How to Cast Actors for a Commercial in the UK

Allied Artists Management is a boutique London acting agency, the acting arm of The Diversity Agency. We read commercial briefs every week — some excellent, most missing the two or three details that decide whether you get useful options or a pile of guesswork. This is what we wish every brief contained, written for the people commissioning rather than the people auditioning.

Casting a commercial is not the same job as casting a drama. You are usually working to a tighter deadline, a fixed shoot date, a client who has opinions, and a budget where the talent line is one of several fighting for room. Get the process right and it is genuinely straightforward. Get it wrong and you lose a week, or worse, you book the wrong face and find out on the day.

First decision: casting director, or straight to agencies?

Both routes work. They suit different jobs.

A casting director is worth it when the brief is difficult, the volume is high, the role is genuinely nuanced, or the client needs someone to run the session and manage opinions in the room. They cast a wide net across many agencies, filter hard, and hand you a shortlist. They charge for that, and on a job of any size they usually save more than they cost — largely by stopping you from seeing a hundred people who were never right.

Going direct to agencies makes sense when the brief is clear, the cast is small, the turnaround is short, or you already know roughly what you want. You email two or three agencies, they come back with options, you tape or meet the ones you like. It is faster and cheaper, and for a lot of digital and social work it is entirely sufficient.

The mistake is going direct with a vague brief and expecting a casting director's filtering for free. Agencies will send you what the brief describes. If the brief describes very little, that is what comes back.

The brief: what to include

A brief that gets good options back fits on one screen and answers these questions without being asked.

• The project. Brand, product, what the film is for. If it is under embargo, say so and describe the category.
• The role. Not just “mum, 30s”. What does she do in the film? Does she speak? Is she the hero of the ad or background to it?
• Playing age, not real age. Give a band. “Playing 30–40” is useful; “35” is not, because nobody is cast on a birth certificate.
• Skills that are genuinely required. Driving, a specific accent, a language, dance, sport. Be precise: “conversational Punjabi” and “fluent enough to improvise” are different castings.
• Shoot dates, and whether they are locked. Including travel days and fittings.
• Location. Actors need to know if it is a 5am call in Manchester.
• The fee, and the usage. More on this next, because it is the part most briefs get wrong.
• Deadline for options. Give a real one. “ASAP” means nothing and gets treated accordingly.

One more thing that costs nothing and improves everything you get back: say what you do not want. “Not model-y”, “no polished presenter energy”, “real people rather than actors playing real people” — negatives are often more useful to an agent than positives.

Usage and buyouts: the part that decides your budget

This is the single biggest source of friction between producers and agents, and almost all of it is avoidable.

An actor's fee for a commercial has two components. The session fee pays for their time on the shoot day. The usage, or buyout, pays for the right to use their face and voice to sell something — and that is priced by where it runs, on what media, in which territories, and for how long.

A one-day shoot for an internal training film and a one-day shoot for a national television campaign running across Europe for two years are the same day's work and wildly different jobs commercially. Quoting a “day rate” without specifying usage is quoting half a price, and it is the most common reason a negotiation that seemed agreed falls apart a week later.

What to specify:

• Media. TV, cinema, online video, paid social, out-of-home, print, in-store, internal.
• Territory. UK only, UK and Ireland, Europe, worldwide.
• Term. Three months, six months, one year, two years. Perpetuity costs a great deal more, and for good reason.
• Exclusivity. Are you restricting them from working for competitors, and in what category, and for how long? Exclusivity has a real price because it removes their ability to earn elsewhere.

Say all of that in the brief and you will get quotes you can actually budget against. Leave it out and you will get a session fee, followed by a difficult conversation.

What actually drives the number

We are not going to publish a rate card for actors here, because commercial fees are negotiated per job against exactly the variables above, and any figure printed without them would be misleading. But it is useful to know what moves the price:

• Usage breadth and term — by a distance the biggest factor.
• Whether they speak. A featured speaking role is priced differently from non-speaking, which is priced differently from background.
• Prominence. Is the actor the film, or in the film?
• Exclusivity and category conflict.
• Overtime, night shoots, travel days, fittings and recalls. These are chargeable and should be in your budget from the start rather than discovered on the day.

