Casting pearls.

I'm flying back right now from two days in LA, casting for some spots we'll be shooting in about ten days.

I've never enjoyed casting, even when casting impossibly beautiful women. It's hard work, sitting there judging, looking, usually, for something inexplicable that makes someone stand out. It's long. It's boring. And it's filled with pressure.

That said, there's always something to learn when you're casting. Mostly about how important it is to make decisions. How it pays to be fast, to be firm and to be ruthless.

Today we looked at 116 callbacks, for a cast of about 20.

We'd have been there all night if any of us had trouble making decisions.

Fortunately, not only were all of us decisive, all of us have a certain amount of confidence that we have the capability of getting the performances we need from the talent even if we've fucked up somewhere along the way.

There's too much dithering in our business. Too much hemming and hawing and keeping things alive when the plug should be pulled. There are too many people with too big heads who over-think and under-smart.

Things are better, I think, or at least advertising is, when we're a little more black and white about things. When we reduce the world to: that's good, or that sucks.