 Hi my name is Beljica and I'm an actress based out of California and today we're talking to two casting directors. I'm so excited we're going to have a conversation with them, going to ask them a few questions that you might want to also know the answers of and if there's anything that you would like to ask them in the future I'm going to be working with them again in the future to bring you more information and I'm also learning. If you want to introduce yourselves tell us who you are and where you cast and what you cast. I'm Yvette Garcia-Davila and I've been casting for a long time and I'm currently casting mainly branded content but also I do some short films to share my personal favorites. And I'm Roxana Altamirano based in Los Angeles casting. I work almost exclusively for an ad agency called Sandwich and they do commercials and branded work as well so I work for them and then I also pick up freelance jobs, short films, internet projects just kind of anything you know anything that comes my way and fits within my schedule that I'll take. Roxana actually reached out to me about cast in project and I thought that was so cool and so generous of you guys to take the time to do that and be willing to give all of this information because I know you know in this industry we all have jobs that just take so much of our time you have families so Roxana you created cast in project. Yeah so how it started was that I was actually casting I had a project that I had to street cast for so I they were really looking for very authentic fresh Hispanic young young people so I went to different schools I went to Sotomayor which is the performing arts school here in northeast LA and there's several and I just kind of you know there's no Craigslist anymore so you kind of really just have to go to or maybe it's still around I don't know but you have to go places and you have to go to the streets and say hey you've got a great look as creepy as that sounds you have to go say hey you've got a great look I'm a casting director here's my card and also Instagram you know I would go on Instagram and I would try not to be a creep but I would DM people that I thought maybe wanted to act but you know didn't have any credits to their name and I thought they would be perfect for the project so I started DMing people. I started to notice that a lot of young people in the Hispanic community where we are in northeast LA actually had an interest in performing and want entertainment industry in front of the camera but didn't know where to start. I even befriended some recent art school graduates who said you know we went to a performing arts high school when we graduated we had no idea where to look for auditions. Yeah same. Yeah so I was like well why don't you know you know like I guess you can start googling but the problem is trust you can google but you have no idea that the the search that comes up is actually going to be someone that just wants your money or if they actually have legit advice so I wanted to start building that trust first I thought like why don't I you know do start a a street cast agency that just showcases a bunch of great looks that are not out there but that wasn't really what was needed what was needed was just information like this is where you go for auditions these people are not going to rip you off inspiring one another to just go and answer an audition because you can do it like you know like your latest post for example just start like that's the number one thing you could do is just start um stuff like that that's really what was needed I think I actually asked a lot of my network hey do you know any latin cast and directors and luckily vet you know was one that some producer friends knew and they connected us and I was just so glad that I have a buddy in this you know because she has the same mission I think you know like I'm so so we realized yeah so you created this instagram account in order to put more information and like a trusting way you know like hey I'm not charging you anything like here's some info it's also to promote uh to to yes to create a a community of talent here in LA of latino talent and diverse talent really like we just want to be inclusive and promote opportunities and hopefully promote the people that are promoting those opportunities so uh it's easier for talent to find them I was telling ruxana that it'd be a really good idea to introduce ourselves also on the instagram page and show people look these are the people that are posting here so it's not just another you know random but yeah spot oh my gosh there's so many bots and then there's one more person right that's posting yeah so Selena you know she has a baby until I know exactly how crazy that is so she is another casting director she's from mexico I think she's in town now though but she uh is dust freelance commercial work and and branded stuff and uh also and uh she's really busy and she doesn't really she doesn't have the account information she doesn't she doesn't post but she wants like if if we were a community she wants to be part of the community she also is you know fighting for you know every project she does so and there's been a several that are just like oh great but you know not posting I think there's a there's a lot of us latin you know Hispanic casting directors that not don't necessarily post but are like in the fight together and you know encourage one another yeah we're in the team of go cast it project here's yeah so that's great so that's how we know each other and I of course