How much acting experience does a child need to get cast?

How much acting experience does a child need to get cast?

Gabrielle Schary (Casting Director) gives expert video advice on: What type of child can succeed in an acting career?; Are certain 'looks' in child actors easier to cast?; Does a child need to have perfect looks to succeed as an actor? and more...

Well, for commercials, not so much. For theatrical, stage, or movies, where there is very dramatic direction or intensive amount of lines to memorize, you would need more training and coaching for that. But, for commercials, by and large, a lot of commercials don't even have any dialog. So, it's a quick look at the quick reaction, and for example it might be a child in the backseat of a car eating an apple, or it might be a couple of kids playing with an action toy. So in those circumstances they don't need any acting ability. They just need to be able to listen, and be able to be patient enough to do what needs to be done.