Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25582606-20150211145702/@comment-24674051-20150217153927

I think that the use of the character name or a 'code' name is largely dependent on a couple of factors:

1. If the new character is relatively unknown (like Lily for instance), use of the real character name gives nothing away.

2. If the character is relatively known (ie, Maleficent, Peter Pan, etc), then the use of the code name helps preserve the anonimity of the character.

This is not just for helping to reduce the amount of spoilage (though it does help with that). It also helps actors to approach the audition without any preconcieved notions of the character. It gives the director an idea of how an actor might concieve a character based on the description of the character, rather than a name (and all the baggage that might come with that name).