Meet the Casting Director: Carla Stronge on ‘Kneecap’

Hi, Carla. How did you first get started in casting?

I’d say I fell into it. I was an extras coordinator at the time because I loved being on set and had been an AD [Assistant Director] for a good while. A film needed an extras coordinator and I took up that mantle and quite quickly became known as the extras girl and did a lot of big open castings. As a result, I ended up being in a lot of casting situations where I was casting kids or small parts. I spent a lot of time in rooms with directors, showing them faces and finding out what they responded to.

I suppose it was a bit of a natural evolution because there weren’t any casting directors in Northern Ireland when I was working there. They were all in London, LA or New York. So I was the boots on the ground. I was the legs. It just so happened [that] whenever we started casting for Game of Thrones, I was going to be the extras coordinator on that. The producer said, “Why don’t you help the casting directors?” And that completely demystified the process for me. I got to spend the week in a room with Robert Sterne and do all eight seasons of local casting and learn how to do deals and all that stuff. It was like a natural progression.

What were your dreams and desires coming into this industry and how close are you to achieving them?

Oh, deep question. I studied at Westminster University and did film and TV there. I think I just really wanted to understand the human condition through storytelling – what it is to be human, the truth of human existence. And that’s what I look for in a lot of the stuff I watch. I think the more projects I get to explore that in, and you could get to explore it in all of them, in every single character you look for – the better.

It says on your website that your first official casting credit was ‘Game of Thrones’ in 2010, but you’ve been casting for a lot longer than that. Did getting that first casting credit change the type of work you were doing?

It did, yes. After I spent the first series of Game of Thrones being the extras coordinator and doing local casting, it was only when we got to the end of the first series that we realised I’d cast about 50 parts, and it was a huge cast. Nina [Gold] and Robert did all the big parts and heavy lifting. I had a very young child and the allure of being in a car park at 3am had sort of lost its gleam. I turned around to the producers of Game of Thrones and said, “Listen, I just want to do local casting. I don’t want to do the extras anymore.” And they said, “That’s fine, as long as you teach someone else how to do that.” And then Nina asked me to do some stuff in Shadow Dancer and The Fall, and I just kept falling into it.

What do you love about your job?

I get to watch incredible performances every day. And every day is different, and I get to connect with people and think about what it is to be human. It’s a real pleasure, honour and gift.

[Actors] often make [my dreams] come true whenever they do a great take. I’m like, “Yes, we’ve got them.” It’s priceless. All of it is priceless. 

What are some of the challenges you might face as a casting director?

I think you always need a bit of diplomacy. You’re always going to have a committee to please. Everybody, particularly in the creative industries, tends to have a strong opinion, and sometimes it’s just trying to navigate that and create a space where you can interrogate some of those strong opinions, and keep everyone talking rather than shutting down. I think diplomacy is the number one challenge sometimes.

What are some of your career highlights so far?

They’ve all been [highlights], but obviously Game of Thrones was massive. It was nearly a decade of my life and it was just incredible to be involved in that on my doorstep in Belfast. Hollywood had come to town and I was part of it. And The Fall being so successful, Derry Girls being so successful. Obviously, now, Kneecap as well. I just feel like I’m incredibly blessed.

Carla Stronge / Image credit: YellowBelly Photo

What is the industry like in Ireland?

It’s a small industry, but we now have a good two or three decades of really high-end work under our belts. But we’re still straddling crossroads where we are local crew to facilitate bigger productions coming from London, England, America, or elsewhere in the world, and trying to build our indigenous voice and our own stories, and giving the people that have worked so hard over the last while, and all the new people coming in as well, the opportunities to be heads of departments in their own right, and hold their own with those counterparts. That’s always going to be the rub. And [in Belfast], we are maybe 10 [years] or maybe a bit more behind the industry in Dublin. That got a bit of a head start on us. But I think we’re making up for it. I think we’re doing okay.

How do you use Spotlight in your job?

I use it all the time. Whenever I’m thinking about any character, I go through different stages where, depending on where the actors have to be from – if they’re going to be UK and Ireland – yeah, I’ll do a Spotlight search and I’ll make a shortlist. Then I might shortlist that down again and tweak it and come back to it the following day and still see if I agree with my thoughts that day if they’ve stuck.

So, you tend to make lists and pen and paper help me whittle it down. But yeah – I love a Spotlight search. I love a filter tool. I love a myriad of accents – Belfast, Derry. I just love looking at people’s headshots. I’m a real stalker!

What else do you look for when you’re viewing a performer’s Spotlight profile?

Experience. You’re looking to see if they’ve been on a professional set before. And that’s where those programmes like Doctors or Children’s TV, or Hope Street that we do in Northern Ireland, are really invaluable, because you can see that a new actor, even if they’re fresh out of drama school, has been on a set, has done a professional job, knows what to expect. So a bit of experience is always good.

I think you can tell how truthful people are being by their skills and their accents; if there’s too much or too little. And showreels. Even if it’s 30 seconds, I just really like to see how people move and breathe and not necessarily say anything, but you just want to see a bit of them being something. Doesn’t matter what it is, how long it is or how flashy it is, but it’s nice to get a taste of material. Even the monologues and all that kind of stuff, just to see how they carry themselves, is invaluable.

What’s the best way for self-represented performers to stand out when they’re submitting themselves for a role?

