0/5

Casting an eye on reality

Project Runway, The Mole, The Farmer wants a Wife, Masterchef, The Biggest Loser -TV Tonight talks to the #1 casting director in Reality TV.

kirstydevKirsty de Vallance has just sifted through 7500 applications for Masterchef Australia, looking for the faces and the ‘characters’ that will hopefully bring TEN’s new reality series to life.

In the game of reality television, casting is everything. It can make or break a series. DeVallance, who runs her agency A Cast of Thousands, is the most experienced in the biz. She knows how important it is to look at all the applications that are submitted.

“You have to go and look through every one of those casting applications. Because the cast are in there amongst those thousands, so if you miss one you could miss the best one. We’ve learned to be a lot quicker at it by looking at the key questions that we’ve asked in the application process. And that’s what’s of more interest to me than their age or where they’re from,” she said.

Amongst the more telling questions applicants are likely to be asked on an application form are ‘What’s one of the worst things that’s happened to you?’ Or ‘Tell us one of your best achievements.’

“There’s always a little something about someone’s background that makes you want to know more about them. So I want to bring them into an audition.”

750 people proceeded from the written applications for Masterchef to a live audition where they were required to cook before the show’s judges. DeVallance’s work was in the early stages, leaving producers to choose their cast from a ‘Top 50.’ While she doesn’t know who will make the final cut she is confident they will be diverse.

Masterchef will be a really good demographic. It is something we were all aiming for. They didn’t want a whole group of 20 year olds. If you’re casting a lot of young people they haven’t always had the life experience to bring to conversations. It creates a better dynamic.”

De Vallance is the number one casting consultant for reality television. Her CV dates back to casting on The Weighting Game, Surprise Wedding, Playing it Straight to three seasons of PopStars (beginning with “the Scandal ‘us years”), The Mole, Project Runway, The Farmer wants a Wife, Life at One, The One, Hotspell, Family Footsteps and few other she would rather forget. She has also been casting long term for SBS’ Insight as well as all four series of The Biggest Loser.

“I’m extremely passionate about The Biggest Loser,” she said. “I hate people bagging it saying ‘how can someone lose weight in 12 weeks?’ Well, they don’t lose weight in 12 weeks it’s actually a 6 month process you just see 12 weeks of television. The care that is behind the scenes is paramount. I’m a staunch supporter of it because everyone who’s involved with it is extremely supportive of the contestants.”

One of the keys to winning a place on the series is in having a support base such as a family, who not only express their support for a loved one on the show’s journey, but who raise the stakes for someone trying to lose weight.

“If you’re a mum on The Biggest Loser wanting to stay alive longer to be with your kids it’s more of a motivation to stay in the house and lose the weight. It is an emotional show so we are always looking for the strong reasons as to why they want to be there.”

She is also a strong believer in ethnic and age diversity in reality television, even if not all producers are.

“I don’t necessarily cast people because they might be Asian, but I do look for that,” she said. “I just think it’s really important and I will always push for that. I’m a bit sick of seeing 12 Anglos on TV. Project Runway was a really good mix, not because of ethnicity but because of their skills and abilities.”

kirstydev2De Vallance is currently casting World’s Strictest Parents for Channel Seven, a show which sends teens to live with another family in either the US, Europe, Africa or Asia. Which brings us to ‘duty of care.’ As more and more reality shows add teenagers to their mix, DeVallance is mindful not all shows have succeeded.

“I felt a bit uncomfortable with the Supermodel one where the girls had to go naked. I just don’t think that was right,” she said.

“A lot of it is who you trust as a producer. I’m working with a great producer at Seven and it’s from a BBC format. I looked at the tapes of the BBC show prior to taking on the casting job. In this one they’re not being exploited as much and they’re being extremely well looked after. A lot of it has been the parents who have contacted us. We put out a lot of ads in the local papers. I’ve done a lot of street casting too, talking to teenagers in shopping malls. A lot of parents have contacted us saying ‘we don’t know what to do with our teenager.'”

Those who pass the casting for World’s Strictest Parents have a psychologist test and will have a chaperone at all times. Families in other countries had police checks.

