Auditioning a death scene

[sfoster]

My primary concern is .. it's a very short script, and it calls for a gut wrenching death scene.

I feel awkward asking people to come in and die in front of me off the bat, but that's really the determining factor for which actor I want to pick. Is it okay to do such a thing? Or should I make it a priority to warm people up first and have them read one of the less dramatic scenes with a costar? or just come in by themselves and lament their death

Second concern.. this script is about someone making a mis-step in the world of the mafia and paying for it with their life. I feel like this has to be a guy, because the audience would be repulsed treating a woman that way. Am I being closed minded ?

 

[baoliun]

"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle." - Alfred Hitchcock

That is actors rarely have as vivid and precise image of the whole film as a director does, so in order to get the right performance they have to be controlled, led like cattle.