On Spotlight, I love the notes section that you get whenever you put out a brief and suggestions – that either the agents make or the artists can make themselves – as to why they resonate, why they think they are whatever it is we’re asking for, whether that’s a skill or a look or whatever. That really helps them stand out. 

In terms of when people email you, you have to use those tokens sparingly. Only do it if you’ve got something really important to tell us, like you’ve just done the award-winning short or you’re doing a really big part in some programme on TV. Get our attention when you need to, not every month. Or if you’ve finally got a really good showreel that you’re proud of and you want someone to watch it.

I think you can tell the people who are trying to second-guess all the skills that somebody might want, somewhere. But we know that people can finesse a lot of those skills. Like if it’s horse riding or singing, we know we can bring in experts to help them with that kind of stuff. So, really be true about what you are really good at and let that stand out. Just be you, fully.

What’s the best piece of advice you could give to a performer?

Do the work. Learn your lines. Just do your work. And if you do the work, the rest will follow, if it’s for you. Put all your energy into the work. And just relax, too. Not everything’s meant for you. [With] every audition you’re going to, do your best and leave those seeds planted wherever you go. They’ll bloom.

How did you first come to be involved in ‘Kneecap’?

It was just a phone call from the producer and the director. They sent me a script. It was one of the best-written and funniest scripts I’d ever read. So I knew Rich [Peppiatt] was a really brilliant writer, and I’d never heard of Kneecap before, actually, because I’m old. As soon as I looked them up and went down that black hole on the internet, I just couldn’t get enough of them. 

They had the same effect on me that they have on everyone else. And I was like, “Yeah, there is something really special here.” And then when I did talk to Rich after that, I could feel that he had as much passion and energy as he was going to need to make that film. I couldn’t wait. I was delighted to be working on it.

What was the casting process like for the film?

Well, we knew that they were going to play themselves no matter what. The same way I feel about comedians, I feel about a lot of musicians. They know how to perform, they put on a persona all the time, and they know how to walk through the curtain. So I didn’t have any doubts about that. I knew JJ [Ó Dochartaigh] had been a teacher. Again, they get up and perform every day in front of a class. I knew Naoise [Ó Cairealláin] was a really accomplished playwright and had a really good dramaturgy background. So I didn’t have too many concerns about them, to be honest. I could see from the energy they had on their music videos that they would bring something worth watching, and we obviously supported them in that with an acting coach for six months before. That really helped them hone their skills. Really, it was just about finding performers that I knew loved a bit of madness, a bit of improv, and were open to working with non-actors, not knowing what [was] going to happen.

Obviously, we had the other magic element of bringing in some people who spoke really beautiful Irish. We took the scene partners of the women they were in relationships with, or their parents, and really dealt with them first. The rest was a very normal casting process of smaller parts. We had a lot of fun doing it and we knew quite quickly with most of them who we would cast opposite.

Did the band members get any say in that process?

I did have to warn Rich that he had to be careful about that, that he could show them the odd thing, but not that they felt that they had an onus on it, but we did want their input. We did want them to be comfortable. We did want them to feel a connection and chemistry with these people. 

The thing that they really wanted input on was the Irish, because they’re so passionate about it and it had to be beautiful. So, that was how they were judging performances, and we had to meet with that sometimes. But luckily, who we found, spoke beautiful Irish.

Production still from ‘Kneecap’ / Image credit: Ryan Kernaghan, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

The film won Best Casting awards at the IFTAs and the BIFAs and you were nominated for a BAFTA and an Artios Award. How did it feel to get that recognition?

A bit mental, really. It was a bit of a surprise. It was such an award darling and the English seemed to love it more than us! There’s the irony. But it was brilliant, it was absolutely amazing. And it felt very special, because it was a project I’d done on my own. It was a subject I was really passionate about. To win the first IFTA for casting was, without a doubt, the best.

You were a judge at the Spotlight Prize 2025 for the Screen Award. What did you think of our showcase of talent this year?

I loved it. I get excited every year when all the graduates come out. It’s just like, “Ooh, it’s new sweets.” It was really reassuring, actually, and it was a really solid bunch and some beautiful pieces [were] picked. You could imagine any of them in lots of different things that we work on. That’s the thing I love to see, like, “Yeah. They’re going to work somewhere. We’re going to work with them on something.”

What would be your dream project to work on?

Kneecap 2? No, I’m only joking. I think it’s a bit like a Nintendo game, isn’t it? Once you do a layer, you want to peek at the next layer and stretch yourself. We’ve just done the new Lisa McGee for Netflix UK. I would love to do a big Netflix or a big HBO someday, when they think I’m grown up enough. You just want to stretch your wings, be given more responsibility, more money, more blue-sky thinking, and just get to look at everyone in the world, not just Irish actors.

Carla’s Insights:

• Prioritise the craft: Learn your lines, do your prep, and focus all your energy on the work itself, not the final outcome.
• Use the notes section when self-submitting: Clearly explain why you specifically resonate with the role when making a submission on a casting brief.
• Ensure you have a showreel: Even if it’s only 30 seconds long, casting directors need to see how you move, breathe and carry yourself in a scene.
• Use direct emails sparingly: Only reach out to casting directors when you have genuinely significant news (like a major award or high-profile role) to share.

Thank you, Carla, for sharing your casting experience and journey with us!

Take a look at our website for more interviews and advice from casting directors.