You’ll be able to’t work in an business for greater than 4 many years and never develop into one thing of a legend. Gregory Apps is not any exception.
The Australian casting director got here to the craft like lots of his colleagues in that he type of fell into it, however as soon as he discovered his calling, he excelled. By way of the many years, he has helped to make a bevy of Australian actors into bona fide stars whereas additionally educating a technology of youthful actors how you can audition and how you can create characters.
Apps just isn’t slowing down both. He’s acquired a number of new films popping out, the primary of which is Take My Hand, a romantic drama starring one in all his discoveries, Radha Mitchell, which is able to hit theaters on the finish of the summer time. He spoke to us from his house Down Beneath, simply outdoors of Byron Bay, within the Northern Rivers.
How did you get into casting?
I’d been an actor for 5 or 6 years, and I’d come to the top of my endurance with it. Straight out of highschool, earlier than I acquired my presents for college, I used to be supplied a lead in a characteristic movie or a daily in a TV collection. So it’s like, “Hey, appearing is nice!”
I did that, however what I discovered is 5, six years later, I’m nonetheless sitting in the identical ready rooms reverse the identical actors going by means of the identical types of roles. I used to be searching for a job and I noticed an advert within the paper for the casting director of the ABC, Australian Broadcasting Firm, and hey, they gave me the job.
Wait, they simply gave an out-of-work actor with no expertise the highest casting job at a broadcasting firm?
They stated nobody with casting expertise utilized! You’ve acquired to recollect, I’m speaking the early ‘80s. Casting was very a lot in its infancy. Melbourne didn’t have a casting workplace. There wasn’t a pool of skilled casting administrators.
Necessity turns into the mom of invention, so to talk.
I imply, let’s face it, how did I hear about this job? There was an advert within the paper! (Laughs) However the great thing about doing that job first, as a casting director, was the truth that they did high-quality drama. Subsequently, actors needed to be on the ABC.
I acquired my first alternative each time. I used to be in a position to work on the highest stage of the business, good high quality scripts, good high quality productions and prime actors, after which, after three years at ABC, I went out alone and have become freelance.
I at all times regard Sydney as like LA. It’s shiny. It’s enjoyable. It’s horny. Melbourne is extra comedy, character, and theater, extra like New York. What an important place to be a casting director. Extra importantly, the late ‘80s was the renascence of the Australian movie business. It’s when folks like Ben Mendelsohn, Russell Crowe, all of these actors had been developing.
It’s humorous you point out these guys as a result of there’s an extended listing of actors who, the primary time lots of Individuals noticed them, had been in productions that you simply solid. I’m interested in that sense of discovery, and if there’s a way of proprietorship over their careers as a result of they succeeded after you picked them.
Apparently sufficient, the movie Proof received greatest movie at our Oscars within the early ‘90s. Finest Movie, Finest Actor, Finest Script, Finest Director, blah, blah, blah. The lead actor was Hugo Weaving. All of the casting administrators beloved him, so, due to this fact, he at all times performed romantic leads.
Proof was the primary time he performed a darkish character, a sinister character, a la The Matrix or V for Vendetta, that sort of factor. However there’s a younger character in it. 4 of us sat in a room, the producer, the writer-director, me and my assistant, and we had been saying, “Who can we go together with?” Russell Crowe? Or Ben Mendelsohn? The director and I stated Russell Crowe and the assistant and the producer stated Ben Mendelsohn as a result of Ben had an actual physique of labor at the moment. He was the anticipated particular person for the position, however this younger Russell Crowe was refusing to be ignored. Russell acquired the half, after which it was two years later, we’re sitting with a unique crew for Romper Stomper, and once more we’re saying, “Ben Mendelsohn or Russell Crowe?” That’s a humiliation of riches.
Do you have got, all through your in depth profession, a favourite movie or a excessive level that you simply take a look at and say, “This was the height?”
Not likely. It’s been an important journey. I’ve had a full-time profession as an actor and casting director since ’73, and if you get to work in an business you’re keen on for that interval, I thank God or whoever that I’ve been ready to do this.
After I began casting, the fax machine hadn’t been invented, and neither had the pc or the cell phone. After we despatched out a breakdown to the brokers, it went out in an envelope. With a stamp. (Laughs) After we set out the edges, they had been despatched out in an envelope. With a stamp. It took weeks to prepare a casting session.
What piece of recommendation or knowledge would you supply to an actor coming to audition for you?
That the script just isn’t the precedence, the character is the precedence. Do improvised variations of the scene earlier than you begin studying the strains. What you’re doing is, you’re beginning to let the character evolve.
You need the character to really feel like a snug pair of slippers. A snug cloak that you simply placed on, and also you do this earlier than you be taught the strains earlier than you prioritize the dialogue, earlier than you prioritize the supply. Whenever you be taught a script, you don’t be taught the script, you be taught the supply. I see actors in my room, and what they do is, they’ll do two or three totally different variations, they usually’ll have the identical beats and rhythms and sequences in strains. Why? As a result of they’ve realized the supply, they haven’t realized the character.
This text initially appeared on Casting Networks.
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Written by Neil Turitz
