.

Do you remember how we met?

You walked into Exile, that bar on West 70th, when I was just starting.

I think it was the winter of 1998. I had made Two Ninas, my first movie, but it hadn’t hit festivals yet.

I remember you gave me a VHS tape of it.

When we started talking, I said, “Are you a good actor?” And you looked at me dead in the eye and said, “Yeah, I’m really good.” I remember thinking, “I believe this guy.” You looked at me and said, “Are you a good writer?” And I said, “I’m awesome.”

(Laughs) That was the beginning of our friendship! That we both owned it. You want to keep some humility, but knowing you can back it up and jam with anyone is the key. I think we saw that in each other. Now, I’m working with people that I’ve admired, Carla Gugino and Jackie Earle Haley, and with them, it’s instant. We’re playing.

In all of the years we’ve been friends, I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this question: how did you get into acting in the first place?

I was a nationally-ranked cross-country runner. I did the National Junior Olympics my senior year of high school, I was kicking ass, getting all the records, blah, blah, blah. I went to the University of Rochester on a scholarship. The coach turned out to be a dick, and after I missed a practice, benched me. So I quit.

Photo by Brette Taylor, courtesy of PJ Sosko.

You really quit?

My parents were pissed. And that happened right as a guy from the Royal Shakespeare Company named Mervyn Willis was taking over the theater program, ultimately to get his green card. I started getting cast because I was the only one who was comfortable on stage. I liked getting in front of people. I was a bit of a class clown, but I didn’t know that this would turn into a career.

One of the things I’ve always admired about you, and I think that this has always been a cornerstone of our friendship, is we’re both lifers. There was never a moment when it occurred to either of us to say, I can’t do this anymore. How did you get through the dark times?

If I didn’t have people say to me, “Hey, you have something special,” I don’t know that I would have. I put the work in. The craft is important to me. That’s always been part of it for us both. We bust our ass. There are a lot of steps along the way where you can get lazy, but for me, voiceovers happened, which was lucky. Many people enter the voiceover world and stop acting, but that allowed me to be patient. I could do the Off-Broadway show that you don’t get paid that much, but I do it because I’m the lead. I could go away for a week to do a developmental thing. It allowed me some freedom to do whatever I wanted. My side job was the job.

While most actors are losing time working on acting while they’re doing their side job, you’re only continuing to hone it?

Right. And since I was constantly working, I didn’t bring any less of what I do with a role to a short film than I do to a feature. It’s really hard work.

That was our long-running joke. I saw you in, like, a couple dozen theatrical things, and it was always, “I hated the show, but you were great in it.” The work was always stellar.

At some point, that starts to become a world that no longer satisfies you as an artist. It was something that would come out of our conversations. I was always trying to make sure that everybody was bringing their A-game because I’m going to bring a level to this. What I learned to do was to start throwing my two cents in because I’m realizing that they’re not matching what I’m bringing.

I was listening to Ethan Hawke, who was on Marc Maron’s podcast, and he said he can’t approach a role now not like a filmmaker, and that’s me, too. I’ve done too much, and seen too many things go wrong. Now, I approach every job as a producer, because I’ve done all those things. This HBO show was the first time for me to work with a huge machine, so it was a new experience about how to collaborate.

Photo courtesy of PJ Sosko.

How did that work, then? You’re used to being a big fish in a small pond, and now it’s the opposite.

I think it’s important for them to allow the actor, when you’re working with a certain talent, to let me surprise you on the creative side, and bring ideas to the table. My point of view is worthy interesting, valid and unique, and that’s something that I don’t take away. I’ve lived a very full life. The good, the bad, the ups, the downs, I’ve gone to the extremes. But I put everything I had into this character while I was there for eight months.

Well, let’s talk about this. Because as you said, this is the first time you’re walking into a real machine. This is big time. You’ve survived in a way that 99% of actors don’t, and now you’re doing it as a character who is a well-known part of the Zeitgeist.

I’ve played real people before. Remember, I played Hemingway …

That’s where you met Marta.

