How Lucy Pardee spots future film stars in the wild
What made Attack the Block or Bafta favourite Rocks so special? Lucy Pardee's uniquely anthropological brand of 'street casting'
Bukky Bakray has been nominated for a BAFTA
Rocks is the little film that could. It felt like an industry coup even before it was nominated for a whopping eight Baftas (more than any other title) yesterday. Shot in London in 2018, with the lead cast populated by young people who had never acted before, with a story (by Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson) shaped around them, it’s a miracle of a film, I suggest to its casting director Lucy Pardee. “It is a miracle,” she says. “The further I get away from the making of it, the more I can see just how special it is.”