0:01 Hey guys, I'm Lindsay Christopher, a Toronto casting director who's fed up with her clients asking for one thing, but secretly wanting another. 0:09 And I'm Nicole Di Donato, a Toronto actor and radio host who's tired of always being cast as a typical white girl that needs a man. Welcome to the first episode of actors get real. 0:20 Every week we're going to delve into a new topic surrounding the challenges faced by actors in the Toronto television and film industry. 0:27 This week, we're chatting with a few actors and a lovely casting producer, about their experience with typecasting and their opinions on it. So, Lindsay, what is typecasting anyways? 0:37 I'm glad you asked. typecasting is when an actor is repeatedly cast in the same role because of the way they look or because they've played that role before. 0:45 Right, exactly. And to discuss this issue. We spent a few hours with Richard Walters, a Toronto actor, singer and dancer on one of his days off. 1:02 As far as I'm crazy, but I play video games and I think when I study so it's like, I read for five to 10 minutes and then play video games. And the reason why is because your brain processes the lines get easier, like you're not taxing it. So I pass a level five to 10 minutes level 10 minutes and then I literally haven't learned within a day. 1:21 Like you. 1:23 I get out there every morning, bust my butt, put up with them crackers every day, because I like you. You got to be the biggest fool I've ever saw. It's my job. It's my responsibility to understand that a man got to take care of his family. You live in my house, sleep on my bed clothes, fill your belly with my food. Because you my son, you my flesh and blood, not because I like you, because it's my duty to take care of you. 1:58 You might know Richard from his role as tiny on Degrassi next class. The character has a troubled family background. His mother is a drug addict and his father is in jail. 2:08 Although his character starts out very stereotypical. Tiny turns his life around and becomes known for his work ethic and the way that he can relate to people. 2:17 Richard who has a Jamaican heritage feels like he always gets cast in a gangster role or as the athlete, he tells us about his opinion on typecasting. 2:32 I don't think typecasting is necessarily a bad thing completely because it reflects life in the sense, obviously, not as a whole, not every black person's a gangster obviously, right? That's stupid to say. But in certain cases, there's there's a bit of truth in it. The higher ups want what they want, you know what I mean? Some of them are playing the jumping the bandwagon, regress all inclusive and stuff when they know in the back of their heads, you're like, Okay, I'm casting that kind of person. But we're going to say we're going to bring everybody in, you know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with casting, we want to cast this your project is just that if you have the intent of casting a certain, you know, look, cast for that, look, you know, what I mean is as simple as that. That's what I think personally, 3:08 Richard raised some really interesting points, I think we sometimes forget how much effort and work goes into preparing for an audition. 3:15 On a similar note, we spoke to Leah Ruhlich, a Toronto casting producer about her opinion from the other side of the audition table. 3:27 Hello, Leah speaking. 3:30 Everyone knows you need to be diverse, and everyone knows you need to be open at this point. So everyone likes to pretend they are. But I don't think people actually, I don't think we're at the point yet where people are actually making their final decisions based on that. So they're kind of doing their due diligence, saying, you know, we're open to anything, we're open to thinking outside the box, but they aren't yet. So that obviously is problematic. But I think we're getting there slowly. But I also think at the end of the day, people as humans want to watch attractive people and that does kind of guide everything you're casting. Unfortunately, it's out of your control in a way which sucks but like, try and change it for yourself, cast yourself in something and find opportunities that you can prove yourself or build your reel in a different way if that's if that's what you want to be doing. You can find opportunities to insert yourself, but it is a frustrating thing that I totally sympathize with and it's real. And it sucks, but it is real. 4:24 I did come up with a web series called Behind the Black Curtain. Originally, it was supposed to be demo reel footage. But my friend Kalex Pass came up with the idea was like hey, why don't we just release all the scenes that we did as like a web series making a weekly thing? And it'd be me with another actor, and I'm the constant through every scene. The idea of those videos were to show off my versatility. There was times where I would play like an African dictator to an old man, too dramatic scenes, comedic scenes. So it really would give me the opportunity to play all these different roles that were completely opposite of who I am. You know what I mean? So when I'm not working on I definitely try to create my own stuff. 5:02 We also did a roundtable with some Toronto actors. 5:04 We spoke to Spencer MacPherson who is best known for his role on Rain and Degrassi Next Class. 5:10 And we chatted with Amira Sidiki, an RTA Media Production student and a background actor. 5:15 So I guess to kind of start off, I want to ask you guys, what are the rules that you find you typically get cast it in? I guess, starting with you Amira. 