That’s where I met my wife. There’s no way I should’ve been playing him. I’m about 100 pounds too light and six inches too short, but it was about technique. I know how to make myself bigger. I know those things. I learned them from masters along the way because I never stopped learning. In the film, there are lots of tools that you can use from your theater experience if you’re crafty with it and if you realize that you just gotta turn the volume down on it, but filling the frame, sometimes people don’t think about how you fill a stage is the same as the frame.

That’s a terrific answer to a question I didn’t ask.

(Laughs) Sorry. Hunter S. Thompson. HBO.

I was up for a part in the Scorsese movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, which was shooting down here. Then I got an offer for the lead in an indie film from a couple of producers I’d worked with before. I asked the Scorsese people and they hadn’t made a decision, so I took the indie. In the hiatuses, I shot some other stuff, and while I was shooting this other low-budget thing, I got the audition for an HBO show for a recurring character named Hunter S. Thompson.

I had no time to prepare this, but I found one video that I connect with, but because of working on Hemingway and these other real guys, it gave me a shorthand to how he spoke. I did one take of the self-tape and sent it in, and Marta said, “If they don’t hire you, they’re stupid.” Two days later, I’m on hold. One day after, it’s mine.

I got like, a month of prep time, which I never had in New York without my wife and kid, so I did a real deep dive and just started memorizing all these quotes of his, just beautiful stuff that wasn’t well known. I was an advocate for the character and let it fly. I would talk to the directors or Melissa about how there was room for something here or there, but it’s rarefied air.

I wonder how many actors would feel comfortable enough to go in like that.

I came in and did an episode of a popular network drama during all this as well. The season three finale was great. We banged out almost an entire episode in like a day. And then they wrote the character back into this season. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought I was just going to be a robber of the week.

I have to think part of that is because of the choices I made. The availability. The consistency that I brought. They didn’t have to write him back on, but even though I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with the process, I couldn’t stop my creativity from coming out. And now I’ve earned my spot. I know what I’m doing. Each time that I get a chance to work with these geniuses, these people who I’ve watched over the years, I’m humming along with them, and that’s it. To gain more of that experience gives me confidence.

Photo by Colin Key, courtesy of PJ Sosko.

A lot of actors are on this site, and I imagine a good number of them are struggling. As someone who struggled for a long time and is finally getting his shot, what advice would you give to that person reading this?

What are you doing about it? Are you sitting there and complaining? Are you happy with your auditions? If you’re not, have you taken a class recently? You’re always learning. In this career, if you think you know it all, that’s a foolish thought. There’s always someone to learn from, there’s always a moment that you can figure out from somebody else’s work, or share a director’s note that landed on you.

If you’re a lifer, you just have to keep creating. Are you doing the work? Your body is your instrument, and you have to keep making it better. You have to keep adapting. I found collaborators and they helped make me better. Find other artists and create together. Don’t sit at home and say, Why am I not getting anything? Go out and make shit. Shoot something in the park with two people. Find people you can work with and do it. You’re gonna fail sometimes but keep doing it. That’s what I did, and here I am.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Literary, Journalist Icons Earnest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson
• The Art of Silent Expression: Acting Without Words
• Fight Director Benedetto Robinson Gets into the Nitty Gritty of Fight Choreography, What it Means to Be an Actor Combatant

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Icons Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Icons Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson appeared first on Casting Networks.

Most recently, his work as fight director in the ASC’s Romeo and Juliet was a triumph of storytelling, and he was gracious enough to offer his expertise and insight to those interested in combat for film and stage, fight choreography and what it means to be an actor combatant.

What drew you to stage combat? Give us a brief history.

When I was like fifteen, my mother was volunteering at the Children’s Theatre of Maine and they had this partnership with this theatre called Acorn that specialized in Shakespeare and I started taking classes with them because I liked acting a lot. And one of their classes was this rudimentary stage combat class…and I learned a lot about myself, and a lot about acting and I sort of found the things that I enjoyed to do as a physical human being…This was a good way to exercise that I didn’t hate or didn’t hate myself doing. I started there and then I didn’t do it for years.