Tell an agency your budget. Producers often hold it back, believing it strengthens their position. In practice it wastes a round: we put forward people whose quotes are nowhere near your number, you come back disappointed, and everyone starts again. Give a range and we will tell you honestly whether it is realistic for the usage you want.

A realistic timeline

For a straightforward commercial going direct to agencies:

• Day 1 — brief out to agencies.
• Day 2–3 — options back. A decent agency will send a curated handful with links, not its entire roster.
• Day 3–5 — self-tape requests to your shortlist, with sides and clear direction.
• Day 6–8 — tapes returned, client views, recalls if needed.
• Day 8–10 — offers, negotiation, contracts.

Two weeks from brief to booked is comfortable. One week is achievable if everyone is responsive. Two days is possible but you are trading choice for speed, and you should say so up front so agencies prioritise it correctly.

Build in the fitting. It gets forgotten in nearly every schedule we see, and then appears as an unbudgeted extra day.

Self-tape or in-person?

Self-tapes are now the default first round, and for commercials they are usually enough on their own. They are quick, they cost you nothing, and you can put them in front of a client the same afternoon. If you are going that route, give the actors something to work with: the sides, a clear description of tone, and whether you want them to slate. Our guide on how to do a self-tape is written for actors, but it is a fair guide to what you should expect back and what makes a tape unusable.

Bring people into a room when chemistry between two cast members matters, when there is physical business to test, when the client genuinely needs to meet them, or when the role carries the whole film. Pay for that time appropriately if it runs long.

A note on recalls: if you are asking actors to hold a date, tell them. Holds and pencils are normal, but an actor who has turned down other work because you implied a booking, and then hears nothing, remembers it — and so does the agency.

Casting diversely, and doing it properly

Most briefs we receive now ask for a diverse cast. Fewer are set up to deliver one.

The problems are usually structural rather than intentional. A brief that specifies a single ethnicity for one role and leaves every other role unspecified will produce a cast where the “diverse” part is a slot. A brief with an unrealistic combination of requirements narrows the field so far that you end up with whoever is available rather than whoever is right. And a shoot that has not considered hair and make-up for a range of skin tones and hair types will fail on the day, in front of the talent, in a way that gets talked about.

Practical points that actually work:

• Leave ethnicity open across roles unless the story genuinely requires otherwise, and let casting bring you range.
• Consider age, size, disability and religious dress as part of the same conversation rather than an afterthought.
• Check your hair and make-up team can work across all hair types and skin tones, and brief them before the day.
• If a performer wears a hijab or a turban, discuss wardrobe early rather than on set.
• Make the set accessible if you are casting a disabled performer, and ask what they need rather than guessing.

This is the ground our two agencies were built on, and it is why our roster and that of our sister agency The Diversity Agency look the way they do.

Actors, real people, and the gap between them

A lot of commercial briefs now ask for “real people, not actors”. It is worth being clear about what you are actually buying, because the phrase covers two very different approaches.

If you mean street casting — genuine members of the public, no training, cast for authenticity — that is a specialist job with its own timeline. It takes longer, the hit rate is lower, and you need to allow for the fact that someone who is wonderful in a casting can freeze when a crew of thirty is watching. It also carries a duty of care most producers underestimate: someone with no experience of a set needs looking after, and needs the contract explained rather than handed over.

If you mean actors who do not feel like actors — which, nine times out of ten, is what the brief actually wants — say that instead. It is a completely achievable casting, it is far more reliable on the day, and it is the difference between a shoot that runs and one that does not. Naturalistic commercial actors are a specific skill set. They hit the mark, take direction, repeat a take fourteen times without the performance dying, and still look like someone you might sit next to on a bus.

The wording matters because agencies read it literally. “No actors” makes us stop and check whether you really want us at all.

Background artists and crowd

Featured cast and background are different processes and should be budgeted separately. Background is usually booked in volume through specialist agencies, at day rates, with much lighter usage terms — often restricted to the campaign in question and not attracting the buyout a featured performer would.

Two things producers routinely get wrong. The first is upgrading someone on the day: an actor booked as background who ends up featured, in focus, clearly identifiable and selling the product, has effectively performed a featured role and the fee should reflect that. Sort it on the day rather than arguing about it in post. The second is the numbers. Crowd shrinks on screen. The room that looked full in the casting looks half-empty in a wide, so book more than you think and brief the agency on how many you genuinely need in shot.

