Meet Me at Crafty

Some films come together neatly. The Long Walk was not one of them. Casting director Rich Delia had already cast the movie twice before the version that finally made it to screen. “I’ve been working on the movie for about eight years,” he says. “Longer than I’ve ever worked on any project in my career.” Each attempt to adapt Stephen King’s novella about young men walking until their death had its own director, its own script, and its own momentum—until that momentum evaporated. “I had become so emotionally invested in the characters,” Delia says, “and it was difficult to emotionally invest that much.”

When Lionsgate called for a third go, Delia’s response was instant: “Oh no.” But then came the magic words: Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) would direct a new script by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling). “I said, ‘I have to do this,’” he says. “Everything comes together when it’s supposed to. And this is the moment for this film.”

Across its eight-year evolution, the world changed, Hollywood changed, and the actors changed, but the connection Delia felt to the material remained constant. “I never saw it as a violent film or a horror film,” he says. “I saw it as a film about friendship and love and the bonds that we can build. I approached it thinking about the characters’ humanity.”

That focus on humanity shaped every casting choice. Delia has a proven track record when it comes to discovering talent (he cast Short Term 12 with Brie Larson, Rami Malek, and Kaitlyn Dever), and for this project, he needed sweet and tough young male performers. The Outsiders and Stand by Me served as tonal touchpoints, films in which boys are caught in situations where they’re forced into becoming one another’s lifeline. “They have to develop these life-or-death bonds,” he says. “Seeing how that plays out in a compressed period was really intriguing.”

But casting those bonds was no simple process. “It was extensive,” Delia says. The team cast globally, mixing self-tapes, in-person sessions, and chemistry reads. Nobody came in just once. “ Most of them were reading their death scenes at a certain point. A couple of the actors read through multiple characters… It was an intricate puzzle to put together.”

Physicality mattered too. “They were walking 15, 16 miles a day while shooting,” Delia notes. Actors had to prove they could handle that—not just emotionally but literally. “Garrett Wareing filmed his as he was walking, with a camera on a dolly following him. You felt like you were watching a film.”

Lawrence shaped this iteration boldly, shooting chronologically so audiences could see the boys deteriorate in real time, refocusing the story, even changing who lives and dies. But what thrilled Delia most was Lawrence’s casting philosophy: “He wasn’t concerned with a certain level of talent for a role. It mattered more what they were doing with these given roles in this film.” No follower counts. No résumé politics. “It was refreshing,” Delia says. And that freedom led directly to several cast members landing their first major film roles.

Delia’s connection to the story was deeply personal. “I fell in love with the characters,” he says. “There’s such an amazing naiveté and vulnerability to some of them… They’re excited but don’t understand the ramifications.” That, he believes, is universal. “We may feel like we want to go it alone, but ultimately we’re only as strong as the community around us.”

That empathy extends to how he runs a room. “Auditioning is weird—it just always will be,” he says. A former actor himself, he tries to create a space where actors feel welcome. “We invited you. We want you here. We’re thankful you’re giving your time and energy,” he says. What he looks for in self tapes mirrors that philosophy: “I want to feel like I’m watching a scene from the film… not an actor waiting for their next line.”

Rich Delia is an Artios Award-winning casting director whose credits include Dallas Buyers Club, It, and Short Term 12. His craft services go-to?  “I am not on set as much as an actor or director. If I was, I would get in a lot of trouble because craft services would be a problem for me. And it would definitely be Doritos.”