When you audition a child, are you also auditioning the parents?
GERALYN FLOOD, Geralyn Flood Casting, Los Angeles; 'Big Time Rush,' 'Good Luck Charlie,' 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past'
That's a tough question to answer. I think the quick answer is no—and yes.
When I bring a child in for an audition, it's all about the work that they do in the room with me. Are they actively listening while they're doing the scene? Do they take direction well? Are they natural and not locked into making the same gestures each time they say a specific line? And, at the root of all of this, do they actually want to be an actor? I try, in the brief time I have a child in the room, to find out a little about them and their personality and how or why they got into acting. Finding out who they are helps me see if they're right for the role and if they understand what's going on in the scene.
That being said, somewhere I do note what the parents are like before and after the audition. The parents who are reading a book or knitting or doing their own work while their child is in the room are the ones, to me, who seem to understand that this is about their child doing something they love and that it's not about them. The parents who practice the lines repeatedly with their children up until the moment they're going into the room, or who start grilling them about the audition the minute they walk out, do register with me. But at the end of the day, it's the actor who had the strongest read that books the job.
Now, if a young actor books a role and I hear stories from set that the parent was demanding and potentially slowed down production because of their behavior, it does make me think twice before I would bring that actor in again.
The best advice I can give a parent is to treat acting just like all the other afterschool activities your child may have. They should come prepared and ready, just like they would for their piano or guitar lesson or recital, and they should be doing it because they get pleasure from performing.
LISA HAMIL, Hamil Casting, Los Angeles; 'Right Next Door,' 'Oka Amerikee,' 'Murder in the Dark,' 'Junkyard Dog'
The short answer is "Absolutely." The long answer is more complicated. Parents can't help a child actor get a job, but they can lose the job for the child. When it comes to narrowing down the final choices on a role, the producers will invariably choose the children with the easiest parents to work with. Making a film or television project is hard enough. You want to stack the deck with friendly, professional, and reliable people who are not difficult to spend long hours with.
My job as a casting director is to find the best actor for the role. Period. The producer's role, which I also sometimes take on, is to make sure everything on the set runs smoothly. That starts with hiring the right crew, which a child's parent or guardian is considered to be an unpaid member of.
The younger the child, the more important the parent is. I am currently casting the independent feature "Right Next Door," where the lead characters are all between the ages of 6 and 18. For the 6-year-old role, we're bringing in children between the ages of 5 and 8. We allow their parents to join them in the audition room.
The first thing I ask parents is, "Have you read the script?" The answer to this question should always be yes, even if they just flipped through it. This shows me two important things: They are invested in both their child's career and their child's general welfare. Parents who are not familiar with the material should not bring their children to an audition.
The second thing I observe is if the children treat their parents respectfully. Do they listen to them? If not, it raises a red flag. If the kids are talking back to their parents in a waiting room, how will these young actors behave on a set, where the stress level is a hundred times greater?
Last but most important, I ask the child at the end of their read, "Do you like acting?" In truth, I probably already know. I can tell which children want to be there and which do not within the first few minutes. The children will always say yes, but if they glance at their parents for unspoken approval first, the true answer is probably no.
With teenage actors, parents play less of a role. Young adults everywhere work. Other than artistically, the major difference between working a more traditional afterschool job and working on a set is that their guardian joins them. Once the parents have approved the material and feel comfortable that their child is safe, they stay mostly in the background.
In our business, more than most, time actually is money. And no matter the budget level of a project, it is never a high enough amount. I'm sure even James Cameron felt he didn't have enough to make "Avatar." Having any difficulty on the set, even if it's someone showing up 15 minutes late, costs the production financially, which is why, when it comes to narrowing down the top choices, more likely than not, the genial and responsible parent will be a deciding factor.
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