Casting Sugar

I held a casting in BMC's TV studio for all roles in the film.  This ranged from doing a read through of the script, to monologues I had prepared for them, to having an informal chat about the character and how they seen them in their own head.

For the main characters Josh Sugar and Dan Groves, I decided it would be better to use a scene that was heavy in dialogue.  This helped me discover whether the actors really 'got' what it was I was going for in my writing.

The groundskeeper only has one line and therefore to get a better idea of how intense the actors could play Dirk Nixon I prepared a monologue for them to read in the style of our evil groundskeeper.  This worked well and really showed who could and couldn't get into the head of Dirk when performing.


After the casting I narrowed it down to several actors for each role.  After many production meetings, using the following casting video I made, we decided on roles for each.

Josh Sugar: Richard Andrews

Dan Groves: Ryan Sloan

Groundskeeper: Dave McCaughey

Chelsea: Hannah Gallagher

Old Man: Patrick Allen

One of the guys who auditioned for the groundskeeper we felt really deserved a role in the film and therefore we have changed the old woman character to an old man.  Ryan who initially auditioned for the role of Josh, I felt was much better suited to Dan, as he just had a better look.  I feel that Richard really understand the role of Josh and I am looking forward to seeing what he can bring to this character.