In my junior year of college, we had to take a stage combat class. Every one of my classmates was like “Ugh, this is so dumb.” I loved it. My teacher happened to be a certified teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. I sort of apprenticed with this guy, his name is Jeff Jones. He still lives and works outside of Raleigh North Carolina. Through him, I got introduced to what it is to do this professionally.

Talk about being an actor combatant. What opportunities has it opened in your career?

Before I answer that directly, I’ll talk a little bit about why it is that I’ve decided to continue doing this. Because we live in a society now [where] a lot of our entertainment comes from the consumption and digestion of dramatized violence. This is something that I learned from a very dear friend of mine, Jake Guinn: it is very important that we take responsibility for the images of violence that we depict.

Because in a society like ours in Western society, which is simultaneously so divorced from and so intricately bound up in violence, in the news and the media, I think there’s a very real danger of treating violence as something that is fine, that is able to be, you know, trivialized. The violence in the real world is anything but that…and so, the work of an actor combatant and fight choreographer is to responsibly present violence in a way that serves the story and serves, perhaps the digestion and deconstruction of what we think of as entertaining violence. And look at the cost and result of that in a way that is palatable because it is through theatre or film, but is nevertheless treating it with the respect that it requires.

Now what that looks like in the day-to-day as a fight choreographer, as an actor who performs fighting is…sometimes you’ll be on a job and everyone in the room is like “well, we don’t need a fight choreographer”…and then it becomes your job to advocate for the presence of one. Because it can be, actually, really dangerous.

One of the worst injuries I’ve ever heard tell of happened in a stage combat class where they were using blunt swords…and these two young actors were doing their choreography very quickly…and their teacher was like “OK you guys need to slow down and continue to be aware of the danger of this” and they were like “Oh, it’s blunt, it’s not going to hurt us”…they were going fast and one actor slipped the tip of his blunt sword into the nostril of the other and pierced his brain.

He’s still alive. But that’s a really horrifying injury….and so, it’s important to remind every room that you’re in that there is a need for someone to run this safely. And when the time comes, if you should be so fortunate to be that person in the room, it becomes your responsibility to facilitate that safety and to do it in a way that remains thrilling and in service to the story and respectful of the stakes of the violence. And that’s a complicated puzzle that I really like to try and solve.

You recently choreographed fights for Romeo and Juliet. How did you use combat to support and support the story?

So, this is a thing that I see a lot…oftentimes I will see a period piece…where the action of the story is halted and space is given for this third party thing that is the sword fight, that has nothing to do with anything else, that is super flashy and fun–and that is done and we go back to the story. And I didn’t want to do that.

It comes down to the title of fight director. I think people often put a lot of emphasis on fighting and not a lot of emphasis on the director. To me, it is just as important for a fight director to read and digest and become intimately acquainted with the script and the story as a whole as it is for the director, or an actor in the piece. The violence–it is irresponsible to present violence that does not have any bearing on the story.

In Romeo and Juliet, a couple of things stuck out to me. There’s this big fight in the beginning…where all these teens fight in the street with swords and nobody gets hurt, and it gets broken up by the royalty, right? You’ve got a bunch of people with lethal weapons not hurting each other…ain’t none of them want to be fighting and hurting each other. There’s got to be an element of posturing in that…So there’s this idea that this fighting is about social status, until something shifts and it becomes something much more serious and sinister.

What are some general misconceptions about stage combat?

The biggest one I run into in the room…is that, and I don’t know why this is, because when you rehearse a play you take a lot of time to do a dance number…a lot of time to stage a scene, but when it comes to fight choreography many directors are like “OK, you have 15 minutes to do this whole extended sword fight.”

The amount of time that you’re given in the room to present something that needs to be really really sharp and well-rehearsed is very very small.

I would encourage folks in the industry who are not fighting professionals to liken the time that it takes to create an involved piece of fight choreography to the time it takes to choreograph a very involved, company-wide dance number.

Where would you like to see the industry grow when it comes to fighting chores?

I would like to see it move in a direction that is less I hate to say self-serving and self-showcasing–I would like to see it move…more into a space where it is cohesive with the storytelling of the piece…. In the theatre, there is a strong risk for it to become about an individual’s ego…The product inevitably suffers….We tell these stories to turn a lens of reflection on the human experience. And if that is not the aim…then what are we doing here?

