Intimacy in Casting Calls
Boundaries out of the way, let’s begin by looking at the casting process which, in most cases, starts by checking out the casting calls. These, of course, can be found online or perhaps your agent sends them over.
Now suppose that you see a job where it says, full frontal nudity required.
Ask yourself this: Would you apply for that job? Would you be happy standing there completely naked while the film crew go about lighting and shooting you?
If this isn’t a problem for you then apply for the job. Or, if you are not happy doing this, then ignore the job.
As long as it’s your decision then this is fine and don’t let anyone – partner, agent, manager – try to persuade you to do something you don’t want to.
It’s pretty simple. But, by the same token, don’t try to impose your personal views on anyone else. A director we know sent out a casting which specified that nudity was required. She got back a bunch of applications including two which basically said:
“I want to apply for this role but am not willing to go nude.”
Sorry, why did you apply in the first place? The actors here wasted their time when they applied and they wasted the director’s time as well.
So remember that. When you see a casting call which asks for something you are not happy giving, just ignore it and move on and don’t try to persuade the director or casting agent that they need to change their needs.
Vagueness in casting calls
In a perfect world the casting calls you see will explain exactly what is expected of you. You might, for example, see a casting notice which tells you explicitly that you need to show your “bare bottom” or “side breast” or be “full frontal” or whatever is required.
In other words, professional castings are very up front about what they are looking for and they do not spring it on the actor when it’s too late.
But we don’t live in a perfect world and you will often see castings which talk about “nudity” in general without going into detail. Worse still there may be no mention at all about what the role will involve and you’ll only find out much later on in the process.
In these cases there’s not a lot you can do about it. However, if you have your boundaries set then if you do find out that there is more involved in the role than you were expecting you can deal with it simply and efficiently there and then.
But more on dealing with these kinds of castings later!
