Nina Gold, the casting director behind the acclaimed film Hamnet, has been shortlisted for the first-ever Academy Award for best casting. The category, introduced after decades of lobbying, recognises the vital role casting directors play in filmmaking.
Gold paired Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet, which won the Golden Globe for best motion picture drama. Buckley also took the best female actor award. Gold said Buckley was her first choice for the role of Agnes, praising her “connectedness to the physical world” and lack of “bullshit”. Mescal, she noted, was modest enough to do a chemistry read despite his fame.
Gold has cast for major projects including Game of Thrones, The Crown, Slow Horses, and several Star Wars films. She helped launch the careers of Claire Foy, Eddie Redmayne, and John Boyega. Her approach combines analysis and instinct: “If you can get the actor and the character to intersect at exactly the right point, then it really is magic.”
Born in Cardiff, Gold started her career casting extras for an AC/DC video. A 1992 McDonald’s advert directed by Mike Leigh led to her first major film, Topsy-Turvy. She has since cast seven of Leigh’s films. On diversity, she acknowledges class barriers: “Drama schools aren’t as diverse as they used to be because of cost.”
