Soni Razdan Quotes

Casting is a long process for me. I take a lot of time.

I always used to say, as a director, that I could make anybody good in a movie if you found the right part. It all comes down to casting.

You read a script, you try and think through what is the best, most wide-ranging way of telling the story: who stylistically, character-logically, psychologically fits inside the world of what you're trying to do. A lot of it, when you're casting, is trying to get yourself in the head of a director.

Not one role that I've played has been written specifically for me.

There are so many people who come to me to be an actor, but I select only those people who I feel can fit my script. If they do, I immediately say yes. I don't do screen tests. I talk to them and see how their mind functions. I read their mind and cast them.

I don't normally think of a specific actor. I concentrate on the character, and then when we get into pre-production, that's how names come up.

Always when I directed the play, I was always trying to cast people not who were necessarily like the characters, but people who I felt had the essential component that the character had, some kind of soul for it.

When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

In choosing any role, I ask the same questions: what kind of part is it? is the role challenging? does the director have a vision? is the story moving? etc.

As an actor, it's more interesting to play a nerd than anything else. It's a lot more fun - you don't worry about 'what's my hair like?' in the morning or 'which is my great angle?'

In the beginning, I would find a character I understood. That was my focus. Not now - but you basically get offered the exact same thing you just did. Which I find hilarious. I did 'The Vow,' and then I had every love story you can imagine thrown at me. And now I'm getting offers for comedies.

The thing I noticed about Jack was when we did a reading of the script, just to warm up.

Preparation is definitely important, but it depends on the kinds of roles I do. Like, I completely identify with my character in 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.' I had to be myself and I didn't have to actually prepare for it.

People who do not have funny in them are not funny when they read funny lines. Sorry. Just doesn't work that way. Seriously, this is the biggest rule of all. You live and die with your casting decisions. Your actors are the heart and soul of the whole thing. Without brilliant actors, you will not have a brilliant film.

There are always practical decisions to be made about any character you're playing.

I'm not a method actor, but I'm a big research kind of actor.

If you cast the picture correctly, you have a whole lot of leeway. You can make mistakes in other aspects but pull it off with the right actors.

Casting is everything. If you get the right people they make you look good.

If I read a script and find it engaging and I start making choices in my mind on how to approach the work, than that's a good indication that it is something worth pursuing.

I mean, a lot of time rehearsals are taken up with other things other than preparing a character.

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

Why do I use the same actors in different movies? One of the things I really stress in casting is I need to find someone who is suitable for the role in the movie. That's always the main reason.

I'm not really into method acting - the way I was taught was the good old-fashioned British way of just doing your research and getting on with it.