I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to casting, and it really is casting the best person for the role.
A very high bar has been set with Robert Downey in 'Iron Man.' That idea was, find the best actor for the part, regardless of whether they've been in a movie like this before.
A lot of the time with jobs that I've booked, immediately I'll read the breakdown, or I'll read the script, and I'm like, 'Oh I'd love to do this, but I'm completely wrong for it,' and they tend to be the jobs that I book.
As long as they keep offering me some good parts and so forth - there are some parts out there that fit me pretty well - I'll keep going for a while.
Sometimes casting falls in place easily and sometimes it takes a while. Fifty per cent of my job is done when I get the right actors.
Finally, 'Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu' happened. The director had doubts if a city-bred, fair-looking boy would fit the role of a village kabbadi player.
I had given thought to acting, but I never really had a good enough opportunity or a character who made sense and paralleled my life a little bit. I feel like I'm one of the poster boys for a bad guy in a movie. I feel like I'm a good person to play a bad guy in a movie. I can say that.
I was a hard fit at a young age. I didn't make sense as an ingenue or a leading love-interest lady.
Sometimes it's all about the casting.
It's hard to really get that excited about movies. Think about it like this: how many good comedy movies come out a year? Maybe one or two? And then, in those movies, what are the chances that there's a character that I'm the best fit to play? It's really small!
Why do I use the same actors in different movies? One of the things I really stress in casting is I need to find someone who is suitable for the role in the movie. That's always the main reason.
One of the things I learned very early on is you need to cast the kids for the characters you want them to play. They need to be who they are, right? If you want a loud, boisterous kid character, you need to find that kid.
One has to be honest to the story and choose actors accordingly.
We've always had a simple philosophy in casting. We don't care if somebody's a big star or a little star. We just want the best possible actor for the part.
Oftentimes, actors don't have the luxury of picking their part. You go from one project to the next, and you hope that you find one that fits you and that you're suited for, and then they see that you're fit for it.
I'll write a character with a certain actor in mind, but then once I start casting, I have to forget about who I pictured.
Roles should choose an actor and not vice versa.
Casting is very, very important.
Every actor is great in his own right but certain actors suit certain roles.
A director should cast a person who fits into their script.
It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much wider audience if given like a play with lots of rehearsals and wonderful singers that fit the role.
This is not the 19th century, where actors are expected to play completely opposite roles. We're not typecast, but we're brought in because somebody thinks that it's a good fit, so you make it a better fit.
To see talented people in roles that others might not see them in, to see how they might fit in the puzzle of the cast, has always been something that I've been good at. I think that if you look at the successes of my films and start to peel them back, there's usually a really smart casting decision that has gone into that success.
When you cast somebody, you write to their strengths.
I have always been pretty flexible. I could always jump and do all kinds of dangerous movements. In opera, I like to do it because it's fun, as long as it fits the role.
