THE SPARK

WORKING WITH CHILDREN for ACTORS AND DIRECTORS

Hi there Substack community

First of all — congratulations to the brilliant, generous Nicole Kidman on her Best Actress Oscar nomination as well as her Golden Globe win as Lucy in BEING THE RICARDOS! Lucy was a star and so is Nicole. What a combo!

And congratulations to our legendary friend Jane Campion and her whole cast and crew on the 12 Oscar nominations for THE POWER OF THE DOG! A triumph for Jane and for the New Zealand and Australian creative teams behind this extraordinary film. 

I hope today’s article is useful and inspiring for you. I started writing it as a manifesto to send to my young director-friend who is about to direct a child in her short film.

But only a few paragraphs in, I realised that not only would this article be useful for actors as well — it could become a series. I have already written Part One (linked here), and there is so much more to say about working with kids and non-actors from the research and casting process, through pre-production, rehearsal, during …