ON WORKING WITH AUSTRALIAN ACTORS: MALI FINN...LOS ANGELES CASTING DIRECTOR

 Mali Finn is a prominent Los Angeles casting director who has cast many of the major American films of the last decade or so. Her credits include 'The Untouchables', 'Outrageous Fortune', 'Batman Forever', 'Batman and Robin', 'True Lies', 'Terminator 2', 'Titanic', 'LA Confidential', '8 mile', and the Matrix series. AUSUS Magazine spoke to Mali about transitioning into casting, working with Australian actors, and looking back at seventy five.

Q: How did you become a casting director?

 I was a teacher for fifteen years in the mid west, Minnesota, and at one point we decided to move out here for my husband to find a new job. I tried to find a job in the industry and it was pure hell. Everybody slammed the door in my face. They said '...you're too old, you don't know anything about film' and so forth. So I started at the bottom and they told me I'd get bored. But I just wanted to learn. The first job I got I was subsequently fired from by Peter Bogdanovich. It makes for a very funny story now. I'd never been fired in my life and I'd always excelled at whatever I'd done. This job was for a temp agency and then they took me on full time and I was working on this huge telephone system doing things like 'piggy backing'. I was always trying to take on more and more things. One day Peter was in the middle of his piano lesson and I accidentally pushed the loudspeaker button. The next thing I heard was 'Fire that woman who interrupted my lesson'. He actually called me about five years ago and asked if I would see his wife, she's an actress, and I said I'd love to. He had no idea who I was. I told her the story though. 

Q: What did you do next?

What I did was find a woman who was part of the 'Women in Film' board. Someone who's older and part of a woman's organization so she'd have some simpatico. I tried calling her for a few months but she had this assistant who was very good at fielding calls. One time, though, I called and the assistant was out to lunch. This woman picked up the phone and said '...what the hell do you want. You've been calling here forever'. I just said '...I really want to meet you. I'll work for free. I just want to find out what a casting person does'. I didn't know what a casting person did, and she said '...well get on up here'. So I drove up to Warner Brothers where she was working on 'Maverick'. I spent three weeks with her and at the end of the project she suggested I intern for an agency, which I did. Then I got hired by a casting office and worked there for about three years. Eventually I ended up working for Lynn Stalmaster, after which I opened my own office.

 Q: Tell me about those fifteen years of teaching drama.

The whole idea of teaching drama is that children come to first grade with this skill they never use. They're role playing the whole time, playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians. Then they arrive in the elementary system and no one uses that. So what we did was train teachers, in say the history or English departments, to use improvisation, role playing. It's really a wonderful tool. Kids love to do it, even those that don't think they can do it. The best thing is when they really show themselves. The best actors, and the most balanced human beings, are those that know how to relate to themselves and to others. The core of any good drama program is to help build self esteem. The most effective acting classes should probably be a mix of adults and children so that the adults can really see how to go back to opening up that sensory awareness. We're completely cut off from that these days. Most of the kids walking down the street are wearing headphones.

 Q: What do you like about being a casting director?

 I love working with actors. I grew up as a non-professional actress. It keeps me very in the moment in terms of building relationships, because the actors have to trust you. You have to help them open up and share who they are. It's a very intimate process. It's such a small space we work in. It's like connecting with a stranger in an airplane. You tell that stranger you're deepest, darkest secrets. The camera picks up every lie. So you have to be honest. And I love working with scripts. I love working with directors. I learn something from everyone I work with. And it's a real challenge now because the world is literally a casting stage. It's not just casting in New York or LA or Chicago or Toronto. It really is Australia and Europe.

Q: Why do you like the Australian actors?

 I think because they have better training. Or maybe because more of their actors are trained. So often we have kids in the film business here that have really no craft. They have a sexuality and a charisma, but that's it. They have a lot of theater in Australia too. They don't automatically go straight from school into film and TV but do plays first.

Q: How do you find Australian actors?

