Choice of actors for our Thriller - Actors and auditioning

Choosing actors to play the two characters for our Thriller project didn't take as long as we had thought it might. We had to look for four things, availably, quality of acting, past experience in acting and physical looks for the part.

In the end, we only looked at two people for the part, who both took them, Lukman Hussin and Tanwyn Smith-Meek.

Lukman Hussin: I thought that Lukman would be a perfect candidate for the part of Smith due to his past acting experiences (as mentioned in another post, he currently plays the lead character in a film) and his age. Having two 16 year olds play the parts would look wrong, whatever we did, as 16 year olds wouldn't fit the part of “modern gangster. Lukman is 25, and so age is not a problem. He also has dark skin, which we thought would reflect the dark nature of his work, and has the advantage of being easier to shroud in shadow successfully. This also helps to attract a more multicultural audience to our film.

Tanwyn Smith-Meek: The best thing about Tanwyn being an actor in our thriller is that he is a part of the group. This has several advantages:
1. He would commit far more as his acting is roughly proportional to his grade.
2. He understands the piece better, and therefore the emotions and characteristics of the character.
3. We don't have to worry about him not being able to come to filming.
4. We have group meeting with him so he can rehearse with us.
5. As an active member of the group, he is aware of any changes to the plan as soon as they are made.
As well as all of these aspects, Tanwyn aspires to become an actor and takes a Drama A-Level, and has earned an A for his Drama GCSE. He is also a member of an acting group, and has been in several plays, so we know that he is a relatively good actor. The only problem with Tanwyn is that he has no film experience, and acting on stage and for a film is a slightly different talent.

We also considered Lukman's younger Brother, Ibrahim, who is in our year, and is more readily available, and we could relay information faster. Ibrahim earned a C in drama, so his performance would likely be average. He is also unexperienced, as he has never been in a real play or film. In the end, we decided that Lukman's experience, acting talent and age would be more useful than this.