The mistakes we see most

None of these are exotic. All of them cost time.

The moving shoot date. Options are gathered against dates, actors are held against dates, and quotes are made against dates. Move them and the whole exercise partly resets, because availability changes. If dates are genuinely provisional, say so in the brief and we will check wider availability from the start.

The brief that arrives in pieces. Role on Monday, usage on Wednesday, budget on Friday. Each fragment triggers another round of checking. One complete brief is faster than four partial ones, even if it takes an extra hour to write.

Silence after the shortlist. Actors hold dates while you decide. A week of no contact means they are turning down other work on the strength of a maybe. A short “still with the client, decision Thursday” costs nothing and keeps people warm.

Asking for a quote without usage. Covered above, but it is the single most common one, so it bears repeating: no usage, no meaningful quote.

Discovering the fitting late. Wardrobe fittings are chargeable time. So are travel days, night shoots and significant overtime. Put them in the budget at the start and there is no awkward conversation later.

Casting the client's opinion rather than the film. It happens. The best defence is a brief specific enough that everyone agreed what they were looking for before anyone saw a face.

The contract, and the bits that catch people

Get the usage in writing before the shoot, not after. An actor who has performed on a handshake and then receives a contract claiming worldwide perpetuity is entitled to refuse to sign, and you will have footage you cannot legally use.

Other points that recur:

• Extensions. If you may want to renew usage after the term, agree the extension terms now. Renegotiating from a position where the campaign is already running and performing well is expensive.
• Cutdowns and edits. Specify whether new edits of the same shoot are covered.
• Stills. Video usage does not automatically include stills pulled from the footage. This one catches people constantly.
• Children. Casting under-16s brings licensing, chaperones and strict hours. Build that into the schedule from the beginning; it is not a detail you can solve on the day.
• Payment terms. Say when you pay. Thirty days is normal. Ninety is not, and agencies will price accordingly.

Working with an agency directly

If you want to go straight to us, the fastest route is an email with the brief laid out as above. You will get a curated set of options back with links, availability and indicative quotes against the usage you have specified.

We are a boutique agency, which means a smaller list and a real answer rather than a hundred submissions you then have to sift. You can see who we represent on our roster, and if you would rather talk it through first, get in touch.

Common questions

How much does it cost to cast an actor for a UK commercial?

There is no single figure, because a commercial fee is made up of a session fee for the shoot day plus usage, and usage is priced on media, territory, term and exclusivity. The same day's work can differ enormously in cost between an internal film and a two-year pan-European television campaign. The practical answer is to state your budget range and your intended usage in the brief, and agencies will tell you straight away whether the two are compatible.

Do I need a casting director for a commercial?

Not always. A casting director earns their fee on difficult briefs, high volume, nuanced roles, or when someone needs to run the session and manage client opinion. For a small cast, a clear brief or a short turnaround, going direct to two or three agencies is faster and cheaper and works perfectly well. The one thing that does not work is going direct with a vague brief and expecting an agency to do a casting director's filtering.

What is a buyout in commercial casting?

A buyout, or usage fee, is the payment for the right to use an actor's performance to advertise something — separate from the session fee that pays for their time on the shoot. It is priced according to which media the advert runs on, which territories it runs in, how long it runs for, and whether the actor is restricted from working with competitors. Specifying all four in your brief is the difference between a quote you can budget against and one that changes later.

How long does casting a commercial take?

Two weeks from brief to booked is comfortable when going direct to agencies: a day for the brief to land, two or three days for options, a few days for self-tapes, then client viewing, recalls and contracting. One week is achievable if everyone responds quickly. Faster than that is possible, but you are trading choice for speed, so say so in the brief and agencies will prioritise accordingly.

What should a commercial casting brief include?

Project and brand, a real description of the role rather than just a demographic, playing age as a band, any genuinely required skills, locked shoot dates including fittings and travel, location, the fee and the full usage, and a real deadline for options. Saying what you do not want is just as useful as saying what you do. A brief containing all of that will get you usable options within a couple of days.

Can I cast actors without a casting platform?

Yes. Approaching agencies directly is entirely normal and is how a great deal of commercial work gets cast, particularly for smaller casts and shorter turnarounds. Agencies hold the availability, the quotes and the relationships with their actors, so a clear brief sent to two or three agencies will usually produce a workable shortlist without any platform involved.