As Hollywood responds to renewed calls for accountability and equity in casting—and as the Academy begins honoring casting with a new Oscar category—casting director Paul Sinacore, CSA, a 41st Artios Awards nominee for Excellence in Casting, shares a research-informed approach shaped by the collaborative work behind Sony/Columbia Pictures CLIKA
LOS ANGELES – The current trade conversation around casting accountability has sharpened a practical question: when we say “intentional” casting, what does that mean in the work—who’s afforded character interiority, who gets reduced to shorthand, and whether audiences feel a world is lived-in or merely staged?
For Sinacore, the answer starts with method. “Authenticity isn’t a checklist,” he said. “It’s a process: intensive research, active listening, testing assumptions, and always coming back to performance truth.” In practice, he adds, intentional casting is the process; authenticity is the result—achieved by applying a cultural lens and protecting emotional truth.
CLIKA, released through Sony/Columbia Pictures and powered by producer Jimmy Humilde and Rancho Humilde, offered a proving ground for that approach. The film opened in 522 theaters and grossed approximately $1.26 million domestically in its opening weekend — evidence that culturally rooted stories can scale when the human details are specific and credible.
Sinacore is clear that cultural credibility is built collaboratively. Working in partnership with director Michael Greene and the producing team, he helped assemble an ensemble—grounded in behavior, relationships, and cultural fluency, not surface markers.
The ensemble balances recognizability with cultural credibility, including JayDee (Herencia de Patrones), Cristian “Concrete” Gutierrez, DoKnow, Laura Lopez, and Nana Ponceleon, alongside Eric Roberts, Master P, and the late Peter Greene.
Sinacore credits a UCLA B.A. dual major in Psychology and Anthropology (2014), including a senior thesis centered on empathy—training he has applied in casting ever since to protect human truth and reduce stereotype risk. He views this as aligned with the Casting Society’s principles of empathy, equity, and inclusivity, and with Equity in Entertainment as a practice standard—not a slogan.
He adds one guardrail: accountability in casting is measurable—who is in the audition pool, who is in the decision loop early, and whether the work protects character complexity over “type.” “It’s vital to listen early to the communities a story depicts—and to build that listening into process,” Sinacore said.
Intentional casting also begins with alignment—casting roles with performers who credibly connect to the people and lived context the story is portraying, bringing both craft and cultural fluency into the frame, rather than relying on convenient proxies or shorthand.
“Empathy is the discipline behind authenticity,” he added. “Craft is what makes representation durable—and when the work is real, audiences feel it.”
For more information, visit paulsinacorecasting.com and imdb.me/paulsinacore.
