Casting Insights: How María Rodrigo Helped Shape ‘Sirāt’

One of the big surprises that came from the Academy’s shortlist of potential nominees for the first-ever Casting Oscar was a Spanish film called Sirāt, about a man who ventures into the North African desert trying to find his missing daughter, his young son in tow. Co-written and directed by Óliver Laxe and starring Sergi López as the desperate dad, Bruno Núñez Arjona as his son, and a group of non-professional actors — Richard Bellamy, Stefania Gadda, Joshua Liam Henderson, Tonin Janvier and Jade Oukid — the devastating drama has been called “a rave at the end of the world.”

The unique casting process came with a unique list of credited casting directors. Five people earned credits on the film: Nadia Acimi, Luis Bértolo and María Rodrígo, with additional casting by Erika Boulic and Artur-Pol Camprubi. María Rodrígo took time out from her busy schedule to talk to us from Spain.

Key Insights

• Sirāt’s casting relied on a highly collaborative, multi-casting-director approach that blended traditional casting expertise with deep immersion into real-world communities.

• Improvisation during the casting process was essential to ensuring stylistic continuity between professional actors and non-professionals.

• The film’s emotional authenticity is rooted in intuitive casting choices that prioritized magnetism, sensitivity, and lived experience over conventional resumes.

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How did you come to work on the film in the first place?

I was called in to take charge of the professional actors for the film and advise on the final selection of non-professional actors. Nadia Acimi, who was in charge of this aspect, did a fantastic job, and they had a wide range of options.

I noticed that there are a lot of casting credits on this movie. How did that all work? It feels like it might have been a complicated situation.

They dedicated a lot of time to the process, and many trips to raves, in which colleagues like Luis Bértolo and Erika Boulic also participated, for example, in addition to filming in different locations. But the production team would actually be able to answer that better.

It looked to me like you were the only casting director with real, extensive casting experience. Is that correct?

Yes, it’s different for me too, compared to how I usually work, but if you look at other departments it also happens; they have very large teams. Cendrine Lapuyade is also part of the casting team. She’s a casting director whom I admire a lot.

Let’s talk about the work you did with the professional actors, starting with Sergi López. I’ve seen him in a lot of stuff over the years. How did that come together?

With Óliver we worked from the very beginning, during the casting process, using improvisation. This is tricky because not everyone is comfortable in this situation, but it was incredibly important for what the filming would entail. Because it was essential that there not be a stylistic leap between the non-professional and professional actors.

We did a lot of tests, with actors who were more or less well-known, and Sergi did a job that really stood out. It was fantastic, because we all admire him so much and were really looking forward to working with him. He’s a huge asset to the film.

That’s interesting. So was there a lot of improvisation in the film, as well? Was it a situation where Oliver had the story mapped out, but you found the characters and the dialogue along the way?

No, there was a script, of course. One of the best I’ve read to date, by the way. But I wasn’t on set, so I don’t know what the work was like, I’m sorry.

No, no, it’s fine, I was just curious because of what you said regarding the improv in the casting process. What about Bruno Núñez Arjona, who is terrific as Esteban?

Bruno has done a magnificent job, he steals your heart in the film. I think he is the perfect link, not only between two worlds in the narrative, but also between these two worlds that coexist professionally. These two different ways of working, or of approaching a film shoot, I think he and Sergi make a winning team. There was chemistry between them from the start.

The idea from the beginning was to look for a non-professional child, but we were looking for such a specific way of observing the world, such a special sensitivity, that we opened the call for applications to reach more options.

Bruno had just finished a fantastic job in La Mesías, a series by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, playing a very challenging role. He hasn’t done anything else since, as far as I know, but what a start!

I was blown away by him, but was also really impressed with the non-professionals. There are so many interesting faces and personalities in the film. How did you go about casting the non-professionals? You talked about Luis and Erika’s contributions, but as the person in charge, I’m curious about that process of finding them and getting them camera ready.

I’m responsible for selecting professional actors. The selection process for the raver group was separate from mine. Nadia, Luis, Oliver, etc., are a team that often works together on various aspects, Nadia is also the costume designer, for example.

They know each other well and function very organically. That’s undoubtedly the magic of the film: Jade, Bigui, Steff and Tonin, they are memorable, they make you feel very strong things, you want to know more about them. They form a landscape in themselves. I truly applaud the work they’ve done.

I was going to ask about them, of course, because they are all impressive. I also thought it was funny that they all used their real names in the movie. You said at the start that you advised on their final selection. Can you talk about what made them stand out? Did they each just bring their own personalities to their roles? Or was that totally separate from your work?

It’s not easy to face a camera and an unreal situation and convey truth. The acting profession is truly complicated. You can acquire tools over time, thanks to training and experience, but intuition and magnetism.

I think those are qualities you either have or you don’t, and they’re not common. If you’re also searching within such a specific group, the options are obviously reduced. There aren’t millions of people to choose from.

In this case, there was also the issue of language. It was a plus if they could communicate in Spanish, since Spain is not a country where this culture is prevalent, they are all foreigners. The four of them stood out for all of this.

This is a big deal, the first-ever Casting Oscar, and you’re now on a very short and exclusive list of people who might be among the first casting directors ever nominated for an Academy Award. What was your reaction when you heard that you were shortlisted?

You can imagine… I couldn’t believe it, so so happy for all the colleagues on the film’s casting team,
which, as you rightly said, is quite a few of us. Here in Spain we have been fighting for this recognition
for many years, and we have not achieved anything so far.

It is necessary, it is fair, in an industry that
also prides itself on the plurality it represents. We, the casting directors, work with memory, we build
teams, and it was about time they remembered us and made us feel part of it.. . I feel incredibly grateful
and proud.

Key Takeaways

• Casting directors can play a crucial role in unifying disparate performance styles through early experimentation and actor chemistry tests.

• Non-professional actors can deliver extraordinary on-screen truth when casting focuses on intuition, presence, and cultural specificity.

• The Academy’s recognition of casting highlights the craft’s growing visibility and the long-fought push for industry-wide acknowledgment.