Des Hamilton, the casting director known for his work on the likes of This is England and Top Boy, has had his award-winning work recognised with a BAFTA Scotland Special Award.
If there’s one thing you know for sure about Des Hamilton it’s that he would make an excellent dinner guest, regaling others with high tales from the casting room experienced across an exceptional career that has spanned hundreds of films, television series, shorts, music promos and commercials. Many of these eventful auditions are well-documented – there’s the time grime artist Kano hit him or when Jasmine Jobson flung a chair across the room, both riled up by Hamilton and his blunt request for greater authenticity during their auditions for Top Boy.
Such Hamilton anecdotes, almost certainly enlivened with a colourful array of choice native Glaswegian tongue, are not just for entertaining dinner guests. This is how the casting director plies his trade, drawing out the best in people who perhaps don’t know they can or even want to act, along the way spotting some of the UK’s brightest new talents.
It’s the reason why his company, Des Hamilton Casting, is in high demand from some of the world’s best, including the likes of Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar), Shane Meadows (This is England), Taika Waititi (JoJo Rabbit), Claire Denis (High Life), Andrea Arnold (Red Road), Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson), Lars von Trier (Melancholia), Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void), Chris Morris (Four Lions)… the list goes on. He’s also helped launch the careers of Thomas Turgoose, Kathleen McDermott, Letitia Wright, Luke Fraser, Tom Sweet and much of the Top Boy cast.