We speak to casting directors Nina Gold and Martin Ware about their work on ‘Conclave’ and assembling a multinational cast.
In the world of casting, award-winning casting director Nina Gold has the Midas touch when it comes to finding the right actor for the job. She’s responsible for finding the acting talent who brought beloved characters to life in The Crown, Slow Horses, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The King’s Speech, Game of Thrones, and so much more.
Alongside her associate casting director, Martin Ware, the pair have worked on and won casting awards for This Is Going To Hurt and Baby Reindeer, as well as Star Wars series Andor.
In their latest project together, Gold and Ware have assembled a stellar ensemble for Edward Berger’s latest film, Conclave. Spotlight members Ralph Finnes, Stanley Tucci and Lucian Msamati star alongside John Lithgow and the magnificent Isabella Rossellini, to tell the story of ‘Cardinal Lawrence’ [Finnes]. As he leads the meeting of cardinals to find a new Pope, Lawrence finds himself at the centre of a deep-rooted conspiracy that could shake the core of the Catholic Church as we know it.
The mystery thriller, based on the novel by Robert Harris, also happens to be one of our ‘must watch’ picks from the BFI London Film Festival.
Speaking from their London office, Gold and Ware, spoke to our Casting Networks colleagues about their journey into casting and finding “great actors, at the top of their game”:
Hi Nina and Martin! How did you get into casting?
Martin Ware: I went to drama school and trained to be an actor, and then very quickly, after leaving drama school, realised that that wasn’t going to be for me. I didn’t get any jobs, and I just thought, “I better try something else.”
I started doing a bit of work experience with some casting directors, and it suited me. The life and the creative aspect and being with actors and working with scripts and stories. That was 15, 16 years ago.
Nina Gold: I didn’t start in acting (laughs). I’m terrible at acting.
I was a student, and I used to help friends who were working in costumes and styling on music videos in the 1980s. I thought I wanted to work on making films of some description and as I started doing that, I realised that the people and the characters and the actor’s side of it was the bit I liked. Gradually, very gradually, one thing led to another in a very slow, step-by-step kind of way.
How did you transition from helping friends to now being a prolific casting director?
Nina: When I started, I didn’t know much about anything, but was very keen to learn and try anything. Standing outside nightclubs at three in the morning saying to people who looked right, “Do you want to be in a video tomorrow?”
My obsession as a child was reading the Radio Times [cast lists] and [seeing] who was in which programme. I moved from music videos to TV commercials and then did some TV. It was all about learning as you go.
Eventually, I somehow – God knows how – got a job with Mike Leigh, who gave me a crash course in learning all about every actor in Britain. That was incredibly interesting and taught me a hell of a lot. It is a constant learning curve. You can’t ever think you know it all.
Nina Gold / Image credit: Teri Pengilley
What were the challenges of casting something as large as Conclave?
Nina: Well, we were keen to try and be faithful in some way to the fact that the Vatican is, I imagine, very multinational. People from everywhere. That was quite a challenge to make that right. Also, the writing is so great and the parts are so appealing that we felt we could go to the person of our dreams in every case. Great actors at the top of their game.
What was it about Isabella Rossellini that made you think of her for the role of ‘Sister Agnes’?
Nina: Partly that she’s got that Italian thing, but also because she seemed like a person who could deliver all of the stuff that she does without much dialogue. She can tell you so much without speaking a lot. Also, casting cardinals and nuns, there are people that you consider and you think they’re good, and then when you imagine this person in a nun’s habit, it’s just completely insane. It didn’t seem crazy to do that with her.
You’ve both cast actors who have been nominated for and won major awards. Is there a satisfaction that comes when the people you cast get recognised by the various academies?
Nina: Yes, it’s lovely. For all that one thinks, ‘Oh, none of this stuff matters’, when it happens, it makes you feel good. People are recognising that, and we’re happy that that’s being celebrated.
When you get a script like Conclave, do you get excited because there are so many great parts?
Martin: It was fantastic because they’ve all got their amazing moments and their great scenes and speeches and head-to-head scenes. It was brilliant, dreaming up lists of these people, imagining various combinations and thinking who would be great with each other. But as Nina said, they were such good parts that you didn’t fear approaching the very best people.
Martin Ware / Image credit: Focus Features
When it comes to auditions, do you find that there are common mistakes that actors make when they’re auditioning?
Martin: I think with some less experienced young actors, the nervousness can mean that they don’t always listen to notes. They’ll do a scene through and then you might give them a few ideas or a few ways to change it, and they’re just in a place where they aren’t listening and then they don’t enact that thing.
This is hard to do because, of course, getting nervous before an audition is normal and, sometimes, helpful. Just be able to come in with an idea of something and then be ready to listen and change things up.
What advice would you give to somebody coming in to audition for you?
Nina: You’ve got the sides, if you haven’t learned it but [are] looking at the page and trying to remember what it is you’re meant to be doing, it’s not conducive to the best possible audition. On the other hand, you still have to retain a way of keeping it new and fresh. It’s a fine balance.
‘Conclave’ is in cinemas now.
