The Acting Podcast

Ep. 38: Richard Hicks, CD: We’re All In This Together

Show Notes: Season 1!

Show Notes: Season 2!

Show Notes: Season 3!

Richard Hicks is a Casting Director for film, television and theatre (see bio below). He’s done it all, he loves it all, and his work is beautiful. We’re excited to have you listen to our conversation with Richard, and we hope that it humanizes casting directors even more, which is one of our missions- to remind each other and our community always that we are ALL dancing between art and commerce, and we are doing it together. That the faces of the business are simply human beings, often vulnerable, navigating the Industry while making work the best they know how. And that casting directors love actors and are your champions. Richard has always been and will always be that. 

“We love you. There are so many things that you cannot control. But know that there are people out there who are waiting for you to send out a little signal for us to hear. You have to have the faith to keep putting out that signal like a firefly. Like we will see it, we are waiting to see it. We are in the forest looking and you have to have the faith enough to keep putting that little light out there.”

Richard Hicks

“I just grew up at a time where I couldn’t name one female director…or not a single woman would get on stage to accept a producer award at the Oscars…representation matters because if you don’t see it, you don’t know that you can do it. Being a woman on the other side of the camera was not something that I ever saw.”
-Ellyn Jameson

“Then the desperation went away and I had an ease in audition rooms that I’d never had before because I had a life outside of wanting someone to pick me.”
-Dominic Burgess

“It happened entirely because I was following the path that was put in front of me without a tremendous amount of judgment around it. And I’m a judgy motherfucker…if I can do this, anyone can.”
-Johnathan McClain

“Walk into every room, and everything you ever write, and everything you create, and just make it you, just authentically you. And most of the time, the people who’ll respond to it will love it because you’re being yourself and there’s only one of you in the world. And it feels amazing when you put yourself forward and people reward you for it.”
-Caroline Lindy

Guests & Resources:

Here’s some of what Richard Hicks has accomplished in the past decades… so far… 

Richard’’s films include Hell or High Water, The Mustang, Together Together, Gravity, Zero Dark Thirty, Hairspray, Lars And The Real Girl, O.G., Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind, Walter Salles’ On The Road and Ken Loach’s Bread and Roses. Upcoming films include Luckiest Girl Alive (Netflix), Samaritan (Amazon Prime) , Family and Lost On A Mountain in Maine.  Richard also casts for the Sundance Directors Lab.

Richard is an Emmy winner for HBO’s Game Change as well as a three-time Emmy nominee for Recount, Temple Grandin and the series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Other work for television includes ROAR (AppleTV+), American Gods (Starz), Married (FX), The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for Anthony Minghella, along with numerous other pilots and series.  Upcoming work includes the limited series The Last Thing He Told Me (AppleTV+).

Richard is also a two-time past president of the Casting Society of America, a current governor of the Casting Directors branch at AMPAS, and a founding member of the Casting Directors union, the CSA.

Credits:

Producer:
Staff
Tech + Design:
Jennifer Lynn Warren, Steven Kovacs
Music:
Sam Dewees + Andy Abelow
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