What’s something you wish you had been told earlier in your combat career?

Everything is always a process…whatever it is you do there’s a point in your education, usually relatively early where you’re like… ‘I know everything about this, I’m so good at this.’ And usually, that’s where you stop.

You have to keep learning. The minute that you stop becoming a student…and start becoming someone who claims authority over it…that is the minute you become unsafe in the room. If you are unable to keep that learner’s spirit you’re going to hurt someone.

If [combat and choreo] is something that you’re interested in as an actor… it has opened many doors for me in my career as an actor. It’s a way into a certain niche of what we do. Because it does require a skillset.

To find out more about Benedetto Robinson, visit his Instagram or check out his website at benedettorobinson.com

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post Fight Director Benedetto Robinson Gets into the Nitty Gritty of Fight Choreography, What it Means to Be an Actor Combatant first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Fight Director Benedetto Robinson Gets into the Nitty Gritty of Fight Choreography, What it Means to Be an Actor Combatant appeared first on Casting Networks.

He uses Casting Networks regularly, and is taking full advantage of our Role Tracker feature, which lets Premium members know exactly where their submissions stand in the process while helping performers gain insights to help shape and refine their submission strategies.

Pollak took time to share submission strategies for Casting Networks while giving us nuggets of wisdom for how he’s been able to sustain a 20-year acting career.

How did you decide to become an actor?

I liked attention, I guess. I know that sounds crazy, but I remember going back to the kindergarten graduation recital. Some kids were the A, the B, the C, the D, and I was the Z. I remember hearing the “Awwww” from the kindergarten graduation audience when I said “Z is for…ZHAT’S ALL!”

It was definitely the beginning of me knowing how to get a laugh, which of course was further cultivated and reinforced with seeing Joan Rivers at the makeup counter with Miss Piggy in The Muppets Take Manhattan. I never stopped talking in class, and was oftentimes in trouble, because I was usually trying to amuse and entertain my classmates rather than paying attention.

How did you first discover Casting Networks?

Oh, gosh, when I first got to LA in 2006. I was living at my parents in the New York City suburbs a couple of years after college, and then moved to California. Of course, I was very lucky. I got a very strong commercial agent and manager very quickly. They were like, “Oh, [sign up with] Casting Networks.” So, I just set it up.

What successes have you found on Casting Networks?

This is a good one. It was over the holidays several years ago, maybe five years ago. I submitted myself for Honda. It was one of the worst auditions I think I’d ever had in my life. They were seeing 17 roles in four different spots. You had to be there at a certain time and they kept you waiting anyway. I walked out of there thinking, “That was awful.” I got the callback and I had it sent to my agent. He said, “If you get this, I’m not taking a commission, because I didn’t submit you.”

I got the job and it was cut into, I think, four spots. Scale-and-a-half because it was English and Spanish. It only aired for maybe a month. The conflict was one 13-week cycle, but that was pretty honorable of him [my agent].

Photo courtesy of Stephen Pollak.

What do you find about Casting Networks to be the most helpful?

It used to be a little dicier to try to change pictures. If you wanted to update, you’d have to go down to 200 South La Brea and bring the disk or the hard copy. I don’t remember exactly when it shifted, but just the ability to upload photos, willy nilly, so to speak, whenever you feel like it or delete some, add some [is great]. Now, of course, you could take a selfie. You can send that and submit that and it’s amazing. It eliminates a lot of the legwork. I love that.

My other favorite feature about Casting Networks is the ability to upload auditions anytime from anywhere. While I still really do miss many aspects of the in-person casting experience, the ease of being able to self-produce at home is incalculably beneficial.

I also love Role Tracker because you really are able to track which pictures might be working for certain roles. I love this new feature where when you submit, it’s gray. If it’s been selected, it’s yellow. Then if you’ve been under consideration, you’re green. You can see, “Oh, that picture isn’t really getting selected. Let me try this one,” and then it gets selected. That doesn’t mean you got the job or even got the audition, but somebody clicked it because it popped. I know that’s fairly new, but I think it’s a great feature.

