Oh, I assure you, it is very much true. They guard their rights jealously, and we would get slapped with a 'cease and desist' very, very quickly. Now, if the rights were for sale and we were to buy them...that would be a different matter entirely.
Okay, a few points....
One, the hosts did not choose Nell Tiger Free for Idril based on her name. They looked at the three finalist actresses and discussed what they'd seen them in before (Lily James in Cinderella/Downton Abbey, and Nell Tiger Free in Game of Thrones; I don't think either Corey or Trish had seen Chloe Martinez in anything). The preference for Nell Tiger Free was based on her age - she's 20, and they wanted her to still look quite young when we get to the Tuor in Gondolin Season (Lily James is 30). After that choice was made, Corey joked about what a great name she had and of course he had to go with her, but that was not the impetus for the choice.
Two, the nomination process already involves people listing a reason why they see that actor in that role, posting (up to 3) photos, and listing name/age/link to IMDB page. Many nominations include a video clip in lieu of one of the photos, but we haven't required it, as not all actors are well represented on YouTube. So, the information is certainly available for anyone who wants to look at the nominees before voting. It's true that the Hosts don't look at that during the casting session, typically (I think maybe for Season 2 they did?), with the thought being that more info is available on the imdb page. Also...it's...probably not a good idea...for them to play random clips from movies/TV shows on their podcast. It would take up a lot of time, and there'd have to be some previewing in effect.
Three, our current restrictions on nominations are that people must be a) alive, b) have an imdb page, and c) not already be cast in this project (except for voice roles). There are certainly cases where people are arguing for an actor/actress based on their earlier work, but the 'current age' thing is meant to give the veneer of realism - that we could call up their agent and offer them the role. I realize that eliminating past actors might limit the fun in some ways. And that, yes, it's not unusual for a casting director to be told 'we want a young Harrison Ford - handsome, action hero, good comedic sense, roughly 30 years old' or 'somebody creepy like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter' or something like that. So, yes, *if* we were going to do this project for real, we'd have to come up with casting sheets for each character and throw out all of our famous-and-way-too-expensive-and-by-the-way-not-interested marquee actors and set our casting director loose on binders of headshots from actors with little to no established work. Or just use the actors our directors have pre-established relationships with. Etc.
For me personally, the casting process is meant to be a fun game. You can imagine different actors in the roles, and consider what you would want their performance to look like. But like all aspects of this project - it does involve making choices. You can only put one actor in each role, so if you really, really wanted someone to be cast....then you'd naturally be disappointed if/when that person is not chosen. More popular/famous actors naturally have an advantage, as lots of people have seen them in roles and can picture them playing a certain part. They're more likely to win in the voting, and it's more likely to sway the hosts of the podcast. We have cast a handful of complete nobodies in this project (Arien, Vana, and Denethor aren't exactly well-known actors, I don't think), but I freely acknowledge that most of our choices have solid name recognition (especially among our geeky podcast listeners!).
When I nominate someone, I think of a performance that person has done that conveyed something of what I hope to see in that character. So, when I nominated Henry Cavill for Maedhros, I was considering how he portrayed Charles Brandon in The Tudors - there was a long-suffering aspect to that character, and a shift into greater maturity - but more importantly, he did that all in a very sympathetic way. The audience was rooting for him. I thought that would be a good look for Maedhros. When I nominated Andrew Garfield for Finrod, I was thinking about how good that actor was about wearing his heart on his sleeve and being completely open and vulnerable to everyone in Silence. For this season, I watched some clips of Joanna Vanderham in The Paradise, and noticed that she was very good at seeming to be bursting with energy and intention, but completely restrained. She said a lot when she wasn't talking. I thought that would be perfect for Idril, who has a quiet/contemplative personality, but is a key character. None of those actors were chosen for those roles, and I'm fine with that. I'm not saying that the other options aren't good. I'm just explaining my process in putting forward nominees.
So, yes, there are basic criteria of age/height/build that might make someone lean towards or lean away from a particular actor. Not everyone 'looks' like an elf or a dwarf or whatever. Sometimes, there's been some effort to make sure actors look like they can be in the same family. But to actually cast someone, we'd want a little more than that. So, I encourage people. when you are watching movies or TV shows or whatever....to think about whether or not you could see this actor portraying someone in our project. And then join the conversation at the nomination stage!