When Lucy Pardee was tasked with finding a young Scottish girl to play the lead in the film Aftersun, her usual methods were off-limits. Without Covid, she would have been in schools and youth clubs, spending months observing and meeting kids who had never acted before. As it was, she and her team set about “old-fashioned phone-bashing”. “We had to activate the virtual version of what we would ordinarily do,” says Pardee. “The almighty power of mums’ WhatsApp and Facebook groups … The secret of streetcasting? Admin!”
It was on a Facebook group that Frankie Corio’s mum spotted Pardee’s virtual flyer. Putting herself forward alongside 800 other girls, Frankie, then 10, was one of 70 invited to Zoom casting sessions consisting of casual chats, show-and-tell and word games. Corio’s parrot featured in the background of the calls and she sent the casting team a tape of her climbing a tree. For Pardee, the sessions were designed to recreate the safe, playful environment she would usually establish in person. “There’s a fallacy in our industry that if people want it bad enough, they’ll make it happen for themselves. Bullshit. Not everyone is blessed with front-footedness; doesn’t mean they’re not right for the role.”
