‘Everyone thinks they could do it – but they don’t understand how good we have to be’: the hidden art of the casting director

2026-03-12 - 15:53

Often forgotten heroes of film, casting directors will be honoured at the Oscars for the first time. Why has it taken so long? ‘It’s unbelievable how much information we hold about actors,” says Kelly Valentine Hendry. “We have our ears to the ground. We know about bad behaviour. We know about things that actors require in order to give a better performance ...” Casting directors, she says, “monitor all that, all the time, from the shadows”. Amid the A-list glitz of this weekend’s Oscars, casting directors will step from the shadows into the spotlight as the Academy Awards’ inaugural casting prize is presented. These quietly pivotal yet hitherto almost invisible figures are experts in spotting and allocating talent, and navigating actors’ and directors’ sometimes challenging temperaments. Continue reading...