“It’s not a Big Brother situation where they’re going to have cameras on them 24/7. But they are going to be experiencing life with another family.

“We’re completely open about the idea with the teenagers and the parents. The cameras are going to capture the highs and lows of the week that they’re away so if they have a tantrum and slam the door well of course that’s going to be on television.”

She is still looking for 16-17 year olds willing to trade places temporarily, as well as the next wave of fashion designers for Project Runway Australia. Contact her at [email protected]

Her tip for anyone considering applying to reality television is to be genuine about wanting to be in the show “other than just saying they want to be on television,” not expecting it to springboard a TV career and to be yourself.

“I always believe everyone has a story in them.”

20 Responses

  1. ok mr knox, but it is clear from my first post that was sent on the day of the first airing but hours before the promo was shown that there has been a breach of contract – that is my only point

  2. Guys I think this convo should continue in private. Send me an email and I will forward you each others’ addresses rather than publish info about someone who isn’t here to defend themselves.

  3. Thomas- Sorry, I thought you meant that it meant he could somehow win (easier), I get what you are saying though. A contract is a contract, and he has broken that with no obvious consequences. It makes you think, how much of this is genuine ‘reality’ if he hasn’t been kicked out on his arse versus the producers want to keep him in. I have been wondering to myself, that if there is no public vote, and no way of the public tasting the food… surely all ‘voting’ is just left to the producers discrestion and they just keep in the people that make three…long…months….of…interesting television!?!?!
    Now the best question is, how did you find out this snippet??

  4. strumming, my point here is that my first post was up before the first promo went to air. No one was suppose to know but people did and this guy has breached his contract

  5. strumming, my point all along has been that I posted the first comment here before the first promo actually went to air and no one seems to have taken much notice. That is the breach of contract, it was made public by someone who wasn’t supposed to make it that way

  6. Thomas- I just don’t understand how it matters? They are all on tellie now, so there is no great secret who knows who the contestants are. Has it finished filming yet? Did this joker win? hang on, do we the public get to vote for the winner at the end???

  7. i thought all you would have to do to cast biggest loser contestants was ask for a weight. are could there really be that many people out there willing to go through that. loseing weight is the good bit but there is so much that they go through mentally. worlds strictest parents sounds good but like going to the dentist. bring back the mole.

  8. Does it make any difference if a contestant has told people that he or she is on the show? I thought that they were voted off by other contestants and by the judges… not the public. Or do I have it wrong? What does this guy gain by blabbing. I hate cheats!

  9. agree with leris and others, bring back the Mole but only with Grant Bowler as host (Tom Williams looked out of depth again)
    retter2critical makes valid point re BB and I feel same re So I think you can dance, and that is the people go on the show to be famous and expected to be treated like stars when they re entered the real world.

  10. I agree with Lewis as well. The Mole was such as fantastic show. And agree with Mac, has to be the Grant Bowler version – the Tom Williams version was boring.

  11. i still cant believe people watch reality tv. alt of it is absolute dribble and shows like idol have become and the people that make it onto the final cut lately. arent even talented. the biggest loser is another pretty ordinary show. why dont they lose weight in their own privacy of their own home

  12. Casting is proberbly as important as the concepts of the shows themselves. Big brother fell because of casting. This happened most strongest in the latter series’.It was like the casting was done by a computer or even worse, a panel of FM morning radio hosts. I have not seen so many fake boobs and fake tans in the one show. It lacked diversity. It lacked interest. We were suposed to like this? It was a generic disaster. It automaticly discouraged any inteligent viewing demographic once it had casting so heavily skewed towards casting couch types.

    The program was once interesting and quite experimental. It had an adults only program that had discussion and comments on the happenings by a Doctor. This format was dropped. It ended up being a show which lacked surprises. The people looked like they believed they would be famous when they left the show. So self concious. Casting let this show down. BB asumed we wanted to watch conflict when a lot of people watched the show for other reasons. Both concept and casting killed that show. Felt like it was project by comitee.

  13. she sure does have one good resume
    i loved wife swap type shows and world’s strictest parents sounds interesting.

    is there any word on the future of ‘the one’.

Leave a Reply