For fifteen years, models have found Rosen and Wojcik Casting (formerly Charles Rosen Casting) to be an encouraging, nourishing oasis in the often harrowing and impersonal experience of auditioning.

That’s because partners Charles Rosen and Scott Wojcik, along with veteran casting director Gayle Seay, constantly prove that they truly care about models’ career success. Even with their vast list of dedicated clients, and their bazillion castings for print, commercial, theater, TV and film jobs, this gang of three still show genuine concern for the people they call in.

They offer a natural flowing positive energy, as well as one-on-one advice and even workshops so that models and actors can grow – and land that career-changing opportunity.

Here we visit with all three staff members, and find out what keeps them keeping on. You can see why models, actors and clients all seem to share great affection for them and come back for more.

On casting models:

I look for individuality, I look for professionalism. I look for people committing to a place and a time. If it’s just a print job, it’s a look. I try to make sure that models understand what “camera ready” is. That means coming in and being prepared. Choosing the right colors. Trying to get enough information from the agent and from the casting people of what they’re looking for, so when you go in, you’re not promoting yourself in a negative way.

On advice for models:

Dress appropriately. Try to understand what the lighting situation is in the studio. Bring a portfolio book or have your images available on the internet through your agent or manager. And be on time.

On challenges:

My biggest challenge is to relax the model or the actor so that he or she feels that they’ve discovered what I’m trying to lead them to the door to do. As a casting director, I just try to get them on to the playing field. Whether or not they walk through the door that I’ve opened for them is their challenge.

On coaching:

When I see that one problem or one flaw, I address it. Perhaps the actor is speaking too loudly or giving out negative vibrations and not making the room feel comfortable. You can imagine that the creative team is pinning their one choice on this actor or model, so everyone has to feel comfortable enough to spend the day with them. So I address it.

Coaching is a one-on-one situation. For instance, if you are in New York and you want to audition for a TV series or pilot, we will coach you through the session and put it on the internet so you won’t have to fly to California. Or if the director is in Florida and we’re in New York and the production team is in Hawaii, everybody can go to the same link and see the same images. The internet has brought us all together. We try to find the reasons in the scene that will make it easy for you to make some choices and give advice on the objectives.

On his role as a casting director:

From my point of view, I just want the clients to be happy. I’m a presenter. I’m a problem solver. I try not to cause problems, but as a casting director, you do cause problems. There are rules and regulations. There are buys. There are contracts. You have to make your buyer aware of all these things. What are the conflicts? For instance, you may be buying print for newspapers but not for posters or internet. The casting director really has to make the client aware of all these things. Sometimes we are the police. But in raising these issues, we try to solve the problems ahead of time, because once it’s shot, it’s done.

I do walk a fine line, but the bottom line is that my fee comes from the client, from the advertising agency, or from the company who has hired us. I’m a presenter. I just want to make sure that there are three top choices in each category so that when a client goes into a meeting, a choice can be made.

On a casting director’s intuition:

It’s a feel that when you see the script or when you see the story board or talk to the creative team, you get an idea of what actor in your mind would be able to be the problem solver. It’s usually your first or second thought, but usually it’s your first thought. Whatever the commercial or play we’re working on, you get an intuitive sense out of the description of what the needs are for the job.

On the dynamic with his associates:

Gayle worked with us for a long time. She went independent and moved to California and came back. I trained them all. They all sort of have their own vision, but the vision of the office is that we work together. We work in one room and we hear every conversation. A lot of things don’t need to be said because one ear is on the phone and one ear is listening to your partner so it doesn’t have to be repeated a thousand times. We all understand what the job is, and the job is to show the best talent and go on to the next job.

Casting directors are very individual and we all get hired because clients like our vision and like the way we do business. It’s just a very one-on-one relationship.

On the new world of casting:

It is no longer necessarily only about a blonde-haired person. It’s somebody who can be shown in Spain, in France, all over Europe. And South America as well as Asia. The world has become very small with the advent of the internet. It’s very important to get the most use out of every ad. Advertising happens daily. Even though they shot it and they might renegotiate it, there is something new in the pipeline because that’s how advertising agencies and creative teams make their money.

On his professional fulfillment:

I just love to get people a job. That’s my greatest pleasure, to see the final result in print or on television.

On casting models:

I think part of this is generational. People jump into this so quickly that there is not a learning curve to what it means to be professional and what the etiquette of the audition environment is. I think learning the proper etiquette of an audition is one of the biggest pieces of advice that I can offer. That means showing up on time, coming in prepared. When you ask an actor to come in prepared, that is with a monologue or song. For commercial print models, they should come in well-groomed, with their printed material in order and available for me. That doesn’t happen more and more and more.

