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DIY Career Advice from the Casting Director of the #10 Top-Grossing Film of 2013
Despite the rarefied, glamorous world in which she works, Hollywood casting director Victoria Burrows manages to make it sound completely normal when she refers to heavyweight director Robert Zemekis as “Bob” or talks about standing in Tom Hank’s kitchen. A film veteran known for casting big hits such as Cast Away with Tom Hanks, Flight with Denzel Washington and, most recently, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Burrows has cast herself in the role of a lifetime – that of a Hollywood notable who has been partners with Scot Boland in Burrows Boland Casting for 12 years — through sheer persistence and hard work: she credits her inability to accept “no” for an answer as the key to getting where she is today.
Women looking to launch their next entrepreneurial venture or “recast” roles in their current office can take a few pointers from Burrows, who offers simple advice to women hoping to propel themselves into the right role this year: “Give them more, more, more.”
A high-school dropout who confesses to having been fired from just about every job she held until she was nearly 22, Burrows pursued casting on the advice of her mother, an astrologer, who recommended she work as a middle manager in the arts. When her mother suggested the movie industry, Burrows took a job as a receptionist at a casting company. While watching the casting director work, she learned almost by osmosis and began poring over trade magazines, looking for casting jobs.
Turned down multiple times for positions, Burrows finally told the receptionist at the office of TV casting director Ramsay King , “I guess I am gonna keep coming back until I get the job,” and even offered to work without pay if they would hire her. They ended up hiring and paying her as an assistant, and later, to cast movies for them; her gamechanger came when director Robert Zemekis hired her to cast all 100 roles in the movie, Contact, starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey.
Like many other busy executives, she works 12-14 hour days, and thrives on the energy created by the hunt for the “new and exciting.” Although most executives are not required to interview and hire 100 employees at a time, the process for obtaining the right talent is strikingly similar: casting a movie begins with a director’s vision, but it can be the casting director who brings options to the table that the director hasn’t considered.
Much has changed in the 33 years Burrows has been a casting director: she laughs about the early days when changing offices or projects meant having to find someone to move the massive, legal-sized filing cabinets, that used to house file folders with photos and resumes of available actors, organized by “look.” Today, IMDb Pro and Cast It Talent are her tools of the trade, and online appointment setting has eliminated the need to track down busy agents.
The parts that have not changed, however, are the work ethic and foundation that Burrows brings to the job. When asked about her longevity in the field, Burrows states simply, “There is always something more to learn. Don’t become complacent. Everyone wants bigger, better and faster.”
As with everything in life, however, balance is key. She counteracts her spirited, industrious life at work with a decidedly altruistic venture, spending weekends and free moments with Star Paws Rescue, an organization she founded to cast homeless animals into new families in Pacific Palisades, CA. How does a woman who already works 12-hour plus days find the energy to run a rescue organization as well? “When you have a passion for something, you find the energy,” she says.
TAGS: career Hollywood
