How to Get Cast in High Priestess of Souls, Joan Chen Film

Updated October 2026.

Can you help fill a Chinatown street so it feels lived in, not dressed up?

That is the actual job on offer this month in San Francisco. High Priestess of Souls, a feature film directed by Pete Lee and starring Joan Chen, is shooting in and around San Francisco’s Chinatown from Tuesday, October 20 through Tuesday, November 17 — and the production does not need tourists with headshots. It needs a community: pedestrians, market shoppers, restaurant patrons, business owners. If you have ever wondered whether background casting is really about belonging in the world of the film, this is the clearest yes currently on the board. Here is how it works, answered the way actors actually ask it.

Open casting calls — live on Project Casting right now

High Priestess of Souls is casting in San Francisco. Verified live calls:

• Chinese talent — Chinatown background — ages 18–75, various dates October 20–November 17, SAG pay $231 for 8 hours
• Latino and Chinese child actors — ages 8–13, valid entertainment work permit required, pay not disclosed on the listing

Browse all live casting calls on Project Casting

What is this film, exactly?

• Title: High Priestess of Souls — an independent feature film set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, described by its casting office as a story of revenge, redemption and community.
• Director and writer: Pete Lee. The project has been with him a long time: in fall 2018, SFFILM awarded Lee a $25,000 Rainin screenwriting grant for it under the title Sandy Song, The High Priestess of Souls, with a logline about Sandy Song, a grumpy middle-aged grifter who becomes the sole defender of Chinatown in a battle against loan sharks, white saviors, and demons. The 2018 logline named Oakland’s Chinatown; the film now shooting is set and casting in San Francisco’s.
• Star: Joan Chen, the Chinese-born American actress who played Wanrong in The Last Emperor (1987) and Josie Packard in Twin Peaks, plays the lead. A Chinatown story headlined by Chen is not a generic backdrop production — the setting is the subject.
• Status: in production now in San Francisco and the Bay Area. No distributor and no release date have been announced, which is normal for an independent feature at this stage — and irrelevant to whether the work is real. The shoot dates and the union rate are on the calls themselves.

Who is actually casting you?

The adult call on Project Casting runs through Henninger Kliban Casting — the San Francisco office of Nina Henninger, CSA, working with Sarah Kliban. This is the Bay Area’s standing location-casting operation, not a pop-up. Backstage’s casting-director listing for Nina Henninger Casting credits the office on Fruitvale Station, Blue Jasmine, Blindspotting, Sorry to Bother You, Contagion, Milk, The Kite Runner, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Memoirs of a Geisha — a record built almost entirely on films that shot where they were set. Artios nomination records pair Henninger (location casting) and Kliban (associate) on All Day and a Night and Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

That history explains the style of these calls. An office that has staffed Bay Area streets for years does not cast Chinatown from stock photos; it asks who actually looks like they live there. Its own page posted this same extras call on October 13 with the same dates, rate, and submission address, and its Project Casting company page also listed a SAG-AFTRA photo double in San Francisco for October 20–21 at $270 for 8 hours, plus a $37.50 car bump — a very specific need (about 6’3″, 170–180 lbs) filled the same week the cameras rolled.

One honest wrinkle: the child-actors listing on Project Casting carries a different company label, while Henninger’s own page posted the identical two kid dates on October 16. Follow the instructions on whichever listing you submit to, exactly as written — do not merge the two.

Which roles could you realistically play?

Chinatown background — ages 18–75, SAG $231/8. The widest door. Chinese or Chinese-appearing talent to play pedestrians, market shoppers, restaurant patrons, business owners, and community members across various shoot days between October 20 and November 17. No experience requirement is stated. What is stated: a recent full-length photo and a close-up, your age, every language you speak, and your availability across the full date range.

