Nayor has had an impressive career that began at Universal Pictures and saw her rising to Senior Vice President of Feature Casting before venturing out on her own. She recently worked on the latest season of the Amazon Prime series The Baxters, as well as the directorial debut of Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda, the Diablo Cody-scripted Lisa Frankenstein, now available to view on Peacock.

She spoke to us from her home office, where she was joined by Buster, the Pomeranian she “timeshares” with her stepson.

How did you get into casting in the first place?

I wanted to be an actress. I was in all my school plays in high school and college. I just loved being in theater, so I thought, “I want to go into theater in New York. But I want to learn what is needed of the actors, so I’m going to go in stealth and do an internship in casting and learn how to succeed in that field. Get the inside scoop.” I did my first internship at Manhattan Theatre Club, and within the first 24 hours, I decided that I love casting and that was going to be my path.

What was it that was so entrancing?

I had to interview a lot of actors for these equity principal interviews. I think it was a biannual requirement of all the Off-Broadway theaters for actors who either had no agent or didn’t have a good agent that they could meet the producers of the theater.

They put me in one of the smaller theaters with a table and chair and I was meeting everyone who was in line. I recognized a lot of those actors from seeing Broadway shows growing up and I thought, “Oh, my God, I don’t want to be in this line at 40, 50, 60 years old.” I thought, they’re so talented, I don’t want to compete with them, I’d rather see if I can help facilitate moving their career forward.

It’s amazing how many casting directors I’ve talked to started as actors.

I think it helps greatly in casting just to have a different dialogue with actors. A different understanding of the psyche of an actor. The challenges. The struggles. I think you have more compassion for the whole process, and I think it just makes you more well-rounded in the job.

It’s interesting, too, because every single casting director I’ve talked to has such a love of actors, and yet so many actors view them adversarially.

It’s true, we’re perceived as the gatekeepers, but we are always in the position of wanting to bring out the best performances, to help actors have the best environment. It makes life easy for everyone on both sides. I can be a hero with my producers and director to deliver someone wonderful who they love, so I want an actor to do well.

You do a lot of genre films. What led you down that road?

I was at Universal for the first 14 years of my career and was eventually SVP of feature casting there. In my first year in LA, I came out for two weeks to work on a Universal feature and stayed for 14 years. At the time, we had in-house deals with Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Ron Howard and John Hughes — amazing filmmakers, and I got to work with all of them. That’s where I met Sam Raimi.

I cast The Whole Nine Yards and Road Trip, and then because I worked with Sam at Universal on Darkman, he brought me onto The Grudge, and then I did The Exorcism of Emily Rose within the same year. Those came out and just happened to be big hits, and it seemed to open the floodgates for the genre for me. I didn’t want to be ungrateful to have a niche, so I thought I would embrace it and just go along the genre journey.

It’s been a blast, and I do enjoy the combination of comedy and genre like Lisa Frankenstein or Barbarian. I did one recently with the Barbarian team called Companion, with Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. It’s in the post, and it’s just hysterically funny.

Because of the nature of your work, I imagine you also discover a lot of talent, too.

I mean, it’s great. I put Gwyneth Paltrow on her first film ever, which was called Shout. I cast Tessa Thompson in her first film where she was one of the opening cameo kills in When a Stranger Calls. I think genre gives an opportunity for that over and over because you want to feel like you can relate to the people in the film, so you don’t need big movie stars.

I think that’s a trick for the audience to feel like, “this could be happening to me, this horrible story. This horror could be visiting my front door.” That’s why it’s not Brad Pitt starring in a horror film because I can’t relate.

That feels like it segues well into my last question, which is what piece of wisdom or advice would you give to someone coming in to audition for you?

I would say, be relaxed. I think a lot of times, back to your point at the beginning, this fear or this anxiousness or nervousness that comes up because you feel like, “Oh, this person’s not rooting for me or they don’t want to see me succeed,” but it’s the opposite.

We do want to see them succeed. That creates a tension that I think inhibits creativity a lot of the time. Also, to be bold. Not to be fearful of making a choice. Sometimes people are so concerned with making the wrong choice that they go vanilla instead of taking bold chances, which I think are the auditions that are the most memorable.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 2: Theatre, Not Therapy
• Key Equipment for Recording Your Voiceover Projects at Home
• What’s Casting: Vogue Commercial with Major Auto Brand, Goose Creek Candle, badboyboards

The post ‘Barbarian,’ ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Casting Director Nancy Nayor Opens Up About Genre Casting first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘Barbarian,’ ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Casting Director Nancy Nayor Opens Up About Genre Casting appeared first on Casting Networks.

