How much control a creator has over actor selection when it comes to casting is highly variable. In the best case, their dream actor gets the role envisioned for them. In unfortunate cases, they end up not being in favor of casting choices but not being able to do anything about it, either.
From time to time, though, creators personally handpick a certain performer for a role. On occasion, the performer will turn it down, but other times, the handpick ends up being a successful choice.
May distantly relate to Doing It for the Art. Compare Comic-Book Fantasy Casting. See also Hypothetical Casting, where creators hypothesize about which actors could conceivably play the characters, Ascended Fancast, where the person who gets cast is someone the fans also wanted in the role, and Cast the Runner-Up, for when a performer doesn't get chosen for the role they auditioned for, but the creator instead casts them in a role they feel suits them better; in some cases, an original character is created specifically for them.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Dragon Ball: Mangaka Akira Toriyama chose Masako Nozawa as the voice of Goku and Mayumi Tanaka as Krillin.
- FLCL: Original creator Kazuya Tsurumaki was so concerned that the American localization carry the same spirit as the Japanese that he personally cast then-newcomer Kari Wahlgren as Haruko, and later traveled to Los Angeles to co-direct the dub for the first episode.
- One Piece: Emporio Ivankov was based on a real person – Norio Imamura, a friend of Luffy's actress Mayumi Tanaka who really did dress like that. Creator Eiichiro Oda insisted the real thing voice his anime counterpart and Toei obliged. Unfortunately, a minor drug charge halfway through Ivankov's role in the story led to Imamura being fired and replaced by professional Mitsuo Iwata.
Films — Animated
- The Bad Guys (2022): With the exception of Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, the rest of the actors chosen came from the books' author, Aaron Blabey's, own cast list for the film. Some notable examples include Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf and Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark.
Films — Live-Action
- The Disaster Artist: Tommy Wiseau believed that the only actors who could play him were either Johnny Depp or James Franco. When Franco became attached to the film as its director, Wiseau mentioned Depp, who Franco thought would be too expensive; Greg Sestero had to cut in and force Wiseau and Franco to admit that they both wanted Franco in the role.
- When John Steinbeck met James Dean on the set of East of Eden, he remarked "He is Cal!"
- Nicole Kidman was Philip Pullman's preferred choice for Ms. Coulter ten years before production started on The Golden Compass. Despite initially rejecting the offer to star as she did not want to play a villain, she signed on after receiving a personal letter from Pullman.
- J. K. Rowling had full say in casting the Harry Potter films (and later the Fantastic Beasts films) and insisted on a fully British cast. She hand-picked Robbie Coltrane, Alan Rickman, and Maggie Smith; later in the fifth film, she also hand-picked the unknown Evanna Lynch.
- The Hate U Give: While it's unclear how much (if any) say she got in the actual casting, Angie Thomas told Amandla Stenberg that she wrote the character of Starr with her in mind after she was cast in the film adaptation.
- When discussing who should star in Hellboy (2004), Guillermo del Toro and Mike Mignola wrote down their first choice on a napkin. They unanimously picked Ron Perlman.
- When asked who should play her in a biopic, Joan Crawford named Faye Dunaway after seeing Chinatown. The result was Mommie Dearest.
- The Princess Bride: When the casting director asked William Goldman how big a giant Fezzik should be, he replied "about the size of André the Giant." Guess who ended up playing Fezzik in the film!
- Michael Crichton wrote Rising Sun hoping Sean Connery would play John Connor (no, not that one).
- Mickey Rourke won the role of Marv in Sin City after just one meeting with Frank Miller.
I was only able to write down one thing - "Jesus Christ, he is Marv!"
- Stephen Sondheim agreed to let Tim Burton direct Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on the condition that he has casting approval. Burton would only agree to direct with Johnny Depp in the lead, and though Sondheim feared Depp's vocals would be too "rock-oriented", he approved Depp after a vocal audition. To approve the casting of Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, and to combat any rumor of nepotism (as Carter and Burton were romantically involved), she sent Sondheim no fewer than twelve audition tapes of her singing. Very impressed with her vocals, Sondheim immediately approved her.
- Walk the Line: Johnny Cash personally wanted Joaquin Phoenix to portray him after seeing him in Gladiator.
- Roald Dahl was ecstatic when Anjelica Huston was cast as the Grand High Witch in The Witches (1990). After Spike Milligan wasn't cast as Willy Wonka, Dahl had given up requesting casting decisions for adaptations of his book, but she had been his personal favorite for the role.
- In his biopic Air, Michael Jordan requested that Viola Davis play his mother in the film.
Live-Action TV
- Neil Gaiman insisted on having David Tennant play Crowley in the live-action adaptation of Good Omens.
- By her own account, author Kerry Greenwood took one look at Essie Davis' audition for Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and said "Her! Her! I want her!"
- Before playing Perry Mason, Raymond Burr had primarily acted in a series of low-budget films. And then he was invited to shoot a screen test for the role of Hamilton Burger. Days later, midway through the playback of Burr's test, the author of Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner, who had never heard of Burr before then, stood up, pointed at the screen, and said "That's him! That's Perry Mason!" And the rest is history. Prior to Burr's casting, Mason had, both on screen and on the covers of the books, been presented as an older man, no doubt to go with Mason's stated experience as an attorney.
- In the 1940s, Agatha Christie had already seen multiple disappointing adaptations of her work, but after seeing Joan Hickson in a play, Christie wrote to her saying she hoped that one day Hickson could play Miss Marple. Forty years later, she was cast in the iconic BBC Television production.
- During pre-production of One Piece (2023), original creator Eiichiro Oda saw Iñaki Godoy's audition and said the Japanese equivalent of "That's Luffy." Fellow cast, crew, and even Luffy's longtime Japanese and English voice actresses agreed.
Music
- When Lit were presented with the treatment for the video for Miserable they said they would only do it if Pamela Anderson, who they were working with on V.I.P. played the Giant Woman. For their part, the band wasn't really sold on the idea for the video, and most likely chose her not just because they enjoyed working with her, but because she was at the height of her popularity and they didn't think the label would be able to land her. For her part, Pam loved the video's ideanote and not only jumped at the chance but did it for free. When she ran up to them the next day and excitedly told them she was going to be in their video, the guys were apparently in utter shock.
- When Taylor Swift released her re-recording of Red (2012), she not only included the legendary, original 10-minute version of "All Too Well," but released a short film to go with it, which she wrote and directed herself. She wanted Dylan O'Brien and Sadie Sink to play the couple from the very start, and even said in an interview that if Sink hadn't been on board, she might've considered it a sign and not done the film. Luckily, both Sink and O'Brien were very enthusiastic about being involved, and the film was made to Taylor's vision.
Western Animation
- Lawrence Bayne was Gene Simmons' personal choice for the role of his Author Avatar Rock Zilla on My Dad the Rock Star.
- According to one interview, Jim Davis was drawing Garfield while watching Rhoda, and when he heard Lorenzo Music as Carlton the doorman, decided that this was what Garfield sounded like. He got his wish in Here Comes Garfield, and every Garfield animation thereafter until Music's death in 2001. Since then, every voice actor for the character has taken at least some cues from Music's performance.
