Killing Credibility with Casting

Sometimes it's the screenwriter's fault, but usually not. Let's face it, as a filmmaker/ producer/ director, you have the final word on casting choices made for your film. This used to be a no-brainer kind of job since all women were young and pretty and all men were dashing and attractive by Old Hollywood standards. Age only mattered if the part called for a woman and it was once perfectly okay to restrict all female roles to 18-30 age group. By okay, I mean "accepted practice."
     I've said it before and will probably say it a million times: filmmakers need to take their casting choices more seriously with today's sophisticated audiences. Women now buy as many, if not more tickets than men do. More women make household buying decisions than men, buy a ration of 2:1. Your market is no longer Ward Cleaver, folks.
     If you want to be taken seriously as a filmmaker, you need to demonstrate that you can make good choices casting. Here are some of the more recent casting missteps that have left audiences fuming and actors befuddled:

• Casting men over 50 with 20-something romantic interests. (This is male fantasy, not reality.)
• For that matter: any decade+ age gaps between the male & female romantic leads.
• Casting 20-somethings as high schoolers. Audiences aren't buying it anymore.
• Casting white people as minorities. We can see the make-up and don't buy the CGI, folks.
• Casting minorities as the wrong nationality. (Asians are NOT Native Americans. Not all Asians are Chinese or Japanese. Native Americans are not Hispanics. Native Americans are not Indians or Arabic. Need I go on?)
• One of my favorites: impossible parent castings. My daughter was recently called to audition for a film that was looking for a female child 11-16 and the mother - yes, biological - to be 21-25. Wait, what? Um, idiots: You do realize that mom would have been at MOST 10 years old when giving birth in that case, right? No one is going to buy that and I pulled my kid from the audition because the filmmaker obviously had a screw loose.
• Casting women 40-50 only in grandparent and elderly roles. Really?
• Everyone in the cast is blond or red-headed. I mean, everyone.
• All unlikable characters are minorities. Racist much?
• All dumb people are blond <> All blond people are dumb.
• All smart people are Asian.
• All rich people are white & speak with a British or "Harvard" accent. (Ever met Bill Gates?)
• All Asian people are martial arts experts.
• All gay men are flamboyant or pansies.
• Lesbians all look like men or supermodels.
• Police & military all look like body builders or NFL linebackers. (Tip: Navy SEALS are usually under 6' tall. Same with AirForce pilots.)
• Family members who share no visible genetic similarities. (I.e. if both parents have brown hair and brown eyes, kids probably should, too.)
• The funny/obnoxious fat person.
• The giant-boobed rocket scientist.
• The forced interracial couple.

In case this is confusing for you, here are some basic, simple rules to follow when casting in 2016:

• Your top priorities should be acting ability and character fit. Always screen test.
• Get the race/nationality right, or at least as close as humanly possible if it matters to the character.
• Avoid cliché stereotypes. (Dumb blonds, smart Asians, mean brunettes, black/Hispanic villains.)
• Use actors who are ACTUALLY the right age for the character. (Hint: most women CAN'T give birth before they're 12-15 years old, most are over 20 when they have their first child.) If the screenplay calls for a middle-aged woman, cast someone OVER 35. Duh.
• Reflect the real world.
• Most of your cast should be average looking, not twigs & supermodels.
• Pay attention to chemistry. Young, beautiful women aren't REALLY attracted to older, ugly men. Everyone outside of Hollywood seems to grasp this concept - so should you.
• If you must cast that talentless family member or person you hope to sleep with later, put them in a crowd of extras, PLEASE.