Do you have any tips or advice for other members on how they can get the most out of Role Tracker?

Experiment. I would also say take one extra step and write down which picture you may have submitted for which role, and then go back at a later date. I’m not saying every day in real time or throughout the day in real time, but just keep tabs on what may or may not be working.

What’s the benefit of submitting yourself to projects when you also have a talent rep submitting you for projects as well?

For me, it makes me feel proactive. I like to feel I’m in control of my own destiny [without] leaving it to someone else to take care of it, when you may be competing within the agency for the slots. Your agent may not have as strong of a relationship with that casting director as you do.

Because I’ve been here so long, I have some casting directors that I can reach out to directly that will send me the appointment without even having my agent submit me. It just creates relationships. I mean, there’s many talent reps, agents and managers, there’s many casting directors and everybody can’t be best friends with everybody and not everybody can get called in for everything.

Whatever you can do as an actor to be proactive, which A: is going to make you feel like you’re doing something for yourself each and every day, sometimes multiple times throughout the day, depending on your category and what’s going on casting-wise. And B: it’s going to fill in the gaps where you might fall through the cracks.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Pollak.

What would you say helps somebody succeed on Casting Networks?

I lifted this from an acting teacher I had once upon a time: “Guys, it’s not brain surgery. It’s just acting. Nobody is gonna die.” So have fun and don’t take anything too seriously. Easier said than done, I know. But it works.

As long as it’s on the up-and-up, say yes. Submit to everything. You decide if you’re willing to do paying or non-paying work and what your goal is. [For example,] if your goal is to get tape to build up your theatrical reel, you can focus more on the non-paying, short films, webisodes, etc. If your focus is to get into the union, you might focus on becoming a stand-in on something where they might give you a voucher.

I would say you want to get on-set as much as possible, because nobody learns how to head a mark, in my opinion, in any other place than being on a set. You’ve got to think about what it is you want and you probably want to be on a set.

Once you have all the materials ready, the headshots or the selfies that look like headshots and you’ve filled out your resume, make sure you have Talent Scout® filled out. Whatever you’re looking for, make sure that’s reflected in Talent Scout because [talent agents and managers] are looking.

Realize that this takes time. I’ve been at this for 20 years. You move out here and you think, “Oh, I’m going to be this and this.” Careers have ebbs and flows. Maybe one day you’re the principal on some big campaign, and then six months later or the following year, you’re trying to get a day of background just to make your insurance or your pension credit. It’s okay.

You’re not more of a success because of one, or less of a success because of another. We’re here. We’re living the dream. Be grateful for every opportunity you have. Create as many opportunities as you can. Make sure the photos are updated. Track your submissions with a little log, diary kind of thing. See what’s working, see what isn’t and submit away.

And never, ever give up your day job/side hustle—even if and when you have a great year financially as an actor! I’ve been a lifeguard and swim instructor forever, and I don’t ever plan on stopping. It affords me a sense of self-reliance, enriches my life as it is a “service” profession and gives me something to do during off/down/slow times.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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The post Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins appeared first on Casting Networks.

Bennett took his marketing expertise to HectiQ and is thriving as the agency’s leader, where he takes a unique approach to business. Bennett took time out of his day to share insights about starting HectiQ, why it’s different, agent advice for actors and more.

What was your first brush with the entertainment industry and what was your “aha” moment that made you want to be part of it?

I started in the advertising world. I was the executive creative director for Sprint and T-Mobile. I was directing and producing Super Bowl commercials and TV commercial content, and I really enjoyed it. I loved that part of the experience working with the actors, coming up with working with the writers, and all the different directors and the pieces. I just fell in love with that part of the creative process.

Subsequently, I was offered a job several years later as the executive producer of the Vancouver Film School. I would sit in on classes with the students, and I was largely responsible for helping bring an even larger brand out to the global audience. And by virtue of that, I got to be immersed in more Hollywood entertainment and the whole movie-making and filmmaking process.

I think it just kept affirming for me that I absolutely loved this and I wanted to be a part of it. And because of all the relationships that I had made in the casting world, it seemed like the right time in 2020 for my wife and I. We had talked about having an agency for a long time. We really loved working with actors and we wanted to do it, but starting your own company, an agency, is daunting. And she just said, “Shut up, quit talking about it. Let’s do it.” And so we did it.

