Let's put it this way, when I was casting, I cast Viggo first and then found someone who could play his wife, rather than the other way around. So for me he's still the lead character.
There are so few movies that still cast on chemistry. Now it's often, like, this person's movies make this amount of money, and this person's movie makes that amount of money, so let's put them together.
It's a terrible mistake when it gets to be a contest of egos. The actor is always going to win. If a director gets into a control situation and is overbearing, it's deadly.
I was the only Christian on the cast, but that was cool because we all respected each others talent and mostly they respected me a lot even though I was the only Christian.
I also think the more experienced you get as an actor, you start to hear the conversations about why people get cast and not cast, sometimes it's so arbitrary. They decided the moment you walked in the door. And there's nothing you could have done to sway them, even if you'd the greatest performance of all time.
I think that certain directors are better at choosing actors that match well with each other. And I have feelings about actors and who I think I'd work well with better moreso than others.
If they're going to cast one person and not another, it's not rejection of your talent, it's just that they want one person and not someone else. As an actor, unfortunately, it's not your job to cast the movie.
I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director.
Casting is really a black art. It's a huge part of directing and it's the most invisible. It's one that people don't really think about or talk about. But you can really destroy your movie by casting it badly before you've shot a foot of film. And yet there are no guidebooks for it, there's no rule book to tell you how to do it. It's all your own experience and your own sensibility and your own intuition.
Why does the worth of an actress have to be determined by her co-stars?
