Casting Brief Q12: Any specific scene that the director wants to audition the characters?

For the entire list of questions go back to

Casting Brief

Question 12: Any specific scene that the director wants to test the characters?

This is as obvious as it gets. Does the director have any specific scene/s that he wants the person to act out in the audition? Something that he thinks would bring out the character, or a scene which is most important towards the film. 

There are times when more than one scene gets auditioned but that usually happens on callbacks. This of course is true only in the case of films. 

The reason for asking this question could also be at times most directors will not be willing to share a key scene with too many people as that could potentially jeopardise the project. To avoid this a dummy scene could be created or even a scene from an existing movie to test the actor's range of emotions.

In advertising, the actor is required to enact the entire part and sometimes in different tones.

A few examples of auditions:

Joaquin Phoenix Audition test footage 'Joker' Behind The Scenes

Sometimes the camera is kept running beyond the scene to test the chemistry of actors.

Outlander - Original Chemistry Test: Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) & Caitriona Balife (Claire)

It's not uncommon to do the auditions in mood settings, especially in callbacks. If there are more than one character in the scene then either one of the casting assistant or another actor is called to say the other lines. Most of the time the other dialogues are off-camera but sometimes they are used in the scene.

AUDITION TAPE: Robert Downey Jr. audition for Iron Man

TIP: As an actor look for audition videos of the characters that have done very well in films and you will see what was brought to the table right from the beginning or the improvement that came in the shoot.

You can also look for practice scripts to work on in your free time.

For answers to the previous question go back to
Casting Brief Q11: Reference of role

Read on for the next question
Question 13: Any specific props required for the audition?

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

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Casting Brief Q11: Reference of Role

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

Question 11: Is there any reference for the role of some previous character/actor?

This is a not so obvious question and not often does this one have a particular answer, a lot of directors would like their character to stand out by themselves and hope that the actor can bring about something to the role that would make the character stand out. However there are times when a director wants the actor to reference a particular actor or character from past work, it could just be a certain nuance from that character - the way that character walked or talked or if that character had a particular tic that made the role stand out. Also, it need not be a reference from a previous film, the role could be inspired by an actual human being e.g -  a politician,  a school teacher, a sports personality, a local person, anyone for that matter.

TIP: Actors in feature films especially should add a very subtle tic to their role that makes them stand out. It could be like a facial expression like Heath Ledger as the Joker, watch in the montage below how he uses a lick lip in almost every scene (he had a lot more than just lip lick in that role)

Sometimes it's inbuilt into the character like "My name is Bond..."

Or watch Shia LaBeouf, the way he says "No no no... in multiple movies

I personally prefer it when the actor keeps the tic to just one character but lots of times these are just personality traits to the actor himself.

To sum it up, a director might want the actor to reference a character for a particular style or tic that could make the character stand out a lot more than normal.




For answers to the previous question go back to
Casting Brief Q10: Anything in the role, that might require a warning.

Read on for the next question
Question 12: Any specific scene that the director wants to audition the characters on?

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

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Filmmakers Talk 15 - Casting Director

Let's see how many of you actually get this, leave a note in the comments if you do get it..

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#14 Director at PPM

FT#13 Agency Comments

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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Casting Brief Q10: Any thing in the role, that might require a warning.

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

Question 10: Anything in the role, to be done, that might require a warning.

This is a very simple question, should be known when the script is read already, but if something is left to be written or there is doubt then this question should be asked.  The question would be will the individual role involve anything like Kissing / Nudity / Semi Nudity / Stunts / or some physical altercations like going completely bald in some scene etc. 

There are also simpler warnings which the casting director also needs to check, like the role may involve playing of an instrument or as simple as driving a car, or riding a bike, swimming, dancing, singing, etc.. you do not know how many actors do not know how to do some of these things or they may just want to learn how to do some of these things so that it looks a lot more genuine when they play the role.

Again this knowledge helps in the actor deciding if they want to be part of this or not or if they need some clarification as to how far will a certain shot go etc. Like in cases where the look of the actor would change would be needed to know by people who are already working on other projects since a change in look would affect the continuity in the other places

For the answer to the previous question see
Casting Brief Q9 - Individual Character Brief

Read on for the next question
Question 11: Reference of role

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

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