Furthermore, Papsidera’s collaboration with Taylor Sheridan on his “Taylorverse” introduced audiences to several new franchise shows last year that he cast, including 1923, Lawman: Bass Reeves and Special Ops: Lioness.

In addition to these successes, Papsidera cast the Apple TV+ miniseries Lessons in Chemistry. The historical drama stars Brie Larson as a chemist who becomes a cooking show host, leveraging her scientific expertise to enlighten her primarily housewife audience on scientific principles.

In an interview with Casting Networks, Papsidera provided insights into the unique challenges of bringing the show to life, and his experience attending the SAG Awards for the first time earlier this year.

Were any actors already attached to the project when you came on board to cast?

Brie was already attached. She was a producer and had worked in developing the piece. Hannah Fidell, the original showrunner, called me and asked, in conjunction with Apple, if I would be interested. Hannah and I got off to a great start. I had seen the show she did with Kate Mara and Nick Robinson, A Teacher, so we talked about that when I first met her. I found out later she is friends with Jason Reitman, who I’m friends with and work with a lot (Author’s note: Papsidera cast the filmmaker’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its sequel, Frozen Empire.)

Were there any special requirements for casting this show?

We wanted to capture the time period in the right way to make it as authentic as we could to that world – in which women were second-class citizens in many ways. We needed it to come through authentically rather than cartoony or over the top because the show was also mixing humor with very serious subjects. I knew going in that it would be a mix of comedy and tragic things, but also with a very female-driven point of view. We wanted women to look like women, not just beauty queens. We wanted men to feel like they were from the 50s and represent that in the right way. Those were the biggest things we talked about.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

How do you accomplish that in terms of look and voice?

It’s subtle. It’s about vocal style and diction. The English language has been trashed over the years, so it’s very different now how someone speaks – in terms of what they say and how they say it – than it used to be in the 50s. During the audition, we had people with a perfect look but not the perfect tone. Others had the tone but looked too contemporary. We’d go back and ask them to do something with their hair, like pull it back, for instance, to try and fit those pieces together. Because some people can get the tone and presentation, and some need a little adjusting.

Shouldn’t casting directors be able to see past hair and presentation?

Yes, we do see it. That’s why we’re asking actors to make that adjustment. It’s not for us. It’s for executives and producers and directors. I’m working on something now where the person said to me, yeah, ‘He’s a good actor, but in that picture, his hair’s not quite right.’ I was like, you’re going to talk about somebody’s hairdo from a resume standpoint, as opposed to the role we’re talking about? Sometimes you have to help those people see the actors in the light that they are looking for. It’s a reality that we deal with all the time.

With Lessons in Chemistry, what were you looking for in terms of look?

Certainly, there was more softness back then. The look of the 1950s was not rail thin and lip injections, you know what I mean? You have to pay attention to those things. Women had curves, and men didn’t have their teeth perfectly capped or their hair filled in.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

But many actors – and in today’s culture – do have lip injections and filled-in hair because we live in a culture where that’s very prevalent right now. It’s also associated with youthfulness – and actors usually want to look as young as long as possible to extend their careers.

At the end of the day, you have to be a human being and do what you want to do as a human. That’s more important than what you do in life for a career to make money. Just be mindful of the fact it is going to inhibit you at times. However, it also depends on the piece you’re working on, and how important it is or isn’t. Not for every character, but if there’s nudity for women (on period projects), you can’t have augmentations because people will be like, ‘That’s not true to the time.’ All those things come into play.

Unfortunately, I think women are subjected to (scrutiny) more. Part of that is the male gaze and that whole mindset. It can be a hard line for actors to do what’s right for their career and what’s right to make themselves look beautiful and youthful and not surgery themselves out of a job.

Let’s talk about how some of the supporting characters were cast.

Stephanie Koenig, who played Fran, I had known her and thought she was a fabulous actress. My associate, Jennifer Cram, who I’ve worked with on and off for 19 years, wrote and directed her own film [Sick Girl], and Stephanie was in it. I produced it, so we knew what Stephanie could do. She’s one of those actresses who got the tone, look, and style all at once. The [showrunners and studio] didn’t even know what she had done. They just were blown away by her audition. We weren’t bound to have a name for every character so we opened the doors and had people read to find the most realistic people that we could set this world.

