Casting directors often tend to be private people who don’t love the spotlight, but Italian casting director Michela Forbicioni is a special case.
In a career that has spanned more than two decades, Forbicioni has become one of the most successful casting directors in the Italian film industry, while also working plenty for Hollywood productions including The Passion of the Christ, Mission: Impossible III, Ben-Hur and John Wick: Chapter 2. Her latest project, For Those About to Die, is airing on Peacock.
Insights: What to Expect From Michela Forbicioni
- Actors should be proactive in networking as Forbicioni’s career began by introducing herself to a professional in the industry. Engage in conversations and express interest to create opportunities.
- Actors need to prepare thoroughly for auditions, knowing their lines well to allow for creative freedom. Michela emphasizes the importance of being well-prepared, as it showcases professionalism and dedication.
- Inexperienced actors tend to overact and lack awareness of their scene partners and their own physicality. Actors should work on being present in the scene and using their bodies correctly to convey authenticity.
- Michela enjoys casting new talent, so actors should be open to auditions and persistent in seeking out roles, as casting directors in some markets are actively looking for fresh faces.
- Acting is a profession that requires continuous study and practice. Actors should approach their craft with the discipline of any other professional, always striving to improve and refine their skills.
How did you get into casting?
This question feels like diving into my past! I didn’t always know I wanted to work in casting, but I knew I wanted to work in this industry.
One day I went to lunch with a friend of mine, I must have been 19 or 20, I don’t remember. Anyway, while we were having lunch I heard some people at the table next to ours talking about cinema. Professionals. I went there and introduced myself. That’s how I met Shaila Rubin, a casting director. We exchanged contacts, and some days after, I received a call.
I distinctly remember that moment: I heard Shaila’s deep voice asking me to come to her office whenever I’d been free. I knocked on her door the next day. She took me as her assistant, and I worked alongside her until she died.
What was it about casting that you liked? In my experience, people in casting have “the light bulb moment,” when they realize that they love casting and want to make it their career. Did you have one of those? If so, what was it?
To be honest, I never had one of those. I don’t know what that says about me, but I can tell you that I felt it suited me in a way that I’ve never felt before. I felt I was at the right place at the right time, and I kept going, film after film. I also think that this probably comes from Shaila’s love for this job, and that’s her legacy to me.
Additionally, it’s the only department in the whole industry where you nurture the project from the very beginning. That’s what I love about my job, alongside bringing to life characters that you only see in your head while reading the script.
Photo credit: NBCUThat’s a really good point about casting being the first department on the project, but I think that even still, here in America, casting often is overlooked and doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Is it the same in Italy? In that vein, what are some of the differences, if any, between casting for American films and Italian ones?
This is an important matter to analyze. If that’s the situation you depict in America, I can assure you here it’s much worse. Even though we have a casting directors’ association and we constantly fight for visibility and rights as a category, we are just starting to have prizes (like the David di Donatello, the Italian Oscars) and an actual voice where it matters.
If you think about it, the role of the casting director in Italy came pretty late. It started with Shaila when she moved here. Still today in some productions we have the AD doing the casting. The difference between America and Italy is huge. American productions give us more room, both money-wise and with creativity. For example, with Peacock’s TV series Those About to Die, I had the immense privilege to cast actors from all over Europe, and the mutual trust with the director Roland Emmerich allowed me to give him bold choices that would’ve been looked down upon here in Italy, in most cases.
Why do you think this is? Plenty of American productions have little to no money — it’s pretty much the definition of independent film — so why do you think Italian filmmakers are so dismissive of the craft of casting?
In Italian productions, usually, the casting director’s power only goes so far. Productions often go after the same few strong talents we have here (those talents ensure further funding, that’s why), and that demolishes the craft in its entirety, as that doesn’t give us the pleasure (and the fatigue!) of searching for new talent. While they may not do it intentionally, and it doesn’t happen all the time, it may still happen. In my case, I love searching for new talent when I’m allowed to, even if it’s tiring.
What’s wonderful about the American productions coming here is that they entrust me completely, and that gives me the freedom to explore new talents. Maybe the reason is that they don’t know our actors.
What needs to happen to change that? I understand the concept of bankable stars, but doesn’t there need to be some happy medium where new talent is discovered and casting directors get the respect they are due from the Italian film community?
I think casting directors should try and meet more actors they don’t know in live auditions, to experiment more. Also, this is to prevent calling the same actors we already know and are well-respected in our community. As for productions, they need to be more trusting, as well!
Photo credit: NBCULet’s talk briefly about the American projects you have worked on. Which ones are your favorites and why?
That’s tough… it’s like you’re asking for a favorite child!! I have no favorite in particular, but if I had to name one, it’d be The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. I loved working on it. There was such a familiar setting on set.
One of the reasons was that no one was advantaged over anyone else, language-wise: the actors had to act in Aramaic and Latin, so it didn’t matter what kind of accent they had. Apart from the dialogue coach, every actor had a CD with their lines recorded on it in Aramaic and Latin to listen to and help them learn.
The whole search process was so difficult (but interesting at the same time) because the director didn’t want any audition on written lines. He wanted to meet the actors, and sometimes he let them read some parts from the script on-site, but it didn’t happen all the time. Additionally, we had to pay so much attention to the faces: they couldn’t be modern faces, and had to differentiate Roman roles from the others.
Furthermore, I not only worked in the casting department, but I was also the backstage camera! That allowed me to feel more consistently the whole project, and to see everything concerned: from the aging process of costumes to make-up, to VFX, meeting after meeting, from casting to editing. To talk deeply about it would need a day-long interview just for this since the collective work about the tiniest details was enormous.
Nevertheless, I can’t help naming other projects I enjoyed thoroughly, such as The Rite, The Young Messiah, John Wick II, Ben Hur and last but not least Those About to Die. I want to spend a few words on the latter, as it was such a new experience: first and foremost, it was a TV series, so the whole casting process took an entire year. As well as it gave me the chance to know and meet new actors from all over Europe that I didn’t know before, and that’s finding gold in this job.
Since you mentioned new actors, do you find there are common mistakes that actors make?
In my experience, actors who tend to make the same mistakes over and over are inexperienced. Mistakes happen (and are easily recognized) when I search for new actors, and those without previous experiences on set, tend to overact and usually they don’t feel their partners in the scene and their bodies.
They often lack consciousness of the body and use it in ways that feel wrong, but those kinds of mistakes let me understand they’re not ready enough for this job. And I want to stress that this happens regardless of their nationality, age or anything in between!
Photo credit: NBCUWith that in mind, what piece of advice or wisdom would you give to an actor coming in to audition for you?
The only reasonable piece of advice is to learn the lines like the back of your hand. This way, they’ll be free to explore their creativity. Ultimately, it all comes back to studying: acting is work like any other profession, and as in any job you are to be prepared and to study for it. You don’t get up one morning declaring you’re a pianist if you have never played piano before, and that applies to acting, too. With this clear in mind, actors coming in to audition need to have fun!
Looking for more industry knowledge? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Audition Advice from Casting Directors!
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