Central casting - Definition and Overview

Central casting is the term for the department of a movie studio that is responsible for hiring actors, especially for non-star or uncredited roles and extras. As such, it has developed into a jargon term denoting a generic or or a stereotypical person of some kind, that is now in widespread use outside of the movie business.

Confusingly, Central Casting is also the name of several actual casting agencies, and of a broker for MUSH players.

Central casting is also a jargon term used in the television industry to refer to the act of having news programs for many stations produced at a central facility.

Quotes

• In many respects, [Tim Berners-Lee] looks like an Englishman from central casting - quiet, courteous, reserved. ("The Quiet Englishman": Profile of Tim Berners-Lee (http://molly.open.ac.uk./Personal-pages/Pubs/Profiles/tbl.htm))
• The venerable Chinese woman who popped out of the darkness to hand me a IBM punch card looks like she's straight out of central casting for a B-movie about dry cleaning. ("Complainer, Master Complainer" (http://openmatt.com./archives/000402.html))

References

• "You Won't Find These Definitions in Webster's (http://careerjournal.com./recruiters/workingwith/19990802-lang.html)." Career Journal, Wall Street Journal. Accessed on January 8, 2005. — includes an example of the slang use of "central casting" as applied to the recruitment industry
• "Central Casting (http://www.pbs.org./newshour/bb/media/july-dec03/newscentral_12-11.html)." OnLine NewsHour. Accessed on January 10, 2005. — Central casting of news

External links

• Central Casting (http://centralcastingusa.com./), a casting agency in Washington D.C.
• Central Casting (http://www.altrion.org./central/), a broker for peripheral characters in MUSHes
• "Central Casting is a registered trademark of Entertainment Partners." (http://entertainmentpartners.com/products_and_services/services/central_casting/)
• West Coast Central Casting (http://worldeonline.com./wccc/), a casting agency
• Chumleigh’s Central Casting (http://whidbey.com./chmleigh/centralcasting.html), a casting agency