'Incredibly hyper' Crystal Lake native loves casting movies, TV
Growing up in Crystal Lake, Brittani Smith knew what she wanted to do with her life.
Become a casting director.
You know, the person who finds the right actors and matches them up with the right characters to play?
"As a child, maybe before fourth grade, I would write these plays and cast my cousins or next-door neighbors as the characters," Smith said. "I needed to do this. To assign roles to people."
This week, you can see the results of Smith's work by watching "The Dog Lover" at South Barrington 30 Theaters.
The movie marks Smith's first time as a full-fledged casting director after three years of working as a casting associate on TV, features and film shorts. Her credits include MTV's "Awkward" and "The 100" on The CW.
"It's a function similar to a corporate recruiter, that's what I say," Smith said of casting work.
"I get hired by a producing team, network, studio or whatever. I inform talent agents in town about what roles I need, the production I'm working on, and they submit actors to me. Then they push for their actors, call me, email me, stalk me! They really push me for their clients."
Smith pares the candidates down to a select few to show the producer and director, who hold callbacks or watch actors' audition videos.
"There's someone on every project with the authority to pull the trigger and actually hire an actor, but it's not me," Smith said. "My job is to ensure that they have the best options available to make the best decisions possible for every single role to satisfy the ideals they had in their heads for this cast."
Sometimes, an actor is hired who is totally mismatched for a role.
Smith said this occurs when two flawed casting practices come into play.
"The first is called the Name Game," she said. "There are times in making a movie where they need someone very famous who doesn't embody the character as written. They've minimized the risks for investors, but the character doesn't work."
Smith said that if too many famous actors appear in a single movie, it can distract audiences from falling in love with the characters.
"I see a lot of that," she said.
The second practice could be called the Color Game where movies and TV shows hire all-white casts.
"That does not reflect reality, and I consider that to be bad casting," said Smith, a strong supporter of integrated casting.
Smith, 28, speaks of her profession with passion and zeal, like an animated human volcano bubbling over with excitement.
She attended the 7:10 p.m. Friday screening of "The Dog Lover," then conducted a rapid-fire Q&A with viewers in South Barrington.
"I'm an incredibly hyper social human," she confessed, explaining a secret to her success. She now brandishes five casting director credits on her resume, on top of her associate casting work.
Smith grew up in Crystal Lake but graduated from Marion Central Catholic School in Woodstock. She headed off to the University of Iowa to pursue a screenwriting degree but shifted gears after two years.
"Iowa's film department emphasized very experimental work," she said. "It was definitely artistic in many ways, but they don't make you any money. I wanted to be a narrative storyteller and I knew that I needed to be in a different program."
So, goodbye Iowa.
Smith transferred to DePaul University's new Digital Cinema Program, of which Smith said, "I cannot praise highly enough."
DePaul arranged for Smith to work a three-month internship at Chicago's Paskal Rudnicke Casting offices, where she learned the early ropes of the profession. Then, she moved to Los Angeles.
"It was so easy for me," she confessed. "So effortless. With my social skills and combination of my script analysis from my screenwriting degree and my ability to direct and/or select actors, all that made me a perfect candidate to be a casting director."
She said she has many mentors to thank, especially her teachers and parents Erin Smith, director of Global Rewards for Avanade plus the village president of Lakewood, and Michael Smith, wealth management adviser at UBS Financial Services plus chairman of the board of trustees at McHenry County College.
"I hero-worship them both," Smith said.
Her next big adventure may be her January marriage to McHenry native Ryan Ward. The two met in high school and have been engaged in an "on-again, off-again" relationship for 12 years.
Meanwhile, Smith said she will devote her energies to casting.
"To be able to give a talented actor a part, to be able to pay them to do the thing they love to do, to encourage them along on their path to becoming whatever artist or actor they will become, is so fulfilling," Smith said.
<span title="charref:8"></span>- Dann Gire
If you know a suburbanite who would make a terrific column, email Jamie Sotonoff and Dann Gire at jsotonoff@dailyherald.com or dgire@dailyherald.com.
Keeping it in the suburban family
Guess who cast the latest voice of Nemo — Hayden Rolence of Aurora — in his first role? Brittani Smith cast him in the film short “Cicero in Winter” a few years before he made his big-screen debut in “Finding Dory.”
Smith also worked with Palatine native and Fremd High School grad Christina Moore on “The Dog Lover,” plus the upcoming “Running Wild” and “Dirt.”
“She's incredible to work with,” Smith said of Moore. “I think that's because we both share the same Chicagoland work ethic. We tend to speak the same language.”
For tips on creating effective audition videos, go to