Luci Lenox has been a staple of Barcelona’s film scene for nearly 30 years, and has an international profile that most professionals would kill for.
She’s worked on shows as diverse as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, The Crown and Victoria, and movies like Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and Hustle. One of her latest projects, the crime thriller Islands, hits theaters January 30. She spoke to us from her home office in Barcelona.
Key Insights
- When auditioning internationally, anchor yourself in why you are the right fit, because confidence travels further than trying to match someone else’s idea of the role.
- Your cultural background and perspective aren’t obstacles, they’re often the exact lens casting is looking for in global projects.
- Focus on clarity, presence, and emotional truth, since those are the universal currencies that connect with casting directors across languages and borders.
How did you get into casting in the first place?
I’m very much a product of my time and my generation. I’m Irish. Ireland was not a wealthy European country like it is now. I went to college in the U.K., and then I did my junior year abroad in Barcelona in the ’80s, and it was an amazing city. It still is, but it was a really fun time. It was just before the Olympics had come here, there was a real buzz, and it was meant to be just one of those great years of your life.
I finished my degree, and had a very clear idea that I wanted to work in NGOs and make the world a better place. But there was no work, and I didn’t realize that I wanted to help people who were poor, not become poor, but I quickly found out that what I was going to do was going to make me poor, which had never entered into my plans.
When did you end up back in Barcelona?
I ended up living in Italy for a bit, then came back here. I didn’t really want to teach English, which is what a lot of the people do when they move to another city, so I started running nightclubs, which I did for a long time. I set up some clubs with some other friends of mine, and they were very successful.
I was very lucky, because I got to know everybody in the city. I did the guest list, and I was also allowed to give as many free drinks away as I wanted, so I was very popular. That’s when I met actors. I met filmmakers. I met people in the film industry.
What was it about casting that spoke to you?
I love problem-solving, the idea that every project is a problem to be solved. I like people. I also like weird people. I like brave people. I feel that people who work in the film industry usually are brave in the sense that they’re not doing something that’s logical. That’s why I love actors, and I love people who are left fielders.
An actor is somebody who everybody told them, “Don’t do that,” and they do it anyway. And they have passion. I love story. I love narrative, and I really enjoy reading scripts. I’m also quite nerdy. I like technology, and I like Excel. I actually like putting lists together and doing the deals. I’m so happy because I actually love every single part of my job, except two bits.
Which are the two bits?
One is letting actors know that they didn’t get the role. I find that very difficult, because I believe, and I really wish that actors knew this, that we as casting directors never put forward anybody who we don’t believe in. I’m happy with whoever gets the role, and I think they forget that we’re not over them. The second one is when I don’t get paid and I have to chase production companies.
Do you find that you have an advantage working in Barcelona and being multilingual?
Yeah, totally. I mean, I’m very lucky. I always say that I owe my entire career to the fact that Pep didn’t speak English, and still doesn’t, because his generation studied French here. If he had [spoken] English, he wouldn’t have made me a joint casting director with him as early in my career. It was a door opener.
There are plenty of other people who speak English now, but there weren’t so many when I started. It’s also an advantage to have a different perspective. I know who an American thinks is good looking, and that’s very different from who a Spanish person thinks is good looking. Or humor, or energy. It’s also the ability to know the different worlds, see things in different ways.
Do you find that Spanish actors are different from English-speaking actors?
It depends. I know actors from all over the world. There are some fundamental differences in terms of how people are trained. For example, Russian actors, when they go to drama school, they go eight hours a day, and they have to learn lines outside of those eight hours.
They come out extremely well trained, but they’re always looking for somebody to tell them that they’ve done a good job. Whereas American actors are much more independent, more self validating. I’ve asked actors from over 75 countries their origin story, and it nearly always is the same. It goes back to childhood. It goes back to wanting to be seen. It goes back to be wanting to be heard.
The other thing is anxiety, which is something that I think we need to talk more about in the industry. I think a lot of actors suffer from anxiety, but they found peace at that moment when they’re acting, because once you’re properly acting, that external voice is switched off, and you’re in the moment. I think it’s very important that if you are an actor who suffers from anxiety, you think, “Oh, I found this thing that gives me joy and peace,” [and] to treat the anxiety as well, because [it] makes it worse when you get rejected for a role.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re in Hawaii, Russia, France, Mozambique. It’s the same thing, and it’s very important for people to know that I think actors from all over the world have so much in common, but it’s their differences that make them interesting.
There’s also the escape and being able to inhabit the world of someone else.
That’s what I meant. It’s because you’re not you anymore, so it’s all switched off and you’re just 100% being somebody else, and that’s great, but you can’t take that home. You can’t take that into your relationship with your friends, your family, your partners. That’s where some actors struggle. Find the balance, so that you remember the joy.
What piece of advice would you give to somebody coming in to audition for you?
When they receive the audition from me, sit for 10 minutes before they start preparing, before they start investigating, before they do all the work that needs to be done. Just sit, have a coffee, have a tea, do something, and think, “Why am I right for this role?”
What is it that made Luci’s office ask me to come in, and connect with why they’re totally perfect for the role, because then all the preparation will be done from a position of self confidence, and when you do it from self confidence, you’re not out there trying to prove something.
Remember, you don’t have to prove to me that you can act. You just have to connect with this wonderful world and this character that I have invited you to play with.