What was the process like when it came to setting up your own agency? Was this all from connections, or was it grinding and letting folks know why they should work for you?

I think it’s a combination of a couple of things. There’s no traditional schooling for an agent. There’s nowhere you can really go and get your degree in this, so the pathway can be a little cloudy for agents. Typically, a lot of people work for an agent and start at the bottom and then eventually break out once they’ve learned the ropes. I came through a very non-traditional plan or a non-traditional pathway, but I was very fortunate.

Tyman Stewart is an icon in the North American agency world. He’s my mentor and someone who has been instrumental in helping me learn things, gave me exposure early on and helped me understand it a little bit better. He’s there for me when I have questions.

Ultimately, if you believe in talent, and you believe in showcasing that talent to the right people, and that they deserve to be on screen, and an audience will really respond to them, then that’s all you really need to know if you’re going to like the job. The other stuff falls into place through trial and error, through asking really great questions of your mentors and being in close proximity to the union who are always a wonderful resource.

How have you seen HectiQ grow from day one to the present?

I took a marketing approach in that we created a brand very early [on], and that was important to me. I understand the power of a brand, and I had done a lot of market research, and most agencies do not have a brand at all. So I made a decision early, “I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to do something different.” I wanted to make sure that our clients knew that when they were at HectiQ, it was different.

In that research, one of the critical pain points we identified with actors across North America was communication. They felt disconnected from their agents. They felt like they could never get time or get access to them. After that honeymoon period with your client goes on and agents are working hard, that relationship can deteriorate.

We created a system where we are talking to our clients constantly. We actually begin a WhatsApp social media thread with every client individually that never closes. Instead of living in a world where you’ve got to see if you can get some time with your agent, you always have it.

We’re always there. We’re a message away. We can jump on a video call, we can jump on an audio call, we can share some messages and talk about some ideas together. It never stops. I’m living in a very millennial-type social media agency model that seems to give my clients that feeling of, “I’m connected to my agent. My agent knows me, I know them, I can reach them and talk to them whenever I want.”

We put together a lot of workshops and a lot of important conversation sessions with our clients at no cost to them. We absorb the cost, we bring in some big casting directors, we bring in directors or subject matter experts on things every single month and we really bring our clients together. And then we’ve got a board of advisors that is unique that has been important to us. I run big decisions by them, and they’re pivotal in us helping to come up with a growth strategy, how to help treat every client uniquely, when to prioritize a type of role over another, what seasons, all that kind of stuff.

What was it like just trying to get the first several actors or your first crew and working with your first casting directors? What was that process?

We made a promise that we were going to set a standard for the caliber of actor that we brought in. We were not just going to build a roster of pretty faces. It was really important to us that anytime a casting director looked at a HectiQ Artists, they went, “Holy smokes, that’s an actor.” Even if they didn’t book, they would think, “I’d see that actor again,” or, “I’ve always got time to look at somebody who’s on the HectiQ artist roster,” because we just kept the bar really, really high.

And I think a lot of agencies, if they’re not sure about somebody, they’ll sign them anyway. And if they don’t book in a year or two, they end up probably releasing them. We don’t do that. We believe that if you are a great actor today, you’re going to be a great actor two years from now, four years from now. And it’s our job to get people as excited about you as we are.

Rachel Kramer was one of my very first clients, and she’s just unbelievable. Every actor that came after Rachel had that same magic for us and that same appeal, and someone that we were just so excited to work with.

What advice would you have for actors looking to sign with an agent that you can share?

Absolutely have a self tape ready. Demos are not nearly as interesting as a recent self tape. We want to see you in your element. We want to see the actor raw in the scene, in the moment, with just a reader. Demo tapes have distractions. There are other scenes and other actors around them. Maybe it looks cool if they were on a show or some kind of an indie film, but truly, the actors work in the year 2024, it’s happening on self tape. Right? That’s the name of the game. So we want to see that, have that ready to go, have a great headshot or two ready to go that is current.

