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‘Black Cake’ Casting Director Rose Wicksteed Discusses the Teachings of Casting Legend Nina Gold


March 19, 2024

Rose Wicksteed is like most casting directors in that she took a roundabout way into her career. Her route is especially interesting, but we’ll let her tell you that.

After several years learning from a legend in the field, she has built a career that mixes Indies with studio movies —and plenty of television to boot— on titles like The Conjuring 2, The Nun and its sequel, The Great, Homeland and most recently, Hulu’s Black Cake. We spoke to the London resident at her family’s home in Cornwall.

How did you get into casting?

Like many people, I sort of fell into it. It wasn’t something that I was like, “Oh, I want to be a casting director.” I studied drama at university, and after that, I worked in London in various different jobs in media. I studied more in theater, but the theater was very niche in London at that time. I ended up working in television in a variety of different kinds of jobs, live TV and documentaries, and kind of just moved around as a runner and researcher.

I ended up working on a show about regressing celebrities back to their past lives, and I became in charge of finding extras to play the parts of the celebrities’ past life in historical dramatic reconstructions. It was a very interesting world, I had been wanting to get out of the reality world for a while. I was more interested in working in drama. I felt like, “Oh, I’ve got this experience of casting,” even though I didn’t really know what it was. I just had to find people who appeared to look like Richard the Third or something. [We don’t really know what he looked like,] it was just based on an idea of what he may have looked like. (Laughs)

I took that experience, I basically wrote to every casting director in London, because I felt like, “O, this is a way into drama. I really enjoy learning about people, and understanding what makes them tick. The world of casting is very small, and once you’re in it, if you do a good job, people like you and everything like that, you can get other work off the back of that. I just started freelance assisting different casting directors, and after about six months, I did one day in Nina Gold’s office, which turned into assisting her for a couple of years. Once you’ve worked for a casting director like that, you can work anywhere.

Nina Gold’s name seems to come up a lot lately in various industry conversations I have. It sounds like she was a real mentor for you.

I probably learned everything that was the foundation of what I know about casting. Through a process of osmosis, receiving a huge amount of information and knowledge and discernment and many other things that I may not have understood or processed at the time, but then you recall them later and you value them perhaps in a different way.

Such as?

Her taste, I remember very clearly. In the beginning, she was like, if you have an idea for someone or something, suggest it. Then, you might suggest it and she would say no. I didn’t really understand that then, but taste is very subjective. This is part of the art and craft of casting, is that everyone has their opinion, and it’s not a matter of right or wrong. This is, I think, essentially the basis of the creative process.

It sounds to me like what you’re talking about with Nina was starting to understand what her taste was, and knowing that, discovering the ability to define your own. Is that right?

I think so. Having that more discerning eye. I also get this thing, and I don’t know really how to describe it, but I have this feeling when we’re not quite there. We haven’t quite got the person that I think is the one. It’s kind of intuitive.

I think something all casting directors have in common is that you’re all perfectionists.

I feel that. I do think we need to have that vision. Many times, a director might not choose your choice, and at the beginning of my career, I would take it very personally. Now I’ve relaxed into the process of knowing you can’t control everything.

What piece of advice or wisdom would you give to someone coming in to audition for you?

I normally say to just be yourself. I truly believe that the more we come back to ourselves and meet how we are in that moment, whatever it is, and then just use that, that’s real for you in the moment. Just bring it into the audition. And also, to relax and enjoy it. I think that’s the most important thing.

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