5:22 Yeah, okay, um, because you can't see me. I'm actually an Indian and half Pakistani, but the rules that I'm usually cast in are like your typical Brown Girl roles. I only really get casted for like, roles where I'd have to like wear a hijab or something where like. I would play a character that's like religious never just like a plain roll. It's usually like I'm wearing a headscarf or something. 5:42 And what about you, Spencer? 5:44 You know, it kind of varies. I'd say like, the vast majority of what I would go for is like the creepy dude, usually more of an antagonistic role, but my type can be a little bit broad sometimes. On Degrassi, I was kind of a bit more of a shady character. And like, I had like a storyline where I was like a school shooter, which was pretty dark. The weird thing about that is like, it started out kind of being me, and then somehow it did mold it into, into that. And then the other one with Rain was like, pretty far removed for me. Where I was, it was like a period piece. I had an accent and but um, yeah, and that one, too, though, I had those kinds of like dark scenes. And it was only until like, maybe like a year ago when I actually maybe played someone who was a bit redeemable. 6:27 And yeah, I guess turning back to you Amira. So you said that you did background work on Degrassi, can you explain a bit about your experience with that, 6:35 they don't really tell you what rule that you get until you get there. But they did have less Syrian people that showed up that day, I guess, or they just like miscounted or something. So they ended up getting anybody who was like of any color to like put on a headscarf. Which was like really strange. There's like a lot of like Spanish women who were wearing headscarves. And the other thing too, was that like, the head scarves were like infinity scarves. And like, it was just like it was like after they didn't they didn't do their research, or they didn't have enough like resources. It's a hard topic to cover in a show. But I think that if you're going to do that, you should, you should do your best to, to cover it respectfully and like appropriately. And I just think they could have done a better job with that. 7:15 My, my favorite anecdote about casting is that the show House did blind casting. They didn't write ethnicity, they didn't write gender, they just kind of wrote like partner and or child and or family. Then they would just bring in anyone and they would base it off of how they can portray the symptoms. And I think that they were extremely ahead of their time in doing that. Do you think that moving forward, that's the best way to go about casting? Honestly, 7:43 I think that sometimes the best things that happen are like like accidents. And I think that when it's open to like blind casting, it's just it can completely it can change the role. I think that you can find something that you didn't know you're looking for, and it can make it so much better. 7:55 We also asked Richard about what he thinks of blind casting. 7:58 It's very beneficial in many ways. It kind of leads to what I was saying before, where it gives you the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of, of actors, you know what I mean, regardless of race and gender. Because again, this reflective of life, I think that's something to definitely look into, in this business for sure. Like it really would help in my opinion. 8:17 I mean, I guess I kind of have like, a fun question. In a perfect world, what would be your like, ideal role? If you could play anything in the world? What would it be? 8:25 I would love to play a villain, because I feel like I'm like always like the good girl who like has to follow rules. And it would be so nice to just play a villain like a villain or like, I don't know if you guys seen Broad City, but they would also love to be Ilana. Just cuz she's awesome. 8:40 Whenever I've like thought about that question. I always think about, like, athletic performances that I would love to do. Which is like, I would also hate that, because the reason why I love them is because they're so good and I'd ruin it. I don't know, I'd probably want to play like via the Marty McFly in something like the really like, goofy, but like lovable kind of protagonist. 8:59 I want to do a role that involves a lot of action stuff. If that means doing my own stunts and how I'm down for that, or fighting scenes or something. I've always wanted to do that. And then next, I really want to play a character that like, is kind of crazy. Some like Joker was just weird. And like, you can have fun and just be quirky and just evil. And like, I'd love that. That's my personal go to. That's my goal. 9:25 All the actors had such unique answers. Nicole, what would your ideal role be? Well, I 9:31 always get casted as the typical like white girl who's dependent on a man, so I think I'd want to be the complete opposite of that, like a complex lead female character, kind of like Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman. What about you, Lindsay? 9:44 I'm better at playing myself than I am anyone's written character. So I'd want to be someone who's loud and crazy and just overall obnoxious. Kind of like Amy Schumer in Trainwreck? 9:54 Yeah, I mean, I could definitely see that I'd watch that. I'd watch that. Well, it's been a super fun show. And thank you again to you All of our guests for joining us, 10:01 be sure to catch our second episode next week, same place 10:04 same time, we will be talking about women in the television and film industry and the barriers they face. 10:09 Once again, I'm Lindsay Christopher 10:11 and I'm Nicole DiDonato. This was Actors Get Real. 10:15 Thanks for listening