Laurent Couraud takes Cinécréatis students behind the scenes of the casting process

Feedback from a renowned casting director

On 28 April 2026, all the second and third year students in the Cinéma et Audiovisuel course at Cinécréatis Nantes had the privilege of meeting Laurent Couraud at one of the professional conferences organised by the school. President of ARDA and a well-known figure in casting in the French audiovisual landscape, he came to share with the students his experience of the profession, his views on developments in the sector and the realities in the field.

A casting director for over twenty-five years, Laurent Couraud has worked on numerous feature films, series and audiovisual productions. But his career is not limited to the cinema. With a strong commitment to theatre and directing, he has also been cast in a number of plays, including Mathilda May’s Le Banquet and Jean-Luc Moreau’s Panique en coulisses. His collaboration with director Amandine Raiteux on the play Mimosa marked a real turning point in his artistic career, reinforcing his desire to direct and his deep interest in acting.

For several years now, he has also been working as an actor’s coach and trainer, a natural extension of his lifelong passion for supporting actors and exploring the richness of acting.

Passing on experience and realities in the field

The morning’s discussions covered the many facets of the casting director’s job: organising castings, working with productions and directors, relationships with actors, as well as developments in the audiovisual sector and the issues surrounding SGBV (Sexist and Sexual Violence and Harassment). It was a rich and practical presentation, much appreciated by both the students and the teaching staff.

With a career spanning more than twenty-five years, Laurent Couraud has been involved in the artistic distribution of over a hundred audiovisual projects. His impressive track record includes feature films, television series, TV films, short films and advertising campaigns. His film credits include Les Petits Mouchoirs, Polisse, Pupille and Le Dindon. Over the years, he has worked with many directors, including Guillaume Canet, Maïwenn, Jeanne Herry, Nicole Garcia and Noémie Saglio.

During his talk, Laurent Couraud emphasised the vital importance of working together in the film industry. Drawing on his own experience, he emphasised that each film is above all the fruit of collaboration between a number of professionals: directors, producers, technicians, actors and artistic teams. For him, the success of a project depends as much on the skills of each individual as on the ability to listen, exchange ideas and work together in a climate of trust. One sentence particularly struck the students present that day:
“You can’t make a film on your own, it’s all about teamwork and listening”.

This human and collaborative vision of the profession resonated throughout the meeting. With great simplicity and humility, he explained just how central a role the casting director plays in the making of a film. Finding the right performers is not just a matter of selecting profiles: it is above all a question of understanding the director’s intentions, the world of the project and the dynamics between the actors. Casting then becomes a real job of observing, listening and supporting.

Beyond the wealth of information shared, it was above all Laurent Couraud’s personality that impressed the participants. Accessible, generous and deeply passionate, he was able to create a sincere and caring exchange with the students, answering their questions frankly and enthusiastically.

This meeting once again illustrated the Cinécréatis school’s determination to connect its students with professionals in the sector and to offer them a concrete vision of the cinema and audiovisual professions. It was an inspiring morning that will undoubtedly live long in the memories of the future professionals in attendance.