will leave the link in the description for this instagram page and then for the next question I wanted to see if from your perspective what actors could do in order to make the industry a little bit more equitable this is not an answer to your question but I think one of the problems that the industry has is that they have preset ideas of what someone is supposed to look like and that they're all interchangeable that you know all latinos are all latinos and it doesn't matter whether you're from Peru or Puerto Rico or where are you from Belgium from Mexico from Mexico you know like you know we're all the same we're all want the same and and when we say coche carro auto like there's so many things that even the writers and the show runners should be aware of when they're representing a latino or latina person on screen so I think that's a problem that in order to fix it I think we just need to be more assertive and saying you know latinos come in all kinds of colors we're white we're brown we're black we are all you know we have different religions there are muslim latinos and latinos there are jewish latinos and latinos and it's about kind of creating that rainbow of diversity and that beautiful rainbow of diversity that we are so in terms of how actors can be proactive about it I think it's just answering to the calls that are for their um that are within their wheelhouse but at the same time I don't want to limit anyone to uh if if it says that the role is supposed to be a white guy why can't a brown guy go and audition for that role and maybe they'll line it by that I don't mean if they're looking for a 15 year old girl don't go as a 30 year old man to audition for that role because I get a lot of those submissions too you know but but you know I guess there's there's a certain amount of risk that you can take and what's the worst that could happen that they say no and then you just move on it's part of you know the yeah for sure you're gonna get a hundred no's before you get that one yes just have to keep trying and not give up when you were speaking about like there's different kinds of Latinx and different kind of Hispanic in our community it's so funny because a lot of the time when somebody's like oh can you do a Spanish accent I I'm like do you mean Spain they're like no no no where are you from and I'm like Mexico they're like yeah just let your natural accent come out and I'm like I came here when I was four I can try and replicate my mom because she has an accent I'm just like can you tell me at least like Mexican accent I a lot of times I don't know the times that I've actually specified I need a Hispanic actor are my own projects and like projects from like friends because it comes from a client if it comes from Starbucks or if it comes from Facebook or whatever they just say ethnically ambiguous they want someone of color kind of but that we're not sure where they're from I know but we don't like maybe like they don't know 99% of the jobs that I cast commercials are this character is you know it used to be back in the day minority but you know thankfully they don't no longer use that anymore thankfully and that wasn't that far back when they changed it to ethnically ambiguous and that's everything that's Black the Hispanic that's mixed race that's Middle Eastern that's you know Asian that's everything and so we get like hundreds of thousands of submissions and it's it's crazy so a lot of times the client and this is I think this is less film because I think the director has someone in mind they usually have written with someone in mind this is for commercials yes no they want someone POC and and so you should submit going to the ethnically ambiguous I can also relate to that and I also feel like maybe it's our job as casting directors to to help the client define that a little bit more because I've also encountered that and ethnically ambiguous and this this is I'm calling out all the clients that I've had and not mentioning one in particular that they would say and ethnically ambiguous but they don't mean too black or too brown they don't want that and that pisses me off there's definitely still a sense of the client uh knowing this is they don't want to alienate and to me this is very old school but if you're going for commercial work the client doesn't want to wants to be safe wants to doesn't want to alienate so that really tells us so we're still living in a racist society I mean what I do as a casting director and this is also good to remember for actors that in commercial work and in a lot of work that the casting director is not the sale be all that you're selling the actor to the client and we can push for sure and know that people like event myself are pushing when they say you know like what are your selects I will definitely make them see that there are other options to what they were originally looking for and other stories that can tell or that can represent their brand or you know with their message the head of the agency that I successfully work is also very good at this and does that you know without being an actor you know very much pushes for another perspective I also think it's important to keep in mind uh definitely abled trends that so it's always important to to open up the conversation to different possibilities that maybe they weren't aware of to begin with because sometimes like it sometimes it's like sometimes people are straight up racist but sometimes like people just haven't thought about it like it hasn't even occurred to them because of the