Biting the Hand

Ah, film students. Like any college kid - ahem - "young adult," they know it all. They've spent a semester or two under the skillful tutelage of a sage-but-untenured professor and now are ready to show the world they're in charge.
     Snark is often the first skill we'll see leveraged by these lovely young up-and-coming film moguls. First, they will troll social media and fire off shots at everyone who expresses anything to which they do not agree with sniper-like accuracy. Seriously, didn't you know that those 524 Twitter followers, 387 of which are spam accounts, and that project film they shot in six weeks qualify them as experts? Second, they will blog, expounding at length why the producer with thirty years of experience working with big Hollywood studios is completely clueless when it comes to modern filmmaking. Oh, and those well-known but sketchily documented industry standards mean nothing since our young upstart has plans to prove them irrelevant.
     Tsk-tsk, sweet babies, did no one tell you in your six months of collegiate enlightenment that the use of snark is a privilege earned through vast experience and a proven track record of success? Unless you need only be mentioned by one name for the A-listers to jump onto your latest project, you should probably leave the snark buried in the bottom of your sock drawer.
     I'll probably never fully understand why the current generation thinks being cocky and obnoxious will get them anywhere. Although I guess one could say they're right: it will get you to the exit door faster than a pair of well-greased roller skates and a turbo jet strapped to your butt. Somewhere along the line most of the people currently under the age of thirty got brainwashed into thinking that being disrespectful will gain them respect. (I suspect this has a lot to do with the continued over-indulgence and current cultural wave of demanding everyone bend to children's every whim, but who am I to say?) Here's a fine example for you:
     I recently forwarded a tweet recommending an article describing how one well-experienced filmmaker applied the first 10-minute rule to his own personal viewing of films released in the past year. (If you're not familiar, this rule is commonly applied by readers in evaluating new screenplays, but is also commonly used in evaluating film festival submissions as well.) "Get an attention span," another user replied, as if this 10-minute thing was my idea. (Should I have been flattered that he thought it was?) He doesn't know me. He obviously doesn't know the industry well enough to realize that understanding this little rule will be critical to his future success. I hovered over his name to find the title "Film Student." Ah. I was no longer surprised. Film school may teach you processes and technique but only experience or a really well-aged mentor will enlighten you to the realities of the film industry. This young man probably thought that his snarky response would catch my attention and convince me to change my stance.
     Sadly, what really ends up happening in these situations is that those of us who have tread the long hard road before the cocky film student (or recent grad) smile quietly and nod our heads while the youngster in front of us lambasts everything we learned and accomplished before him. We listen politely as he insults the rules we all must play by and the methodology we all know works, having already tried and proven lacking many other ways of getting things done. If he shows promise, we MIGHT feel compelled to take him aside and guide him to try a different approach when speaking to people he may not know well but who likely can make or break his film career before it has even started. Given the number of hateful know-it-all twenty-somethings out there today, that's rarely going to happen. Instead, the group of older, more experienced filmmakers will shake their heads after he walks away and make a mental note to avoid hiring his obnoxious ass in the future.
     So, listen up film school kid! If you want to make it in film, the first thing you need to accept is that you don't know jack, and won't for many more years. Whether you like it or not, there are people out there who have forgotten more about making films than you will ever learn, no matter how pioneering your professors proclaim you to be. Your best bet is to learn to replace that cocky attitude with a whole lot of humility, a healthy dose of respect and just the right amount of confidence. You will get much further by listening and asking questions than by flatly rejecting the advice of your predecessors. Watch what you post, tweet, pin or whatever. When your name appears on a producer's desk for a critical position on a project, rest assured that producer will search the Twitter-verse and all related digital entities before he or she waists their limited budget on you. That blogger you slammed on Facebook just might turn out to be the producer's favorite niece.
     Now, zip it and go share this advice with your friends before they accidentally bite the hands that may soon be feeding them, too.

The Big Studio Casting Catch

Recently headlines have told the sad story of the on-going culture of discrimination in Hollywood. Idris Elba is too "street" to play Bond. Maggie Gyllenhaal, at 37, is too old to play the love interest of a man old enough to have fathered her. Anne Hathaway at 32 is losing roles for characters written as older than her to women in their twenties. The still insanely gorgeous Salma Hayek feels she has been written off by Hollywood because she's nearing 50. Melissa McCarthy faces constant criticism over her weight.
     While there is little doubt these stars have experienced the negative side of a middle-aged-white-male-friendly fickle Hollywood machine, let's check the stats for the most visible studio films of 2015 to see just how pervasive the problem is today (with love interests highlighted in multi-lead casts):