Do not send large files that we have to download. Make it easy for the agents. Send us an unlisted YouTube link so I can click it wherever I am. If I’m sitting in traffic and in the backseat of my Uber, I can click on it, and I can watch it right then and there. I don’t have to open up my laptop and try to download a giant two-gigabyte file. Make it easy for the agent.

Be fearless, believe in yourself. Tell me your dreams and your goals as an actor. When I see an actor tell me, “I [want to] win an Oscar. I want to be a series lead in the next five years and I can do this.” When I see an actor that’s got confidence in himself, I love it. I think it’s really, really important.

And don’t forget to include your phone number on your resume. Too many actors don’t do that, and they don’t have an Instagram [where they’re] properly, easily found. I once tried to find an actor—who I still never found—[he] was number one on my list. I cannot reach this actor. [He’s] not checking [his] email and I have no phone number. There’s no Instagram, it’s obviously going to spam or something and I’m like, “I want to sign you. I think you’re an amazing actor.” It’s been like six months and this guy has no idea we want him.

HectiQ is based in Vancouver. What’s your favorite part of the city?

Where else in the world can you truly—in the same day—snowboard and surf? It’s just an amazing town. We’ve got the beautiful mountains. We’ve got the gorgeous West Coast. I’ve lived here more than half of my life, so it is home to me.

When it’s at its best in the winter, there’s no better city. When it’s at its best in the summer, there is no better city. You’ve just got to put up with all the rain in between. But otherwise, it’s just a beautiful place.

And the industry is thriving here. There’s so much production, there’s so much happening from a Hollywood and a production perspective that it’s just really exciting. All the big U.S. companies come up here. They call it Hollywood North for a reason.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post How Christopher Ian Bennett Took a Marketing-Driven Approach to Start HectiQ Artists Talent Management first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post How Christopher Ian Bennett Took a Marketing-Driven Approach to Start HectiQ Artists Talent Management appeared first on Casting Networks.

Ramirez shared with us her journey to reaching mega-influencer status, alongside her brother Jentzen Ramirez. She named Selena Gomez as a performer who’s inspired her along the way, as well as her filmmaker husband Stephen Fritschle, who runs her YouTube channel.

You can catch all these insights and more in this on-camera installment of Meet the Creator.

—

This video interview has been edited and condensed.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post Actor Liana Ramirez Shares How COVID, Her Brother and Selena Gomez Inspired Her Journey to Become an Influencer first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Actor Liana Ramirez Shares How COVID, Her Brother and Selena Gomez Inspired Her Journey to Become an Influencer appeared first on Casting Networks.

From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, actors at the 39th Annual Artios Awards had a lot to say when it came to their appreciation for casting. You can catch all our red carpet interviews with them below.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, Actors Share Appreciation for Casting on the Artios Red Carpet first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, Actors Share Appreciation for Casting on the Artios Red Carpet appeared first on Casting Networks.

The success they have had is undeniable, having cast films like You Hurt My Feelings, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Eileen and Shortcomings, just to name a few, as well as TV shows like The Get Down, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and the seminal The Americans. They spoke to us from their home base in New York City.

How did you both get into casting?

Rori Bergman: I studied directing in college and knew I wanted to do something in the industry. When I got out of school, I did a bunch of internships, trying to find my way. I was very lucky and just blindly applied to an internship with Bowling/Miscia Casting. I interned there for about six months, but almost immediately, I was like, “Oh, I think this is it.”

It was creative and it had all of the elements that I loved about being a director because I was working with the actors, breaking down the script and working with all these other departments, but it also had a left-brain admin element to it. They helped me get a job with Laura Rosenthal. I spent five years there and then just bounced around for another 10 years until I went out on my own.

Karlee Fomalont: I studied acting at NYU, and kind of similarly, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do that could take all my love of performing and channel it into something a bit more structured. I found amazing mentors who helped show me that casting was a career in the first place and that I would fit somewhere inside of it. It was kind of a beautiful accident shepherded by many amazing people.

That seems to come up a lot in casting origin stories. Happy accidents and great mentors, because generally speaking, casting is not taught at film school.