On advice for models:

Learn how to take direction. It isn’t just posing. I think the mistake is that commercial print models think it’s a pose. Or the non-successful ones think that it’s coming in and posing. I think it’s better for them to think in terms of character and an idea, as opposed to “this is my smile” and “this is my serious look.” Have something active behind your expression and always be thinking during the picture taking process.

When fashion folks start to trip into the commercial world, they don’t show up camera ready. They’re used to showing up in their un-made-up appearance because they’re used to having stylists who create the look for the shoot. Fashion folk show up looking like hell. They come in un-made up, their hair is not combed, the guys come in unshaven, the clothing choices are two steps above rags. That’s okay on the fashion side because their books speak for them. I think commercial print models need to come in like it’s a job interview and should be dressed appropriately. And if they don’t know how to dress, they should come in in an upscale casual mode so they look presentable. It’s a first meeting with me, so I’m going to remember that look. Know all of your sizes accurately, because to get the sizes to the wardrobe person needs to happen even faster than ever before. Know your accurate sizes.

On challenges:

In the commercial world, one of the challenges is translating non-artistic, subjective ideas from clients into functional vocabulary for the industry. So that I can present what they really want, not what they think they want. The other challenge at this point is timeline. The process of getting a job approved before casting takes up a lot of time. And then, we get very little time to do our part of the job. We call [agents] at three in the afternoon and have to have the session the next day. There is a very condensed timeline to accomplish the task at hand.

On his role as a casting director:

Like in a dating relationship, it is about a trust. If [clients have] hired me, there is already a level of trust because they have hired me to present them the right people. I think for some jobs, it ends there and then they make their choices based on comments on the log sheet that accompany the casting. I would say that more often than not, we don’t have to push people, because it really falls out of our hands. It goes through so many levels of approval after the casting session. The place where I think I exert the most power is the selection of who comes into the casting.

On a casting director’s intuition:

I find casting to be the use of a discerning eye. It’s an accumulated knowledge. I think a casting director needs to remain objective and needs to know how to process several different perspectives on the same idea and be able to host it like a party. If you’re my guest, and I know what you like, that’s what I am going to serve the most of. Also, I know if you trust me, I’m going to get you to try something that I think is a specialty.

On the new world of casting:

Because internet information that used to be privileged between casting offices and agencies is now like free trade. Now everybody knows everything. That is a major change and I think it’s problematic, because actors by nature think they are right for more things than they actually are, and the casting director’s job is to act as a filtering process. With everybody getting access to breakdowns and everybody going to these awful websites to find out about castings, it just clogs the work too much. People have too much access and not enough actual knowledge.

In a major way, just the amount of talent available has expanded exponentially, so it becomes harder and harder to really feel like you know everybody, especially commercially. So many people are trying to get into the business and there are so many. So I think a major change is just the gross number of talent available, therefore they are less known.

On pushing the actor or model to the next level:

Personally, I do one-on-one’s when requested. I teach a lot for all the universities and the Screen Actors’ Guild, plus I go to workshop environments, like The Actors’ Connection and One on One. I’ve also taught separate classes individually. It’s all based on audition technique. A lot of it is musical, a lot of it is monologue and scene study work.

On how she got here:

I was an actor. My survival job – I never waited on tables – I actually worked with Scott and Charles. And that’s kind of how it all started. Then I wanted a more stable job instead of the career of an actor; that’s when I segued into full-time casting.

On advice for models:

The worst thing you can do is not be prepared. Coming in like you just rolled out of bed. It’s not reading the information that’s on the wall. It’s not looking at the layout. Usually, we’ll have a layout on the wall and it’ll say, ‘please sign in and please have a comp card ready and please fill this out.’ And they don’t do any of that.

Be nice to everybody. Even the person signing you in. You never know who you are speaking to. Because somebody standing at the desk saying something to you may actually wind up being the casting person or the photographer or the client. You just never, never know. I think it’s about being prepared and treating everyone around you with respect because you never know who you are talking to.

On challenges:

[As a casting director,] you have to interpret somebody else’s vision. It’s incredibly subjective. They can say ABC and we give them ABC and they say, no, that’s CBA. Also, the things that are out of your control are still your responsibility. For instance, if a bunch of models don’t show up, we’re the people who look bad. We have no control over that. You have no control and yet you have all the responsibility.

When I see a model who is almost ready to get the job, but is missing one element, it is absolutely something that I would address.  I would say, “Next time, do this” or whatever.

On the new world of casting:

When I first started working with them, we were taking Polaroids. Now, we do digital shots that we upload to a website.

On personal fulfillment:

I have pride. Being a part of it. And I think, look how amazing it turned out. It’s almost like your kid.

For more information on R&W Casting, go to

www.rwcast.com.

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