Netflix’s ‘The Witcher‘ casting opens up about how the Coronavirus is impacting her casting business.
Casting director, Sophie Holland, spoke with Deadline about how the Coronavirus Pandemic has changed her life and how she’s adjusting to Hollywood shut down.
The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has shut down Hollywood for the unforeseeable future. Sophie Holland explains how she found out the shutdown.
She explains, “My assistant Faye Timby and I were halfway through filming season two of The Witcher and had the note from them that they were going to pause production. We had to make phone calls to people to say they’re not filming. I’m married to an actor and Faye lives with an actor, and it became clear early on that our working life was going to be put on hold. It was such a blow that we couldn’t figure out how we were going to get through it.”
Holland says it has given her more time to audition actors online, which allows her to store actors for future projects. She explains, “We are literally having facetime with actors from all over the world — people that we wouldn’t normally have access to. It could just be a chat, they might want to do a piece, like a monologue, or they might just want to draw attention to some clips on their showreels. There’s been some really interesting actors that I didn’t know about before that I’m meeting now. I can definitely see that our paths will cross again in the future. I can already think of roles that might match with people I’ve spoken to. It’s also given me a sense that the industry still goes on.”
In related news, a new report revealed Hollywood does not expect filming to return until September.
The article continues by explaining new protocols that producers will add to address the film industry amid the Coronavirus, including contracts identifying production companies in case you get sick from the Coronavirus during production.
“You acknowledge you are going into a high-density area, and while we will make our best effort to protect you, nothing is failsafe, and if you contract COVID-19, we are not liable,” said a source involved drawing up these guidelines told Deadline. “There is no other way we can think of to address this. If you don’t want to sign, don’t take the job.”
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