It's not just name value. Studios often need someone they know will photograph well to show up with little or no rehearsal and minimal direction, but still get the job done. Known actors are known employees. So you need to think of this in terms of leverage and value. Having someone with a name in that role is worth a lot to the studio, which not only has to buy the script, but develop it, produce it, market it, and distribute it. Even if this woman is insanely talented, it is absolutely unreasonable to expect a studio to give one of the lead roles to an unknown, even if she's a great fit. Think about it from the studio's side: Unless this script is being fought over by every studio and is somewhat cast-proof (like Avatar), why would they agree to this? If you want to cast whoever you want, go indie. Nikki Reed got to be in Thirteen because she wrote it. But that was much lower budget and she already had a personal relationship with the director. But I can tell you from time in the indie development trenches that this sort of thing is hard to pull off even in much smaller budget movies. I don't mean to be a downer, but I've seen actor-writers demand to be in lead roles, and it can hold projects back. To offer something more positive (and I really don't mean to be negative) one possibility is to make a short that showcases both her acting and your writing. Anything that makes it seem less like a condition and more like a flat-out good idea is helpful.

P.S. Scott, I think most actors would tell you that while character and emotion are good, what they really need from a script is action. Even if it's underlying, actors need to be doing something more than anything. P.P.S. This could totally be a series. You could ask actors or directors what they look for in a script, what habits of young writers they hate, what makes them put a script down, etc. "What Directors/Actors Want" or something like that. Just a thought.

Amos, if you Google search my site: "What the acting craft can teach writers about the writing craft," you will see a 5-part series I did years ago. I always push writers I work with to take at least some acting classes.

Awesome! Pre-dates my time as a reader.

Thanks for answering the question, Scott! The role might not be the lead actor or the focus of the story, but it is the lead female role and a very important character. Building a secondary or tertiary female role, unfortunately might not work with this story. Funny enough we are working on another idea with her in mind for the lead role that is an indie film. And I'm working on a separate indie idea that could be good for her also. I do like the idea of making a short for her to play the lead role. It is amazing working with an actor-writer. She's a great writer and storyteller, and she's also able to bring a set of eyes to the script that I can't.

Scott, do you think bringing this point up in a meeting could be a bad idea and totally turn off a studio/producer/prod company, etc?

I wouldn't worry about it, Marc. Obviously it's not something you lead the conversation with, but assuming the vibe is right, I don't think there's anything wrong with dropping in the possibility.