It’s a typical mid-week morning at Boston Casting. The hallways inside and outside of the offices are teaming with local actors waiting for their auditions. Every room is turned into a casting studio, complete with cameras, lighting, and television monitors for evaluating the talent. In the one giant work room there are desks lined everywhere with team members taking calls, setting appointments, and arranging call backs. Thanks to big tax credits for movie makers in Massachusetts, this place is thriving, to the point that even a spare hallway is turned into office space with a bank of telephones and desks for interns who are learning the business. There’s chatter everywhere, the buzz of excitement. It’s the sound of opportunity, hope, and Hollywood, all pent up in this office turned casting studio in the outskirts of Boston. Above the noise of excited anticipation throughout the building there’s one voice that can be heard throughout as she directs not just the casting of hundreds of movies, but also directs the empire that she has built along the way. She is Angela Peri, Casting Director, Founder, and Owner of Boston Casting. As far as female entrepreneurial power houses go, she’s the real deal; hard working, driven, and cool under pressure, turning a niche business into a nouveau empire, churning out highly talented cast members for virtually every big movie that crosses into New England territory.
Angela Peri is a member of the Casting Society of America and an original member of the Massachusetts Production Coalition. She founded Boston Casting long before Boston became a hotspot for Hollywood movies, originally handling casting for small budget movies and corporate training films. Since then she has cast thousands of national, regional and local productions, from feature films, to commercials, to reality shows. Her recent casting credits include Mark Wahlberg’s Patriot’s Day, Jake Gyllenhaal’s Stronger, David O. Russell’s Academy Award nominated film Joy, as well as American Hustle, The Finest Hours, Bleed for This, Central Intelligence, Ted, Ted 2, The Forger, Sex Tape, The Fighter, Equalizer, The Judge, R.I.P.D., Here Comes the Boom, The Proposal, and Labor Day, to name just a few. It’s safe to say that when Hollywood knocks on Boston’s front door, Angela Peri answers.
I recently spent a morning sitting in on casting calls and hanging out in the very busy business life of a woman who has climbed her way to the top of a highly competitive industry, Angela Peri. She has received numerous accolades as an entrepreneur and casting director, but is most proud of the work she’s done within the autism community. She is strong, opinionated, and anything but shy, all qualities which have served her well in building the biggest brand in New England acting and casting services, Boston Casting. No stranger to hard work, I sat with Angela to find out what it takes to typecast yourself for success in business and life. Here are Angela Peri’s three simple rules for success:
Clarity of Role: Peri says that to succeed in any career, one must really understand what his or her true job is. For example, she tells the actors that come through her doors that auditioning for roles is their job, while getting the role is just a perk of the job. She says that the actors who thrive are the ones who realize that the regular auditions and taking acting classes are all parts of the job. She says that the ones who give up quickly are the ones who think the job is performing in front of a camera for TV or movie roles, while the ones who last long term are the ones who are using auditions and classes to further their talent. In this same vein, Peri says that her role in Boston Casting isn’t just placing talent in movies, television shows, and commercials, her job is to grow talent so that when regular clients like producers David O Russell, Seth MacFarlane, Andres Figueroa, or The Farrelly Brothers, call, as they often do, she has a groomed talent pool of more than 80,000 union and non-union actors, including children and special ability actors, to choose from. Peri says that if you want to build a successful empire, make sure you clearly understand your role.
Loyalty: Boston Casting has grown in 25 years from a one person shop to a massive team of more than 30 employees and interns who run the show seven days a week. Angela says that Boston Casting is open around the clock from early morning to late evening seven days a week. She says that most of the mornings and afternoons are spent casting. Acting hopefuls come in and audition for roles, and the good ones are called back for second and third auditions. The late afternoons and evenings are for classes. Acting students of all calibers come to learn how to perfect their performance. As well, with Angela’s vast network of experts from the field, she handpicks guest speakers from the acting, producing, casting, and directing fields to come in and share their perspective on the business so that her students get to learn about the business from all different perspectives. Her studio is so busy that she has a waiting list of people who want to work or intern for Boston Casting, so I asked if she has any secrets on how she chooses her team members, especially considering that most of her staff has been with her for a long time. Peri says that the number one quality she seeks in employees is loyalty, something that she quickly assesses based on how long other employment relationships have lasted for the applicant, what the applicant says about the other employers (bad mouthing is a sign of disloyalty), as well as their overall disposition. Angela seeks out loyal employees because she gives 100% of everything she knows to her people, sharing everything she has learned from more than 30 years in the business. She feels the entire team grows over time by accumulating lessons, knowledge, and networks that are shared within the group. She says that her team is powerful because of their longevity of working together to succeed. As well, Angela says that people who show loyalty to others are people who feel good about themselves, and people who feel good on the inside, always thrive in a team dynamic. Angela says that casting is a high stress, long hours, big network kind of business and the only way to scale a business to the magnitude she has is by cultivating a long term team of loyal, hard-working soldiers who are 100% committed to the long term mission.
Advisors Come in All Shapes and Sizes: Angela says that a large part of her success has been due to the amazing people who have offered advice and encouragement along the way. She notes that the casting world is fairly small, so there are not many opportunities to find mentors within the business, but she says that she has learned from the best of the best in other fields. Peri says that a few of the people who have massively influenced her business include a well known Boston real estate developer, a restauranteur, and a local movie producer, and an LA casting director. Peri says that at the end of the day, although some of the fields are very different, her business is not unlike their businesses. It comes down to building a winning culture, a loyal team, and a massive customer base that keeps coming back, and whether you are building real estate, a restaurant chain, a production firm, or a casting company, the business strategies and challenges are all pretty much the same. Interestingly, Angela says she also has learned a great deal through fostering a healthy dose of friendly competition with the only other known casting companies in the area, Christine Wyse Casting and CP Casting Company. She says that through their friendly rivalry, they all get to learn best practices from one another.
Virtually every big Hollywood producer who has crossed through The Commonwealth has knocked on Angela’s door at one point or another, and many have come back over and over again. Her success as a strong female entrepreneur and as a casting director suggests one thing; being typecast isn’t always a bad thing, especially when you’ve been typecast for success. She’s Angela Peri, the mind, marketer, and mogul behind Boston Casting.