You use every connection you can think of. I go to Sundance and some other festivals when I have the time. You have to be very aware of international film these days. There's also some very good managers and casting people down there that I keep in touch with. So many Australian actors are also in and out of LA. I try to keep tabs on them wherever they are. If it's in the budget we'll bring them over. Unfortunately this is not always possible for lower budget films.

 Q: How important is it that Australian actors be able to do American accents?

 Very important. I think that's probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks. Why more Australian actors aren't working here. For 'Pushing Tin', Cate Blanchette's screen test was for her dialect, not her acting.

 Q: How did Joel Schumacher find Russell Crowe?

He was traveling around Australia on a 'Batman' publicity junket. He saw 'Romper Stomper' which he told me I should watch for Russell's performance. Later I started working on 'LA Confidential' and I showed the tape to Curtis Hanson. Russell was actually in the U.S. touring with his band and we called him in to audition. Curtis set up a whole room with props and a young actress in a negligee and we worked with him for an entire afternoon. You could hear his accent but we just took a leap of faith. Once cast he came over early and started working with a dialect coach. Guy Pearce also came in to audition. I'd seen him previously in 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. He'd speak in his Australian accent then switch to a pretty good American accent to read the scene. He was repped by ICM at the time. Curtis took their audition tapes, edited them and presented them to the studio.

Q: How did you find Hugo Weaving for 'The Matrix'?

 Him I knew from 'Priscilla' also. He came over to audition because it was a major role. The producers were very keen to cast the principal roles before they got over to Australia. He auditioned in a hotel room. I think his accent was quite good.

Q: Do people approach you with casting work or do you go out and look for it?

 A little of both. If I've worked for somebody and they're pleased with my work then we'll probably work together again. I also have a wonderful agent who keeps me apprised of what's going on, especially with people that I've worked with. I also collaborate with a lot of independent producers and directors, which is time consuming and I only do it if I love the project. I never look at it as just a job. It's hard work but it can be very rewarding.

Q: What is involved in the process of casting a film?

I try to read the script three or four times. I try to get a feel for the story and the characters and find out what this world is and who these people are. Then I'll slowly start putting together some lists of names, but I hate for the initial phase to be about listing. I'd much rather it be about trying to get inside the director's head, finding out where they're coming from, how they envision that world and then do all the research. For '8 Mile' I had to research Detroit and the music business there, which I didn't really know about. I went to Detroit and visited many of the locations and talked to a lot of the locals and this helped me to picture that world.

 Q: Did you cast many of the locals in the film?

 Yes. We held an open call for extras and what I did was I would pull people aside who I thought might be okay for smaller roles. We managed to cast three or four people this way, including the little girl that played Marshall's sister. She was a complete novice but came from a background where she really understood this world. That's what you look for in a child. An essence, because they're not actors.

 Q: What qualities do you look for when casting adult actors?

 I also look for an essence. Actors have a lot of colors that they can play, but they can't play them all on film unless they're Daniel Day Lewis and go and live in the woods for three months and shoot bow and arrows. We don't have those long rehearsal periods. With Marshall, however, Curtis did work with him for a long time. Mainly on his character and his relationships with the other characters so when it came time to shoot you believed they had history together. Curtis was like his acting coach.

Q: Once you've cast the project do you work with the actors again?

 No. But I'm invested in them. I check in occasionally. The exciting thing is to hear that it's working. Sometimes I'll get a call from the director if it's not working. Once a director called me about two young boys in his film who hadn't acted before. So we hired a coach for about three weeks. We took the boys around to the different locations in the film, it was in the south and the boys were southern, and then we improvised the scenes. The writer then wrote dialogue around their language. He could use their rhythm's and way of talking about things. That was also their acting class.

 Q: Do you have acting coaches on the set?

 Some have been on the set and it does happen. But it's difficult for the actor to have to listen to both the coach and the director. There has to be a specific reason for it. But if you have a child, for example,you might want to have a coach to help them prepare for the scene, to get them focused, to get them into that world. It's like Atticus says to Scout in 'To Kill a Mockingbird','... you can't really understand somebody till you step into their shoes and walk around for a while'. That's what a coach can help a child do.

Q: Look back at seventy five and tell me what you want your career to have looked like.