<\/p>\n
Carla Hool\u2019s quest for the Virgin Mary led her around the Earth. But this was no religious pilgrimage. The veteran casting director was working with auteur Alejandro Monteverde on his upcoming biblical epic, \u201cZero A.D.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted someone very, very special,\u201d Hool says over Zoom from her Los Angeles home office. \u201cWe saw close to 3,000 girls.\u201d The pair ultimately found their leading lady \u2014 relative newcomer Deva Cassel, daughter of Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci \u2014 in Italy. The film, which also stars Sam Worthington and Ben Mendelsohn, premieres later this year.<\/p>\n
Specificity, not to mention authenticity and representation, have always been crucial to Hool. She came to the U.S. 19 years ago from her native Mexico City, where she\u2019d done local casting on \u201cNacho Libre,\u201d \u201cBeverly Hills Chihuahua,\u201d \u201cQuantum of Solace\u201d and more. In the interim, she\u2019s edified creatives and executives on projects from \u201cNarcos\u201d to \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d that Latinos aren\u2019t interchangeable, that Mexicans and Dominicans look and sound different than Colombians and Chileans, and that those roles should be filled accordingly. \u201cI would always get, \u2018Who cares? We can\u2019t hear it.\u2019 I would reply, \u2018No, but all the Latinos can!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hool used to orchestrate in-person open calls in far-flung locales to match the perfect performer to each part. Now, as do most of her peers<\/a>, she launches global searches using electronic casting resources like Spotlight in the U.K., Showcast in Australia and the Workbook in Latin America while also accessing social media, agents and managers. Self-tape auditions are solicited, with callbacks held via Zoom. Hool occasionally uses local casting pros for television, but rarely for film. \u201cIt fascinates me to discover new people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Casting director Meredith Tucker regularly relies on foreign colleagues for TV. She recently collaborated with Canadian pros John Buchan and Jason Knight to find local acting talent for \u201cVladimir,\u201d<\/a> which shot in Toronto.<\/p>\n Tucker has also served as Mike White\u2019s casting director for all four seasons of \u201cThe White Lotus.\u201d Not at liberty to discuss the upcoming, French Riviera-set fourth installment<\/a> of the Emmy-winning series, she reveals she joined forces with Katie Doyle in Hawaii, Barbara Giordani and Francesco Vedovati in Italy and Non Jungmeier in Thailand for Seasons 1, 2 and 3, respectively. \u201cI kind of let them do their thing,\u201d says Tucker from New York City, admitting these experts know their local acting pool better than she does. White is also often already on location and skilled at selecting players. \u201cHe very much has an instinct for what he needs, what works, and what doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n A scene from \u201cVladimir.\u201d<\/p>\n (Shane Mahood \/ Netflix)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Just as technology has removed physical barriers in casting, runaway production, co-productions and global streaming have erased borders for audiences. International viewers today crave more ethnically and culturally precise storytelling, and are less resistant to subtitles (see \u201cMoney Heist,\u201d \u201cLupin,\u201d \u201cShogun,\u201d etc.).<\/p>\n For actors, the opportunities have multiplied exponentially. No longer do they need to be in New York City, Los Angeles or London to be seen \u2014 and hired. With one click, they can even vie for multiple projects in one day. \u201cIn an afternoon, I can watch 50, 60, 70 self-tapes,\u201d says Armando Pizzuti from Rome. He assisted the Telsey Office (based in both New York City and L.A.) to find French and Italian cast members for Ryan Murphy\u2019s \u201cThe Beauty,\u201d then digitally combed Europe with collaborator Stefania Valestro to seek Asian actors for adventure series \u201cSandokan: The Pirate Prince,\u201d filmed in Italy, standing in for 1800s Southeast Asia. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in the casting studio, I can probably meet only 20 actors per day.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the near-boundless possibilities afforded by today\u2019s new tools, not everyone is enamored with the rarity of in-person sessions. \u201cI\u2019m just gonna put it out there,\u201d says London\u2019s Kharmel Cochrane, in Cannes to network this May. \u201cI don\u2019t like [self-tapes] at all, actually.\u201d The casting director \u2014 who\u2019s worked on Emerald Fennell\u2019s \u201cSaltburn\u201d and \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d<\/a> as well as on Kristoffer Borgli\u2019s \u201cThe Drama,\u201d<\/a> among other titles \u2014 understands she\u2019d need to embrace innovative methods more fully if she was busier in TV. But she also realizes that without remote auditions, working on Lena Dunham\u2019s upcoming picture \u201cGood Sex\u201d would have been impossible. \u201cI\u2019ve got children. I\u2019ve got a family,\u201d she reveals. \u201cThat would have required several trips to the U.S. over six months.\u201d<\/p>\n Tania Arana \u2014 a French-born casting director in Canada who routinely commutes between Montreal and Paris \u2014 employed a hybrid process to cast the upcoming family drama \u201cDaudistan,\u201d a feature shooting in Montreal and South Asia this fall. Posting casting notices at community centers and on social media, she sought both professional and non-professional Afghan men who speak Dari and live in Quebec, providing customized links through which hopefuls could submit a headshot and\/or video. Once those called back were selected, she auditioned each in person alongside an interpreter, using improvisations based on the script.<\/p>\n \u201cBody language is universal,\u201d Arana tells me during a video interview conducted in her native French. \u201cFor me, certain things go beyond language comprehension. It\u2019s more of an emotional understanding. It resonates deeply to see someone interpret a scene in a language one doesn\u2019t understand. I think it\u2019s 10 times more interesting and impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever the road to get there, though, industry professionals agree that great results are what matter most. \u201cAs casting directors,\u201d concludes Hool, \u201cwe need to be open to finding people anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carla Hool\u2019s quest for the Virgin Mary led her around the Earth. But this was no religious pilgrimage. The veteran casting director was working with auteur Alejandro Monteverde on his upcoming biblical epic, \u201cZero A.D.\u201d \u201cHe wanted someone very, very special,\u201d Hool says over Zoom from her Los Angeles home office. \u201cWe saw close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2411274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Casting-without-borders-Inside-top-casting-directors-global-search-for.com2F082Fd62F7fdbe6d740659f16e6089582.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2411275,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411273\/revisions\/2411275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2411274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}