‘Queenie’ Casting Director Aisha Bywaters on Discovering Jedaiah Bannerman, Casting ‘We Are Lady Parts’

July 17, 2024 | Neil Turitz
Photo courtesy of Yellow Belly.

Aisha Bywaters is on a unique run. She’s been working as a casting director for the last 17 years and is accomplished by any definition of the word. If you doubt it, she can point to the two BAFTA awards she has won for casting. Bywaters was already the real deal before she put together the casts for three remarkable projects, each of which has allowed new, exciting talent to shine. 

There was the Netflix movie The Kitchen, which was not only actor Daniel Kaluuya’s directorial debut, it also introduced the world to 12-year-old future star Jedaiah Bannerman. With the new Hulu series Queenie, she did the same for Dionne Brown, who she cast in the title role. And, perhaps most famously, she put the band together for We Are Lady Parts, now streaming its second season on Peacock.

Discovering new talent is a unique gift, and Bywaters proves over and over again that she’s got it. She spoke to us from her home, while taking a break from cleaning her son’s bedroom. It should be noted as well that she was represented in a Lady Parts T-shirt.

How did you get into casting?

My mom was an actor when I was little. When I was young, she was in the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, so we lived in Stratford-on-Avon for a year, where Shakespeare’s from, and she did a year of plays there.

She quit acting when I was about 10 or 11 because there was less work for Black actresses in the ’90s. She was playing a lot of nurses and block prostitutes in police dramas. Not fulfilling. She became a voice teacher at a drama school, so I always grew up around it, and then I went to university and shunned it because it’s just so hard.

I did a politics degree instead, then realized I didn’t want to work in politics and started interning at a theatre company. 

You want to talk about being hard, politics isn’t much better than entertainment.

(Laughs) I know, especially at this moment, yeah. I left uni thinking, ‘What do I want to do?’ I went to the Edinburgh Fringe and loved it. It reminded me of how much I loved theatre, and so I went and interned with a theatre company. When I helped them cast a play, it was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this all makes sense.’ 

It’s amazing how many casting directors I’ve talked to who started as actors and had that light bulb moment about casting, and how once they found it, they knew they were meant to do it. 

I’ve never thought about it like that. I always just think how everyone’s stories are different, but I’ve never sort of thought of that sort of commonality between them, and that’s nice. Because that is how it feels like there is nothing else I could do. 

One of the things that I find so fascinating about your career is how much discovery you’ve been a part of. The last three big things of yours are The Kitchen, We Are Lady Parts and Queenie, all of which feature talent who has either never done anything before or very little. I’m curious about that process, and the sense of discovery that comes with doing projects like that.

Everything you’ve just mentioned was just so much fun to do. For me, the discovery is just such a wonderful place to be. It’s great to cast people who are established, but it doesn’t feel as creative sometimes as just being able to explore and see. On all those projects, we’re looking at those stories and being like, ‘What is authentic? What is this world? Let’s properly create it.’

We get to meet some really interesting people, and another nice part of being a casting director is a little bit about nurture as well. [It’s also] about craft and building that craft and being part of their journeys. I by no means feel like I discovered someone. They were always there for someone to find, but being a part of this person’s journey to whatever that may be, whether they continue acting or it’s just something they did, is wonderful. 

Is there a maternal sense to some of these kids? Like with The Kitchen and Jedaiah Bannerman, who had never been in anything before.

 

I’m less maternal about it and more pragmatic. Like, I think you’ve got it, but what are the steps that we can take so this person feels supported? I don’t want someone to feel, and The Kitchen’s an interesting case, like we’re leaving him in this space.

Whatever anyone thought of that film, what they have mainly said to me is, “How and where did you find Jedaiah? He’s amazing.” He’s given himself a calling card for the future and that’s great.

Kibwe Tavares, one of the directors of the film, likes to say his job is world-building. I now think that I agree, that that’s what I enjoy doing with a cast. It’s building that world, you know? As an audience, we can go into it and understand where we are, have a sense of place, know where we are and now tell me the story. 

It’s interesting you say that because that’s what you do with We Are Lady Parts, but you’re doing it with a whole cast. You had to create a band, that needs to be able to work together.

Well, we had to find each one individually, then we got to about four or five actors and then we had to test them all together. If I’m being honest, we were pretty clear about Anjana Vasan as Amina. We had this one way in, but then also, at the beginning of the first series, she’s not part of the band. And yet, they’ve got to feel like they’re a unit anyway.

It took ages and ages, and then we were going to start shooting in March 2020, but COVID happened. So we pushed, and then lost one of the band members and had to recast, and it all had to be done online. They had to do a chemistry shoot outside, socially distanced, for Faith Omole, who plays Bisma. It was this odd experience because while we were having those tests, we were also testing them with instruments. After all, it was really important to the director that like they all could sing and at least look like they could play.

I can see the challenges of something like that, but it sounds like that process would be a lot of fun.

That’s really what it is. Like, all I’m getting to do all the time is meet so many interesting people, all these amazing actors, and even if they don’t get the role, so many of them go off and achieve and you’re just like, “I knew she was going to be great.”

I’ll tell you the other real testament is that Faith has written a play that’s on now in London, and last night, four of the other women went to go see her. They are friends. That’s when you know you’ve done your job well. That always feels lovely and good. 

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

It sounds like a cliche, so I apologize, but if you’re gonna come and meet me, meet my team, come and meet me. Come as yourself. Come as you are. I can only cast you if I know who you are. You might not get the job every time, but if we know the sort of actor you are, the sort of person you are, just be as chilled and relaxed as you can be and just be nice and have a laugh and be creative. Then, hopefully, when the right thing comes in, we can work together. Not very succinct, but that’s the truth.

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