Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?- Page 2
Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
#25re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 3:14amactually, in Verdi's AIDA isn't Aida usually played by a fat white woman?
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#26re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 7:01amLea Salonga is petite, but she has gotten some very good roles onstage. I guess talent can outweigh some other attributes.
#27re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 8:29am
Cats...in Opera, it doesn't matter. Jessye Norman was in Verdi's Aida, and she is a fat black woman. (Okay, I don't actually know if Jessye was in it or not, but she could have been)
Height is important in the proffesional world. On Broadway, in Les Miserables, they ask for their males to be 5'9", and in Will Rogers Follies, all of the girls had to be about 6'. But, in some shows, it depends on the casting director. In most shows, If you cast a tall lead female, you're gonna need to cast a male who is taller than that female. That's what they do in Callbacks - measure up cast members - see who looks good next to whom. Looks also play apart in that factor - along with chemistry. There's a lot in this business of height, looks, chemistry, etc. People don't get cast because they are not talented, but because of all the other requirements involved.
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#28re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 8:32am
Age is usually the benefactor when it comes to HS.
Try being a 5'9" Freshman...for whatever reason...
They just don't like it!!
Jamie Hat
Broadway Star Joined: 4/5/04
#29re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 10:06amThis is the only business where it's perfectly LEGAL and widely ACCEPTED to discriminate based on looks. Race, height, weight, eye color, get used to it.
CJR
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/03
#30re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 10:24am
I've never been cut from a role for my height (unless you count The Stepford Wives). Then again, I'm very short (5'3"). It's easier to make me taller than it is to make someone shorter.
I'll tell you this though, I learned how to walk and dance in 4 1/2 inch shoes at a very young age 
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robbiej
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#31re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 10:30am
Accept who you are physically and go after those roles. If the issue is weight, you can change that. If it's height...well...you're tall. Can't change that.
Go after the roles that are right for you both as a performer and as a physical being and, someday, if you are successful, you'll be allowed to stray from those roles. But that usually takes a long time and pretty much everyone has to go through it.
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B.B. Wolf
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/26/04
#32re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:35am
Alrighty, this needs to be said:
Casting Directors, for the most part, have no imagination. Why should they? They don't need to. They know what the script calls for and they have hundreds of actors to pick from. If they want a tall blond, they simply wait for a tall blond. If they want a guy who's 5'4", they wait for a guy who's 5'4".
What you are physically like will ALWAYS factor in to whether or not you get the part. The only instance when the CD can be less exacting is when the auditioning person in question is a marquis name. Otherwise folks, ya gotta get used to being typed.
Two cents, tossed.
Word. Word, indeed.
#33re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:40am
I'm six foot five, it's kept me from getting roles before (I can end up looking MUCH taller than a shorter actress.)
Yes, it should be a factor. The visuals onstage are tougher to hide than they are in a movie where you can do a bunch of mid-shots.
A good friend of mine is an excellent all around performer and a good-looking guy but he's only five foot two and he'll never get the typical leading man roles.
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MrBungee7
Stand-by Joined: 1/8/05
#34re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 11:41amI'm very very short (try just under 5 foot) and it really hasn't kept me limited that much (yet). It's not my largest worry of success in the theater world.
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Feodor Sverdlov
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/21/04
#35re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 12:02pmI'm 6'2", and when I was doing shows (for lots of years), I don't recall it ever being an issue. Perhaps that's not too tall. Maybe I just auditioned for roles that I thought I was right for. I don't recall trying out for a show where a 6'2" male was wrong.
scooter3843
#36re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 12:04pmJOhn, I remember having this same conversation with you a while back. haha. I'm gonna go find me a helmet.
#37re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/21/05 at 12:13pmThe only time I think height is or should be a problem, is when you are casting a romantic couple. I know this shouldn't matter, but if the female is significantly taller then her beau, it took take a lot away from the performance. I was 4'10 until the summer of my junior year in HS. I was always cast as a younger role. As a freshman, I was Baby Louise, while a sophmore played Rose and Louise, and a 7th grader was Baby June. The height thing really pissed me off, b/c I thought I would never get any decent parts. Then I grew to a strapping 5'5 and the rest is history...
jarred03
Leading Actor Joined: 10/17/04
#38re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/22/05 at 3:05amAre you guys drunk? 5' 7" AND 5' 10" AREN'T too tall for any part except for maybe Annie or Peter Pan. I'm 6'5" and I still get parts that aren't really for tall people. You just have to focus on roles that aren't height focused. I'm for Wicked, obvious Boq would have to be small because he's supposed to be a munchkin and everybody else is going to have to be taller so he looks short. In movies it tends to make a big difference because they need to get people in the same shot and it's just easier if they are the same height, but 5' 10" is the average hollywood height, so don't worry.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#39re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/22/05 at 3:14am
Jason Alexander is "Abe Lincoln in Illinois"
Just doesn't cut it.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#40re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/22/05 at 3:46am
Firstly, to whoever said that Christopher Fitzgerald was still taller than Kristen Chenoweth - well, yeah, it wouldn't take much - Cheno is 4'11".
But I think height is always something of a factor - not so much in highschool, but there's no way around the fact that a lot of times casting directors are looking for a specific look. And an actor that's too tall or short for that "look" can't do anythign to change it. You're not going to ever be able to be shorter if you're tall, and heels only do so much if you're short.
Is it unfair? Highly. But it's something there's no way around.
eslgr8
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/04
#41re: Should Height be a Huge Issue when casting?
Posted: 1/22/05 at 12:19pmFactors in casting: height, weight, age, etnicity, looks... That's the way it is. Actors need to be realistic as to the type of roles they are right for. Not everyone is the leading man/lady type. Some character actors never get good roles till they're 40+. Ingenue types may have the opposite problem. If a character is written gorgeous, you had better be gorgeous. If a character is a football player, you had better look like you can play football. Height is much less a factor in film/tv (look how many film/tv stars are short or shortish.) So perhaps an actor looking to break into "the business" should also be realistic about what aspect of the business suits him/her best: stage/film/tv/radio? Well, at least in radio it doesn't matter what you look like. (But then you might be disqualified because of the sound of your voice.) Just be realistic. That's probably the best in the end.
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