• Jurassic World: Chris Pratt (36), Bryce Dallas Howard (34)
• Avengers, Age of Ultron: Robert Downey, Jr. (50), Chris Hemsworth (32), Mark Ruffalo (48), Chris Evans (34), Scarlett Johansson (31), Jeremy Renner (44), Linda Cardellini (40)
• Straight Outta Compton: O'Shea Jackson, Jr. (24)
• Furious 7: Vin Diesel (48), Paul Walker (41), ...Michelle Rodriguez (37)
• Kingsman, The Secret Service: Colin Firth (55), Taron Egerton (26)
• Mad Max, Fury Road: Charlize Theron (40), Tom Hardy (38)
• Ant-Man: Paul Rudd (46), Evangeline Lilly (36)
• Cinderella: Lily James (26), Richard Madden (29)
• Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation: Tom Cruise (53)
• Trainwreck: Amy Schumer (34), Bill Hader (37)
• Spy: Melissa McCarthy (45), Jude Law (43), Jason Statham (48)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: Henry Cavill (32), Armie Hammer (29), Alicia Vikander (27), Elizabeth Debicki (25)
• Pitch Perfect 2: Anna Kendrick (30), Rebel Wilson (35)
• Fifty Shades of Grey: Dakota Johnson (25), Jamie Dornan (32)
• Terminator Genisys: Emilia Clark (29), Jai Courtney (29), Arnold Schwarzenegger (68)
• McFarland, USA: Kevin Costner (65), Maria Bello (48)
• Magic Mike XXL: Channing Tatum (35)
• The Longest Ride: Scott Eastwood (34), Britt Robertson (25)
• Insurgent: Shailene Woodley (24), Ansel Elgort (21), Theo James (31)
• Ricki and the Flash: Meryl Streep (66), Kevin Kline (68)
• Fantastic Four: Miles Teller (28), Michael B Jordan (28), Kate Mara (32), Jamie Bell (34)
• Hitman, Agent 47: Rupert Friend (34), Hannah Ware (32)
• No Escape: Lake Bell (36), Owen Wilson (47), Pierce Brosnan (62)

 

     This chart shows that, although there does appear to be some opportunity for women over 32, the big studios still generally cast older male leads with younger females, shying away from similarly-aged female leads or love interests. If you're an actress who's hit her 35th birthday, the outlook isn't so great when it comes to the big-budget Hollywood movie machines.

     Oddly enough, recent studies showed that women in the 30-45 age range have more disposable income and are more likely to head to the theaters if there's something there to draw their attention. Just look at the box office success of female-friendly films like "Cinderella" ($201.1M), "Pitch Perfect 2" ($183.8M), "Fifty Shades of Grey" ($166.1M), "Spy!" ($110.4M), and "Trainwreck" ($105.7M), all currently in the top 20 gross list for 2015. As early as 2011, movie ticket sales were split 50/50 between male and female buyers, with a trend toward females purchasing more often than males. More recent numbers show a trend toward 55% of ticket buyers being female, and the this chart proves that movies featuring female leads are pulling those audiences in where they're available. (Note the slightly higher per/screen average for movies with female leads than those with males.)

     Logic would dictate that the big studios should be scrambling to produce fare that appeals to the increasing 30-45 female movie consumer base. Instead, more than half of the major studio releases in 2015 have been action films, though they have clearly attempted to win female viewers by casting stronger female lead roles and expanding female roles overall. On the flip side, most of the ensemble casts in the big studio films were still mainly male, typically out-numbering female lead roles 2 to 1.

    So what to do about the lack of quality roles for all of the outstanding actresses out there over 32? The fix lies in the hands of low budget studios and independent filmmakers. Releases like 2014's "Cake" (starring Jennifer Aniston) and "Still Alice" (Julianne Moore) fared well with female audiences. "Alice" raked in $18.6M on a budget of $4.1M and both films earning a bevy of nominations and awards, including a Best Actress Oscar for Julianne Moore.
     Now, what about the whole Idris Elba/Bond fiasco? Can black leads pull the box office draw their white peers do? Hmmm...I think the $141M over 3 weeks speaks volumes. Smart filmmakers should pay attention, even if the big studios decide to cling to their 1950's-era casting practices.