There are no small parts, only small actors.

I remember way back to my high school theater days, when the cast lists would go up and my friends and I would count how many lines we had in the script. It was a big, gross, competition that I’m sad to say I did participate in. But I was fifteen. Unfortunately, this line-counting thing that I witnessed in high school still takes place, but with people who are way too old to be engaging in such an activity.

One of the most prominent memories of this happened back in my early days as a casting assistant. It started with one nice small role and ended with one cranky screaming manager. I called in his client for a juicy co-star role on a popular television series I was working on -- the role happened to have no lines, but it required a really good actress. There was this actress I had seen in a few things that I thought would be really great for the role, so managed to talk the casting director I was working for at the time into to letting me call her in.

The manager took the appointment at first, but a few hours later, he called me back screaming. His client had a prominent guest star role on a big television series several months earlier and they were absolutely insulted that I would have the nerve to call her in for a role with no lines. Now, if it had been the manager’s decision, they wouldn’t have taken the appointment in the first place, which happens A LOT, but in this case, I knew it was coming from the actress. The manager did overreact with all the screaming, though. If he hadn’t reacted that way I might not have even bothered to remember this incident in the first place.

In the end, the actress we ended up hiring for the role was lovely and I’ve hired her many times since, but the actress I tried to get in originally hasn’t really worked much. I have set her up for other projects (through her agent not the manager!), but each time, she’s failed to show up for the audition. It kind of makes you wonder if her ego is still getting in the way.

LESSON: Never think you’re too good for a role based solely on the line count.