RB: There are a few programs in the country now. I think Syracuse has a casting concentration and Savannah College of Art and Design, but it’s very unusual. But Karlee, you were doing unofficial casting without realizing it in film school.

KF: A lot of my friends were in the film department and I was in the acting department. Tisch has a horrible crossover between the departments, and all of my filmmaker friends would come to me and say, “Karlee, who should I put in my thesis film? Who should I work with on this class project that I have?” So it was really me and one other person who’s now a casting director as well, Erica Hart. Between the two of us, we connected all these people. We both kind of made it up as we went.

Sort of on-the-job training without realizing you were actually on the job.

KF: Correct. I think one of the most interesting things about this moment we’re in right now, with the creation of the Casting Oscar, is it’s going to immediately add visibility to our craft. Maybe it will affect young kids watching the Oscars who didn’t realize that this was a job that they could have.

You both talk about having mentors who were indispensable to your career development. Do you in turn continue the unofficial tradition?

RB: I hope so. I think the best thing that you can do is foster an environment in your office where you’re giving people room to build their skills and learn and grow so that they either grow with you or fly the nest and go do their own thing. That’s what people did for us.

KF: A lot of the mentorship that happens is through osmosis. The entire reason I’m able to now function at the level that I’m at is because I’ve watched Rori do it for nine years.

I imagine the other side of that is knowing what doesn’t work for you.

RB: There’s that too. I’ve worked for 75% of the casting directors in New York at one point or another, even if it was just for a few days, and certainly you pick and choose. As you’re in different offices and say, “Oh, I really like the way they manage that and this person navigates difficult producers really well and this person is so artistically in tune with their director in this specific way,” or, “I love the way they give a note to an actor.”

You grab all these different things, including sometimes saying, “Okay, well that is not the way I would probably have thought to handle that.” Really, though, I think the casting community here in New York is just exceptionally generous with their time, not just with actors, but with the way they interact with the rest of the casting community.

People against whom you will soon be competing for an Oscar.

KF: I think the special thing about our community is that it’s not competitive in that way. We will be overjoyed for whoever we see up there. The idea of doing a campaign circuit amongst our community, everyone’s gonna have the greatest time and then whoever wins, everyone will celebrate that person. It’s going to be so genuine because it’s such a win for all of us.

RB: I feel the same way. Casting is such a behind-the-scenes part of the industry, that directors and producers end up being the face of the decision-making process. Then, obviously, the actors are the face of those decisions. It often feels like our work is overlooked.

I don’t think most of us mind that, since we chose casting because we don’t want to be at the forefront, but I think the recognition of it is going to be really valuable in terms of of giving it the respect and the value that it deserves, and hopefully further some of those conversations about acknowledging casting as the important part of the process that it is.

KF: It takes extensive work to make a lot of these things happen. So hopefully rewarding the people for doing that is going to show that. I think people are going to be really interested in learning about it and hearing about it, and how much depth it adds to the process. I’m excited for that.

What piece of advice or wisdom would you give to an actor coming in to audition for you?

RB: I always just say be prepared. Do whatever homework you can before you come into the room. I think educating yourself on the projects that either that director works on or that writer has written or the kind of projects the casting director tends to work on and get a sense of the tone of the world helps you make decisions and help fill out the world that we are building.

KF: All of that, and then I will also say, coming in with the tone and the context of the box you’re playing in. If you give yourself the emotional play space, and then the physical play space, it really lifts things off a page. At the Oscars, Da’Vine Joy Randolph made me cry because it was all about her just always being herself and having a strong point of view. That’s all we’re asking. We want you to come in fully as yourself doing your version of something, then let that filter through the prism of whatever environment you’ve built for yourself.

RB: Don’t spend so much time trying to fit yourself into the box that you think we want you in. You lose sight of everything that makes you you, and that’s ultimately what elevates something from a character on the page into something three-dimensional.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post Casting Directors Rori Bergman and Karlee Fomalont Discuss the Evolution of the Casting Industry first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Casting Directors Rori Bergman and Karlee Fomalont Discuss the Evolution of the Casting Industry appeared first on Casting Networks.