Lacara have been out and about chatting to London’s top casting agents, let us introduce Louise Mason casting associate at Mark Summers Management.
Louise works for Mark Summer’s who has an amazing figure of over 14,000 casting credits to his name and really knows the business inside and out. Louise is literally Mark’s right hand and has recently become a Casting Associate Director at Mark Summers Management. Lets find out what life is like working for such a prestigious Casting director.
How long have you worked for Mark?
I have worked for Mark for 12years- 13 years in Feb 2017, and time really does fly when having fun!
Did you plan on getting into this business and to become a Casting Associate?
Not on this side of the camera originally but as a child and teenager I worked on many different commercials, Tv shows & theatre. I believed my dream was in musical theatre & to be on the west end stage, but when it came down to it I just didn’t see myself fighting & hustling every day for auditions & when I was starting out musical theatre was mostly very large open call auditions with hundreds of people & it was a lot harder to get an agent.
So decide this was the next best thing… And I love it & have never looked back.
Do you remember your first day?
Not my first day but my interview for sure! Mark didn’t even speak to me he was so engrossed in a casting he was working on, one of his previous colleagues interviewed & hired me on the spot.
What would be a typical day for you? If there is a typical day!
Yep never a typical day in casting! I can go to meeting clients, to seeing between 30-60 optional actors or be on the phones all day! 80% of the time its very fast paced and buzzy around the office, switching between sometimes 2-3 jobs a day, on the down time it is still busy dealing with all the aftermath of the previous jobs.
Do you work long hours?
Yes the hours are long as we need to be available at all times as many of our clients are all over the world meaning we deal with many time zones.
Who is the biggest celeb you have met?
I would say Madonna or George Michael would be the biggest.
What is the best known role you have cast for?
I think it has to be the Michael Jackson’s ‘This is it tour’, which sadly was cancelled but we are still very proud to have been a part of it.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work for or become a casting director?
I would suggest you try and get as much experience as possible, which can be very challenging as almost all the new people to the industry will work as an intern for many places before they can get a full time position or start up on their own, its about establishing good relationships with clients, agents & actors. Always networking.
Whats Mark like to work for?!
Mark is a great boss we are very much opposites and rarely agree on many situations but it really works for us and gives a great balance to the office. We are lucky that the whole office is like a family we are all very close & we even bring the dogs to work!
It was a pleasure chatting to Louise, read our next interview with the big boss of Casting, Mark Summers