#15: Come Prepared

Casting director, Hannah Ashby Ward

In this conversation we speak to casting director, Hannah Ashby Ward. We discuss working with actors, industry ignorance and how to prepare for auditions. Hannah Ashby Ward is a London based Casting Director who runs LANE Casting in the UK, and is a partner in the International Company.

Committed to authentic storytelling, diversity and representation, each project is sensitively approached by Hannah to ensure inclusive casting, subverting expectations and ensuring talent feel comfortable and respected during the casting process. Her work ranges from long form narrative and TV series to short films, commercials, music videos, stills and special projects.

It was such an insightful chat with Hannah. Here’s a few key sound bites we loved.

“Come prepared, really have a think about everything you want them to do. Tell them about the project, how you see the character, their motivations, it just builds into a much better performance.”

“If you speak to somebody you’re trying to portray who lives that life, it will be better. It will be so much more authentic and that’s how good storytelling happens.”

“When you know something's going right creatively in the room and you're almost not breathing. And you look around at everyone else afterwards and you’re like…that was fucking good. That's the best moment.”

“You shouldn’t be scared about engaging with a casting director. If you believe in your project and you’ve got a vision for it, then we want to help you bring that to life.”