{"id":365020,"date":"2025-12-22T18:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365020\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:23:10","slug":"casting-director-for-harry-potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/365020\/","title":{"rendered":"casting director for Harry Potter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The search for Harry Potter almost defeated Susie Figgis. During pre-production for the first film in the franchise, the casting director and her team considered about 40,000 young actors for the roles of Harry, Ron and Hermione. In addition to video auditions sent in by young hopefuls, Figgis received \u201cpost bags full of letters\u201d, and spent most of her free time visiting schools across the country. \u201cAt the height of her work you could barely go out for a meal with her,\u201d her husband joked. \u201cShe would just stare at people in the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figgis, who had a knack for discovering unknowns, gradually settled on a handful of favourites. As far as the title role was concerned, she was in no doubt: \u201cWith Daniel [Radcliffe] I just looked at him and thought, \u2018God, he\u2019d be good\u2019.\u201d The film\u2019s director, Chris Columbus, was less sure; rumour was that he was angling to give the role to an American. \u201cThat just wasn\u2019t my cup of tea,\u201d Figgis said.<\/p>\n

The dispute went so far that Figgis, \u201cclose to despair\u201d, eventually quit the production. Thankfully the seeds had already been sown among the producers, and it was her favourites, Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who finally received the call-up from Columbus. <\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Figgis watched with satisfaction as the young Harry Potter actors went from success to success. \u201cI believed then, and I still believe now, that if you get the right people you get an amazing film,\u201d she said. Over a long career as one of the industry\u2019s most respected casting directors, working on productions ranging from Gandhi to The Full Monty and Bohemian Rhapsody, she was able to demonstrate the truth of that belief.<\/p>\n

Susan Figgis was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1948 to Brian, a QC, and Shirley (n\u00e9e King) Figgis, who restored antiques and kept house. The family moved to the UK when Figgis was ten, and she was sent to Wispers School in West Sussex soon after. <\/p>\n

Her boarding school experience was miserable but formative. \u201cYou either go under or you survive,\u201d she said. \u201cI was a survivor.\u201d One of many punishments she suffered was being locked in the school library for hours after dark by her headmistress, known as Ma B: \u201cI overcame my terror because otherwise Ma B would have won. Now I can walk in the dark and feel no fear.\u201d She was expelled more than once, but developed a gutsy attitude to authority that would later serve her well. <\/p>\n

After leaving school she spent a few years acting in the People Show, an avant-garde improvisational theatre group, before taking an entry-level job at a casting agency, and then starting her own. Working from a Soho loft, she did the casting for several minor productions, including an unsuccessful 1980 St Trinian\u2019s reboot, before receiving an unexpected call from Richard Attenborough. He asked if she would be interested in casting his next film, Gandhi. \u201cI thought it was a joke at first,\u201d she said. Figgis bought herself a new pair of jeans (hers had too many holes) and went to meet the veteran director. She would never know for certain why he decided to hire a relative newcomer for such a landmark production: \u201cI just got lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attenborough had planned on casting a white actor in the film\u2019s title role, but Figgis objected, and after a protracted search she found Ben Kingsley. According to Kingsley, Attenborough \u201ccollapsed\u201d into his chair after seeing him in his make-up and costume. \u201cIt was the collapse of a man who had reached the end of a very long journey,\u201d he said. Kingsley went on to win best actor at the 1983 Oscars for his performance.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Kingsley as Gandhi<\/p>\n

WARNER BROS\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

Figgis\u2019s life took another turn in 1986 when she travelled to Zimbabwe to cast her second Attenborough film, Cry Freedom. There she became familiar with members of the ANC, and on returning to London she was recruited by Eleanor Kasrils, a prominent, exiled anti-apartheid campaigner. <\/p>\n

Figgis became one of the ANC\u2019s trusted overseas contacts. \u201cShe was not some dilettante living out fantasies sprung from a career in the movies,\u201d insisted Eleanor\u2019s husband Ronnie Kasrils, another leading ANC figure. Figgis, he said, \u201cresponded to a deadly serious motivation to assist in a just cause in which she deeply believed\u201d. She worked with the organisation for four years, relaying communications, organising disguises and couriers, and even putting up ANC comrades in her home. Kasrils reckoned that Figgis\u2019s experience as a casting director had given her a \u201ccanny eye\u201d and made her a reliable judge of character.<\/p>\n

One weekend Figgis returned early from a trip abroad after a fight with her boyfriend to find Bill Anderson in her home. Anderson, who worked in intelligence for the military wing of the ANC, was in London to meet a contact, and had been offered Figgis\u2019s home as a safe house on the assumption that she\u2019d be away. His cover blown, Anderson took Figgis out for dinner. A few years later, in 1990, they were married; the two lived together for the rest of Figgis\u2019s life in north London. She is survived by Anderson and their daughter, Anu, as well as her stepdaughter, Ntsiki Mackay-Anderson. <\/p>\n

Figgis worked on several award-winning productions during her career, and cast some fiendishly difficult roles, including Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019s Freddie Mercury. Her final selection for that role, Rami Malek, won best actor at the 2018 Oscars for his performance. <\/p>\n

\"Rami<\/p>\n

Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury<\/p>\n

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX\/ENTERTAINMENT PICTURES\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

After Harry Potter she began working with another favourite collaborator, Tim Burton. She appreciated that Burton\u2019s characters were less Hollywood than those in other films: \u201cIf you sit on the Underground and look around you, those are the people you see in Tim Burton films.\u201d She worked with the director on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland, the last of which starred Mia Wasikowska, another of Figgis\u2019s discoveries.<\/p>\n

One key to her great talent for discovery, she claimed, was patience. \u201cI spend at least an hour auditioning an actor, looking for some extra-special quality,\u201d she said. Figgis had little time for directors who believed they could spot a star in a \u201c15-second cattle call\u201d. She believed in making auditionees feel safe and respected, and then giving them the time to open up. In Rupert Grint\u2019s case, she even invited him to come to her home with his family. \u201cThis is not only common decency,\u201d she wrote, \u201cit is the only way to discover if young people have talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susie Figgis, casting director, was born on March 24, 1948. She died of undisclosed causes on December 12, 2025, aged 77<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The search for Harry Potter almost defeated Susie Figgis. During pre-production for the first film in the franchise,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-365020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}