way that they are like their abilities and the abilities that they have seen on screen they're that's just the norm and where you're like oh how about just somebody in a wheelchair or some how about somebody that's blind you know and they're like oh that could work and I never even thought about it so I think yeah definitely that's important. Going back to the other question of what you can do is just just go for it because even if as an actor you know maybe you're indigenous and you think whatever Liberty Mutual is never gonna go for someone like me to represent their brand but a lot of also times there are looking for you know someone different they just don't know what and so if you you're like hey look at me I've got shaved head and I'm indigenous and you know I'm uh non-binary or whatever I mean that's awesome because there are also people that were like I need something new and this is fresh and exciting and uh so just submit be true to yourself represent yourself yeah and just keep keep submitting because a lot of people especially newer actors I'm in my experience I've seen that they submit so many things and they're like oh well I've had a casting networks account for six months and I haven't gotten anything I'm like okay keep submitting what do your photos look like do you have any actors clips do you know how to do a self-tape audition you know what do those things look like because that might be the barrier and then if they're like oh I just have one picture or what's a self-tape and I'm like oh yes those are those are things that I I think we can talk about for forever and also uh you um actors if if they're tied on money they don't need to pay for accounts in order to get auditions there are many plays where they can go and Facebook and Instagram with like I've also um found people by DMing or by searching hot hashtags like I did a Dove um Dove commercial recently I found a lot of my people through just hashtagging certain things and then they will come up and then I will DM them and some people one person was like this this is shady and I'm like well you can you know here's a website totally understand totally respected if if you know you you know you see that I'm legit fantastic if not have a great life I really appreciate your time um but and then I think that I pose in Facebook uh groups all the time so all cities should have like an actor's talent and there's like houses of those and then you can be savvy about it so you don't have to break the bank if you don't have the extra funds that was going to that is one of my questions is what casting websites do you use and then what non-traditional um ways to cast you use you said you use a lot of Facebook groups used Instagram so what you guys use casting networks for and tier what casting websites do you use all of that off yeah and actors access to yeah I use for a lot of times I don't have time to use Instagram unfortunately um a lot of times the jobs come in and they want someone booked in three days and I don't have time for that I just post on actors access and I think I don't know I mean maybe you can test this as actors access one of the cheapest out there to post or or to to to sign up and some actors access is very fairly priced the super expensive one is casting networks before they did the merged thing I was paying a little more than $500 a year for two accounts because I had my la in my San Francisco yeah cities I I love casting networks yeah because I I find it uh it's really easy to search for talent like sometimes people submit and people are great the submissions are great but sometimes I'm looking for something very specific and I love their search algorithm your talent I can I can I can look all five eight people like and then I'll have thousands of people that are just five eight and I don't think a lot of I don't know I don't think um actors access can do that and I don't like breakdown express and I don't think uh casting frontier can do that so I'm very surprised because I assume that all of these casting websites when you log on I assumed you would be able to do that not easily and you guys pay in order to post yeah that's that's why it works right but um going back to actors access is one thing that me off it's like the they can't you have to actually filter through union known union and I I love that in casting networks they say it right away and it's really simple to see it and when you're when you're casting a job that's union or non-union like you can't you know you can't do either or it's easier to see thumbnails of thousands of people and like just you know be able to know right away if they're union or non-union um I also wanted to ask you ladies if there's anything that you see in self tapes that mistakes that happen all of the time that you would just like to bring some light to and this is especially for the newer actors that maybe haven't done it so much but I would love to hear like something that just gets you a little frustrated because you see it like 10 times a day I'll let Roxana start on this one if it's I guess if it's like two to three line sides sides you know like a dialogue be off don't read to me I don't know when I was in the room when I used to cast in the room a lot um obviously pre-pandemic pre-pandemic um I would not mind if someone was reading at all like call back yes I mean if you're in a call back I mean just be a book you know like because casting commercials you have to shoot you know the director gets has to shoot everything in a day two days if if they're not if