Star Wars: Visions Memories 07

One incredibly strong element across the whole of Star Wars: Visions is the voice cast. To this day, I admire the casting choices with both name actors and local talent adding so much character and unique flavour across all the episodes from Japan and around the world. With Screecher’s Reach, we had a group of young main characters: kids. And we wanted Irish kids. Young local Irish talent. This post is specifically about finding and working with that talent.

As written, our main character, Daal, was complex. We knew that. She had lived a hard life and we weren’t going to show much of that hard life - we had to see it in her face, to hear it in her voice. She was hiding a secret. We needed an actor who could hold that secret, have us know it’s there on some level but not reveal it. If you’ve ever dipped your toe into acting, or casting, you’ll know how hard a brief that is. 

What could have been the toughest casting actually fell into place very early on. A young actor named Eva Whittaker had played Mebh in WolfWalkers, Cartoon Saloon's Oscar-nominated animated movie. She is amazing in that movie and what we found is that, since then, she had grown into what would be our perfect Daal. We met her and we all felt it: a depth, a complexity and such skill in the craft of acting. I don't think the decision was ever really up for debate. Eva was our Daal. We were all confident. 

The other kids would take longer. The thing about young talent is that they don't stay that young for long. By the time an actor really makes it, they've probably grown up. We wanted actual kids. So we worked with Louise Kiely Casting to help us and Louise and her team brought us so many auditions for the roles of Keena, Quinn and Baython. 

We heard loads of great young voices. Choosing wasn’t easy. But eventually, we landed on Molly McCann for Keena, who brought an innocence and sweetness perfect for the role. For Baython, needing a calm parental vibe, we chose Alex Connolly. And for unpredictable and fiery Quinn, we found Noah Rafferty, who just seemed like Quinn. He was exactly what the role needed.

Everything was falling into place... except of course for a PANDEMIC. Who organised that? Not part of our plan. 

While we had to record our Sith Mother remotely, we still got to record the kids in person, albeit we were all masked up. Not the kids, obviously. It would be too muffled that way. So how did it go? Well, the best thing about any story is when you can set up the challenge in a clear way, throw in some adversity, some twists and then show how, through determination and learning to be a better person, we can overcome anything. And man, did we have some challenges with these actors...

...is what would give me a good story.

Unfortunately for this post but fortunately for the movie, everyone was fantastic. Eva in particular embodied that role so well and reached to such a deep place that she had us all crying during the recording. It was like watching magic happen. Molly was adorable. Alex was solid. Noah, well, Noah was Quinn in the best way - young, impulsive, like we captured a unique moment in his growth as a kid (moments parents will know change so quickly). Each actor was their character. 

There's no dramatic story to tell here, just one about casting going right. And maybe that's a story worth telling too. Because when you hear the right voice, you feel it in your gut.  It's not that anyone expects perfection. There is no such thing. But when you hear the right voice actor, you can hear the soul of the character. Even sometimes if that's different to the voice you heard when you wrote it - that's okay. If anything, sometimes our preconceptions can hold a character back.

You have to let an actor bring their truth to a role. Ultimately, their truth might not align with what you expected from the character but, if it does, you've got something special. Each of these actors brought their truths.

And that made everything else so much easier, even if there would end up being a huge debate on our “kick her up the arse” line (there was but the line remained intact). I'll get into design and production on the next post... coming soon!