Bitter Bloggings of an Optimistic Actress: Beauty and the Beast

Casting is a process that always fascinates me.  Sometimes I do really want to be a fly on the wall.

Recently a casting notice was put into the world requesting two individuals.  They specifically requested the individuals not be models.  They were looking for real people.  People who were active, but average.  Now picture that.  Got the image in your mind?

Ok.

Imagine how shocked the entire acting internet was when the agent of one of the said "Normal People" posts a picture of the client who booked the job and she was GORGEOUS.  I mean drop dead perfect.  Skinny, porcelain skin, and a "bottom so tight it could do lip sync."  Honestly?  What do these people think normal and average looks like?  And I get it, the client is the one who picks who gets the job. But, how does someone who looks like they should grace a runway get picked as the average?  Average compared to who?  A VS model?  I mean congratulations on getting the gig, but seriously.

About nine months ago I was called in to read for a commercial.  The commercial asked for an intelligent female about 30-40 years old.  Once again, I arrive at the auditions and am surrounded by women, whose total weight is equal to my own individual mass.  Most of them are models who "mom" on the side.  There is one nineteen year old who doesn't know what the sides even mean.  Seriously, the sides are ripped straight from an IT manual and placed on the page.  I had to read some specs myself the night before just to understand what was going on, and my oldest friend in the world is in IT.  Any guesses as to the one who gets the role?  Seriously, what nineteen year old needs that kind of money?  When did nineteen become the new thirty?

And the last straw.  I was recently not cast in a film due to my height because the love interest would be too short for me.  "The director loved your rendition of the character but we have already cast this part and the height difference would be distracting."  Great.  So what you are saying is you are willing to put out a sub par product because you are afraid of spending an extra few minutes making my love interest a few inches taller with camera angles and standing him on a box.  They dig holes in the ground for the girls opposite Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone.  That is kinda sick.

I read an interview with Anne Hathaway.  Her twenties were great to her, but as soon as she hit thirty she actually started losing roles.  Let me repeat this.  Anne Hathaway started losing roles in her thirties to twenty-somethings.  (**Not all the twenty-somethings were Jennifer Lawrence; which would have been ok**)

We laugh at this sketch, but it is truly horrifying.  Because it is true.  Even in the context of the sketch itself.  Did you know originally it was supposed to be about an ageing actress being welcomed into the fold of already aged out actresses?  The studio thought it would be more appealing to young audiences if they had famous actresses who hadn't aged out yet sending one of their own into the void.  See how messed up that is?

All I am asking is that those businesses getting the help of a CD actually think about what they want.  Do you want an actual average thirty year old or a twenty seven year old model with mature features.  Do you want someone who can speak to your consumers on a level that makes them understand or do you want someone who will draw in your viewers with their looks.  Honestly ask for exactly what you want and I promise, you will get it.