Thriller - Casting

When in came to casting actors in our thrillers, we decided that we wanted to use students and teachers from the college with pretty good acting skill and experience, especially in front of cameras. Fortunately, the fact that we're in performing arts school helps considerably. I wanted to have a mostly teenage cast so that our characters could represent different varieties of youth culture. Below is a list of all the characters who require actors and possible actors/actresses who might be suitable to play them (obviously, we have to check with these people as to whether they're available or not).

(as a sidenote, although the character's names aren't actually mentioned - Jimmy being the exception - we still decided to give them names for the sake of simplicity - It's a lot easier to be able to refer to a character by their name rather than a vague description.)

(another sidenote, these photos are taken from the school database and - like all school photos - may be incredibly embarrassing and not do complete justice to the actors/actresses)

Jimmy (Protagonist)

Jimmy is the protagonist. A teenaged social misfit who wants to go to Mars simply because he feels that he has nothing to lose. He has never fitted in and is slightly strange - wide eyed and tense, as if constantly on edge.

We chose Archie Repin to play Jimmy. Archie's had a lot of experience working in front of camera and studied at the New York Film Academy. We chose Archie because, not only is he a good actor, we all agree that he kind of suits the role.. In the nicest way possible. He's also Russian, so his accent adds a little bit of believability to the story as opposed to all of the contestants being English.

Tiffany

We chose Chloe Tannenbaum to play Tiffany, the attention seeking, dumb blonde. We chose Chloe because - obviously - she is female and blonde. She also is a very talented actress. We thought she could play the dumb blonde stereotype without making it too over the top.

Aiden

We settled on two options to play the attractive jock type character: Theo Bhat and Harry Griffiths. Both are attractive, sporty men who can act and would be pretty well suited to the role. My first choice would be Theo, who looks older and I think would fit the role better, however due to him being a second year student, we may not be allowed to use him. 

Harry is still a good choice and I'm told has a brilliant six pack which we would try to show off for a littled added sex appeal.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo is a flamboyant, failed celebrity desperate for attention and publicity. He is arrogant, yet fabulous and is to be played by the equally fabulous Santi Giraldo. Santi is a good actor and a very colourful personality who would fit the role perfectly. The above photo doesn't begin to do him justice.