Veteran casting director and Brackendale resident Stuart Aikins says it is the ultimate pay-off to see a film he helped cast be up for an award.
Grand Unified Theory, which Aikins cast, is up for the Tiantan Prize at the Beijing International Film Festival this week.
As a casting director, Aikins works with the director and producer of a production to find actors for all the roles in the piece.
“You always balance off the paycheque and the love,” he said. “The paycheque pays for the ability to do [some] films for no money and love, and then when those pictures get noticed, then that is where it is the most exciting – it has paid off,” he said of his work on Grand Unified Theory.
The film is about an astrophysicist, Albert James, who has a meltdown, setting in motion a series of humorous events that mirror James’ radical theories of the behaviour of the universe.
The movie stars Vancouver-based actors Kendall Cross, from The 100, Maxwell Haynes from The Killing and Shakespearian actor Scott Bellis in the lead role as James.
As sometimes happens, Bellis wasn’t Aikins’ first pick for the film, but he turned out to be the best fit. “We talked through names of what we could get… and we brought those names to Telefilm,” Aikins said.
Officials at Telefilm Canada, which financed the film, said the first round of actors weren’t big enough names to invest in the film, said Aikins, so he and director David Ray went back to the drawing board.
This is a pretty common scenario in the industry, according to Aikins.
He always has a plan B or even C.
“It just so happened Scott Bellis, who is almost never available because of his theatre work, was available and interested.”
The rest of the actor choices fell into place after that, Aikins said.
Often the second choice turns out the best and you can’t imagine how the production would have worked with anyone else, Aikins said.
“You think of a number of movies that have been made with people with second choices, like Casablanca, all of those great movies. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with Ronald Reagan in Casablanca.”
Aikins moved to Brackendale from Bowen Island two years ago.
“We adore it,” Aikins said of his Squamish home. “Everyone is so… healthy and respectful, it is really quite amazing,” he said with a laugh.
Over his 35-year film and TV career, Aikins has been involved in casting many TV shows and movies including the Squamish-shot TV series Men in Trees, the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis, the blockbuster movie Legends of the Fall, AMC’s The Killing and the Clint Eastwood film Unforgiven.
“My job is to interpret what the director wants via his script or her script and then connect that director to possible actors to fulfill that vision,” Aikins explained.
“Good directors let me go and do my work,” he said.
Eastwood was a great director to work with, Aikins said. He asked Aikins what he thought of the characters in the script and Aikins was honest with him.
“It doesn’t have the colours and sounds and flavours of what was going on in the period in Wyoming,” Aikins recalled telling Eastwood. Aikins suggested the period piece should be more diverse, with First Nations, Germans and Russian characters.
Eastwood told Aikins to bring him actors the casting director thought would work.
“That is what I did, and he accepted that. I think the picture was a better picture because it had more depth,” Aikins said.
Aikins has cast Peter Kent, a stuntman, former actor and current District of Squamish councillor, in many productions.
“I have been in front of him many times,” Kent confirmed, adding Aikins cast him at least 10 times over the years. “He’s always been one of the best casting directors as far as collaborating and reading with his actors, and he’s supportive, very supportive.”
Aikins’ advice for aspiring casting directors is to work with an established casting director to get a sense of what is required “and how to hone their taste.”
“It doesn’t happen easily. It happens in the room,” said Aikins, who is also chair of the school of performing arts at Capilano University. “You have to learn to work with actors, because really the best work you get out of actors is when you give them the best that you can.”
Now is the best time to be an aspiring casting director, according to Aikins, because there is a lot of work. “That is always a great thing,” he said.
