Jina Jay

Films include Billy Elliot, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, The Last King Of Scotland. Jina Jay’s first high-profile casting job was for John Boorman’s highly acclaimed The General. She went on to work on Mike Figgis’ The Loss Of Sexual Innocence and Shaun Of The Dead. Most recently she cast Atonement, In Bruges and Peter Jackson’s forthcoming The Lovely Bones.

I got my break thanks to the patronage of Patsy Pollock – the casting director with whom I trained for five years – along with John Boorman and Mike Figgis. They nurtured me and taught me to articulate my instinct, which was the only quality I initially brought to the table.

Being instinctive is a vital part of the job. High profile actors rarely, if ever, audition. They usually have a significant body of work that speaks for itself, but will often engage with the director by sitting down and discussing the material.

Sometimes I have the opportunity to fight for an actor – a newcomer or perhaps an actor who is unproven on screen. I can help to place actors where I feel he or she truly belong and if the collaboration between actor, director and material soars then I feel triumphant – but those instances ultimately belong to the director and the actor and that is what becomes truth.

In theory, my job finishes once principle photography starts. However, there are instances of where there is simply not enough time to cast all the roles. There were more than 80 people to be cast for Munich and I worked on the film more or less the whole way through filming.

Casting three actresses to play one role in Atonement was very challenging. We focused on the essence, spirit and intellect of Briony’s mind and soul, and applied this to all three Brionys. That they ended up looking similar is a coincidence – or perhaps subconsciously there was design.

Finding the 13-year-old Briony was a huge challenge. Very often one is trying to find a child who, at that point in his/her life, captures the essence of the character. The stunning thing about Saoirse Ronan is that she is not at all like Briony but she understands how to inhabit the soul of Briony. Saoirse had not even read the book and barely had time to read the screenplay in depth when we offered her role.

However, she distils only the absolute essentials of the literary character and understands how to bring Briony to life.

Diplomacy is key: knowing that you can reach the right decision about a role but requiring enormous patience and resilience to do so, particularly when one is trying to unite a group of individuals who are all significant in the decision process.

You need to be able to talk again and again about why an actor should be considered without being overbearing or alienating and to do this truthfully each and every time. And finally, if the gods are on one’s side, to choose the moment, perhaps five or six months down the line, and act decisively and with absolute clarity.

For people who want to work in casting, an excellent knowledge of editing film and audition clips in essential – my assistant Lucinda Johnston uses Final Cut. Also, I would advise them to go to the theatre and watch actors perform on stage.

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The super cool Vampire Weekend
• Streep and Baldwin get complicated
• Guy Ritchie on Sherlock Holmes