In twenty-five years of career, Joël Garrigou has to his credit several dozen feature films as a casting director. In 2024, the Bordeaux resident participated in the casting of “Comme un oeuf”, by Camille Delamarre with Kev Adams and Michaël Youn or “Ollie” by Antoine Besse, with Théo Christine. Focus on a little-known cinema profession.
How did you start?
I was a Fine Arts student, I always worked in images and with models that I already “cast” in a somewhat wild way for my artistic work. What I liked about this work were the meetings and the exchanges. I started with France Télévisions at the time, because there was a big production center. And then, after the closure of production, I returned to private productions, which are becoming more and more numerous in Bordeaux.
What does it take to make a good casting director?
Love people, meeting people, being curious about everything, not having any preconceptions about the people you meet. You have to let others arrive with what they bring in terms of energy and then you see in relation to what they offer you, what you can get from it in relation to the filming in preparation.
“The productions know that by calling on me the research will go much faster”
How does it work in practice? Shall we call you?
People call me because I have a portfolio, a directory of actor profiles in Bordeaux and the region. The productions know that by calling on me the research will go much faster: depending on the role, I will immediately have people in mind, profiles. It saves time rather than doing wild casting, which is much more costly and hazardous. Technically, I am intermittent, therefore employed each time. And on the actor side, people contact me when I make casting calls on different social networks. Facebook is the biggest relay, and afterward come Instagram and TikTok.
How many people do you have in your directory?
If I refer to my phone book, I have over 6,000 contacts. By mixing the actors and the extras. Since Covid-19, it has increased because you have a lot of artists who have settled here. There are still actors that I discover because they are not yet aware that there is a casting director in the region.
A memorable memory about a casting?
The best moments are when you immediately notice that an actor is going to go far, because there is common support from the whole team. Like Théo Christine. A few years ago I worked with him on a series called “The Last Wave”. He was a young actor who had done a few small shoots and I had recommended him for one of the main roles. Since then, he has played Joey Starr in “Suprémes” by Audrey Estrougo. And recently, I worked with Michael Allio and Michael Adam for a shoot in Bordeaux and the Landes. And on this film, I “cast” a young actor, who for the moment is not known, but who will rise, that’s for sure.
