Produire « l’évidence ». Le travail d’appariement et de recrutement dans le monde du cinéma

Abstract

In the French film industry, the hiring of actors involves two intermediaries: talent agents and casting directors. This article focuses on their work and relationships in order to examine the effects of this intermediation on final casts and on the structure of the labour market in the feature film market. Along with talent agents, casting directors are gatekeepers. Their participation in the various stages of the hiring process makes them key players in the negotiation and definition of the artistic identity of actors, and their professional role and career objectives contribute to both the reinforcement and renewal of the prevailing hierarchies in the labour market. Assembling a cast is envisaged not only as a recruitment process but also as an intermediate production that is crucial to the identity of a film. The various stakeholders involved seek to establish the “obviousness” or, at least, the credibility, of the cast. We show that achieving this “obviousness” is an iterative process that entails anticipations, power relationships and professional and social judgments.