Child performers — ages 8–13, pay not disclosed. Latino and Chinese child actors, split into an 8–10 group and a 9–13 group. The office’s own post dates them: Wednesday, October 21 for ages 8–10 and Tuesday, October 27 for ages 9–13. The gate is paperwork, not talent: every child must hold a valid entertainment work permit, with a parent or guardian involved throughout. Note what the listing does not do — it does not state pay. Ask before you commit a school day; do not assume the adult SAG rate applies.

The roles that surfaced earlier — and may again. In September, the casting office posted a breakdown for this film with named parts beyond background: two lion dancers (male, early 20s — one thin build, one heavy-set; no lion-dance experience required), a Lead Relocation Agent (older, larger build, a speaking role), and an Auntie (older woman, Cantonese-speaking strongly preferred, limited dialogue but appearing frequently throughout the film). Those September dates have passed, but a shoot running into mid-November that cast an Auntie who “appears frequently” is a shoot that will need more specific faces before it wraps. That breakdown is also why the adult call asks for your languages: Cantonese is not a nice-to-have on this production.

For contrast on how regional offices build a world out of specific types, see Project Casting’s Copperhead guide — same model, different state: the packet and the type do the selecting.

How do you apply, step by step?

1. Submit to the call you actually fit. Adults 18–75 go to the Chinese talent call; children 8–13 go to the kids call, through a parent or guardian. A 16-year-old fits neither listing — wait for the next wave rather than bending an age band.
2. Send the exact two photos asked for. One recent full-length photo and one recent close-up of your face. Not a filtered headshot from three years ago: this office picture-casts a neighborhood, and your current face is the submission.
3. List every language you speak, honestly. The call asks for all languages spoken, and this production has already shown it casts for Cantonese specifically. Claim what you can actually speak on set, at the level you can speak it.
4. Give your full availability grid, October 20 to November 17. “Various shoot days” means casting will place you where the schedule needs you. A submission that names the specific days you are free inside that window beats a vague “flexible” every time.
5. For children, lead with the permit. State the valid entertainment work permit and the parent or guardian who will be involved, up front. Without the permit there is no booking to discuss, however right the child is for the scene.
6. Keep your Project Casting profile current while the shoot runs. A production casting in waves through November 17 will keep returning to the board; start from the casting calls on Project Casting and be reachable the same day a new date posts. As the My Jesus guide showed in Nashville this same month, the ready local hire is the hire.

What are the myths that will waste your shot?

Myth: Background casting is a lottery, so one loose submission is enough.

Reality: This call is a checklist — two named photo types, age, languages, location, and a date-range availability grid. Incomplete packets are not unlucky; they are unusable. Casting cannot book a person whose availability it does not know.

Myth: You need lion-dance experience, martial arts, or special skills for a Chinatown film.

Reality: The office’s own breakdown said the opposite for its most physical roles — the lion dancers required no lion-dance experience at all, only the right age and build and a willingness to take part. Read the requirement that is printed, not the one you imagine.

Myth: If the kids’ pay is not listed, it must be the same $231.

Reality: The adult background rate is stated plainly — SAG $231 for 8 hours. The child listing discloses no compensation at all. Treat those as two different facts, because they are. Families should confirm the child rate in writing before the October 21 and October 27 dates, the same discipline Project Casting’s Fatal Attraction guide recommends on any call where a rate is role-specific.

Myth: A bigger, more dramatic photo gets you noticed.

Reality: You are being cast as a market shopper or a restaurant patron in a real neighborhood. The winning photo is the one that looks like you, today, in ordinary light — the face a director can place on Grant Avenue without a second thought.

One more look at the live calls before you go

Open casting calls — San Francisco, filming through November 17

• Chinese talent — Chinatown background, ages 18–75, SAG $231/8
• Latino and Chinese child actors, ages 8–13, work permit required

High Priestess of Souls has been in Pete Lee’s hands since at least 2018, and it is finally in front of cameras in the city it is about, with Joan Chen at its center. A production like that does not stop needing its community after the first week — it needs Chinatown, day after day, through November 17. Send the complete packet, name your languages and your real availability, and when a date fits, be the person who can actually be there.