Opinion: What Casting Really Needs
"Casting directors need actors who do not look like actors." - Major CD In my opinion, there are far too many aspiring actors—typically college graduates with a theatre degree—who show up in Los Angeles presenting as average, well-adjusted kids who grew up in a "Norman Rockwell" home. This opinion is largely shared by most competent talent agents and managers in the Los Angeles and New York markets. I've met actresses from the UK who spent six or more years in London and faced similar "feedback." Including vocational training programs (two-year Meisner conservatories, etc.), it's not overstating the facts to say there are 1,000 acting schools in the United States. If even one male and one female student from each school moved to Los Angeles (or New York) each year, that's 2,000 new faces arriving annually with the same look, the same lack of credits, and the same ill-advised notions about how casting works. To be sure, there are jobs for entry-...
