Reflections on Casting

Got to see Se7en after all these years. An interesting film that triggered plenty of thoughts on casting. IN Gangs of Wasseypur, Part 2, Anurag Kashyap in his opening credits, gives the greatest importance to his Casting Team. Not only was the casting the key to the success of the Gangs, but his casting of Kalki Koechlin who was cast as Chandramukhi in Dev D, when she was tucked away in Pondicherry, was a most extraordinary one. As a practising recruiter, I always wonder about how the exercise and the process of locating the right would have taken place. 

In Se7en, the characterisation of each of these characters and their casting was admirable.

Was amazed how a fidgety, jumpy and volatile Brad Pitt has evolved over the last seventeen years. When you see Se7en, I am not sure if Brad Pitt himself would have imagined his ability to enact the climax in Money Ball where he breaks down listening to his daughter's song. 

Morgan Freeman, with all his class, wisdom and erudition goes through the demands of the role as if it is a walk in the Beach. No wonder he gets plum opportunities like the voice rendition in the acclaimed documentary in the March of the Penguins.

Kevin Spacey is ever classy. You are not surprised how he breezes through his roles in The Life of David Gale and American Beauty. 

And the Casting Coup of the movie happens to be the dainty, classy, graceful and vulnerable Gynweth Paltrow. While closing a conversation with Morgan Freeman with a Thank you, her body just leaning and slanting forward a wee bit, with a mixture of confusion and fear in her eyes with just the right lip twirling a bit, Gynweth is helplessness personified and that is accentuated by her quaintness. Wish the director had ended Gynweth's character in the movie with this parting shot.