you know they're not going to be able to memorize lines immediately that's like no go you need to come prepared to a call back like 100% and now in an audition it's fine if you come in with the sides in the hand and you're reading totally fine but like when someone's obviously reading you know it's like you're just put it in print if you need words just just put them I have a video of this of course but I have a teleprompter app that pops up right on your screen so that can even be your eyeline if you put it opposite of your camera and I have used that before when it's it's like okay you know you need to perform this monologue and it's a long monologue and I'm like I can get it down 90% and then if I could just take a quick look you know then I could be off book and perform so much better so I love that yes you can memorize your lines especially if it's just a few lines like you can do it and if you're bad at memorizing practice because you will get so much better a couple of things on that the first is if you're going to do two takes do two very different takes like just kind of don't give me the same read because what's the point right that's the point of two takes do one interpretation and then maybe like go a little nuts or you know be creative with it it's fine but I want to see a range I think that's the most important thing that casting directors look like look for is that someone can go from point A to point B and then the other two things are very technical horizontal please like unless I'm asking you specifically to do it vertical because that's the spot because keep in mind I'm sharing this with a client it's not going to look good you're going to look like the jerk that that did vertical and everybody else is going to do horizontal and also like this is this is a good acceptable thing I don't need to see this and I don't need to see this hi oh gosh yes I get that still yes yeah and I have a lot of videos yeah about those sort of thing I'm just yeah clear like I would not audition in front of this unless it was you know a commercial audition for that's a set table at home you know usually I have paper backdrops I'm just like look at me you don't need to know what I have back here but if the script is you know she's in her living room it's actually pretty helpful you know to be to be in on set you know that looks like a set you know because it helps the client see what they're going to look like in the commercial and that is why like like if I love somebody I'll have them and they're like this and I'm just like oh my god but their look is so perfect I'll have them do it again you know and I'll tell them yeah yeah right yeah and props can work too if it doesn't get too distracting like if the script has a prop I love it when you know like if it's a phone call I love it when you actually have a phone instead of an air phone yes because why not you have a phone why not use it right and then the last thing about this is like please label your file because we get so many submissions and if you lose someone they're not going to get in the pit because you're like I don't I don't know who this person right and like sometimes you do have the time and energy to look through and find it but especially if your email is wan guy at gmail.com like how am I going to find you and how do you like people to label your files usually my agents have um first name first name last name and then the role and then they're the agent the agents uh the agency I usually watch auditions through you can pass on actors access if I if I'm doing it all through actors access but sometimes they're late or or someone has a valid excuse and they just or their agents just send me the file in email definitely always include role in there and uh and and uh first and last name of the talent yeah those just three things are important to me I don't know if I need anything else yeah 100% I don't need the agent I I don't need the even the project name like I just need the role and the name of the person cool that's super helpful I was thinking that I don't know if I've actually seen any conversation with actor and casting directors because this is also helpful for me as a casting director to know how what an actress thinks yeah so this is like a very good thing I would love to do like other videos where we talk the whole time about one thing specifically because I feel like I was trying to move us along because I can talk forever thank you ladies so much for joining me today I'm excited to share this information with everybody and um thank you any anything else you want to say let us know what is helpful and what you would like to see you know what questions you have so we can try to pull a point of the instagram account is is to inspire and guide you if you're you know new to the industry new to in front of camera um to help you thank you so much Yvette and Roxana for coming onto my channel today I really really really appreciate it and I hope you guys enjoyed it please leave any questions if you want us to include it in future videos like Roxana was saying it is beneficial for the both of us and you know we're like co-workers they're casting directors we're actors we're co-workers that haven't met yet so it's a really great opportunity to be able to chat with them and get some questions answered so thank you so much for watching and at the end of every video I feature another channel this is today's feature if you would like to be featured on my next video make sure you're subscribed like this video and leave me a comment