Aja Naomi King, [who played Harriet Sloan,] was brilliant in her audition. She was such a force. She and Patrick Walker, [who plays Reverend Wakely,] through their performances and auditions, acted their way into elevated writing because the writers started to write towards them, and beefed up that storyline during the process because it wasn’t there initially. The writing was enhanced by their casting.

Kevin Sussman, [who played the cooking show producer Walter Pine], I’ve known for years and always loved his work. I honestly thought on some level, the producers would be drawn to a big name for that role. But Kevin read, they watched his tape, and they said, he’s perfect.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Speaking of bigger names, how did Lewis Pullman come aboard as the Brie’s leading man?

He was coming off Top Gun: Maverick. He had other stuff that he was about to go to, but we made the schedule work. I was thrilled because not only does he read incredibly intelligent, but he has a real sense of humor and can do physically comedic stuff. I was thrilled that we got Lewis and I thought he and Brie had an amazing chemistry.

You were invited to attend the SAG awards for the first time in your career this past February because of Oppenheimer, which you cast. The room must have been filled with actors who have auditioned for you over the years. Any memorable encounters?

The SAG Awards were a lovely experience because I got to see so many actors that I don’t get to see on a regular basis because they’ve all become big stars! I congratulated Margot Robbie, and she said, ‘It’s all because of you.’

What did she mean by that?

I was her first meeting when she came to the United States from Australia. I flipped for her. I happened to be doing the remake of Charlie’s Angels, the television series. I immediately got Margot into that, and she tested. The studio was like, “We don’t really see it.” I’m like, “What?” A week later, she was cast in [the short-lived ABC series] Pan Am, and that was her first big project in the States.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 1: Who You Are vs. What You Are
• Success Story: How Ansley Moncoeur’s Interaction With Michael Cera Led to an Upgrade and SAG Voucher on the Set of ‘Life & Beth’
• ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Literary, Journalist Icons Earnest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson

The post Legendary Casting Director John Papsidera Talks ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ and More first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Legendary Casting Director John Papsidera Talks ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ and More appeared first on Casting Networks.

Fast forward to 2024, where she’s been crushing it with Fincannon & Associates for over a decade, while watching her home city blossom into a thriving production hub. The casting director took time out to discuss casting Netflix’s hit show Outer Banks top to bottom, her time in New York and of course, all things Atlanta.

Congratulations on the well-deserved Oscar category being added for casting. What did that feel like for you and your peers to finally get recognition from the Academy, and what was going through your mind when you got the news?

It’s been something that we’ve been seeking for quite some time. I think it was just difficult for us to understand why television was recognized and features weren’t. I feel like we’re moving ahead, moving forward, where casting is very much on the map. I think it’s something that now people talk about more than they used to. [With] all the work that we do with features, I’m glad that people are recognizing the collaboration and our hard work, and it feels like we’re really moving into a great space with casting.

You started in stage management at the University of Florida. How did that pull you into the casting world?

At that time in my life, I don’t think I knew that casting was a trajectory I could follow, but I always loved actors. I loved being in the room with the director and the audition process and hearing his thoughts, and every time a new actor would come in and [I’d be] seeing their read and how it could fit, it just lit me up. I was talking to a director about that, and he was like, “Well, maybe you should consider casting.” He connected me with some people up in New York, and that’s how the ball started rolling.

How has the stage management experience helped you as a casting director in general?

I think it’s definitely helped with blocking out my time accordingly. I think it’s helped with juggling the personalities of everyone involved in the production. With stage management, you very much do the same thing. You are pulling all of the pieces together for the production, and it also has this family environment and you get that with each production that you work on. It’s just balancing all of the pieces of the puzzle of a production that you see in stage management as well as in casting, because there’s so many different facets. Not only schedules, but also content. It’s just really logistics, logistics, logistics.

I don’t think that a lot of people realize that with casting, that so much of it is “Can we actually get the actor there on that day to do what they need to do?” Of course, auditioning is very much the more fun part of finding that match—that marriage, so to speak—with what the creators seek and what you present to them.

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Wistedt, CSA.

What was it like working with Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey? How do you think those experiences prepared you for working at Fincannon & Associates and shaped the way that you work now?

I think what was so amazing about being in New York and working for these names that had been in the business for so long, and for something as historic and rooted as theater and musicals and Broadway, nothing makes you feel richer in the history of your industry and in casting, and it’s really what lit the fire. They’re just so highly respected and I’m truly, so grateful for that experience.

The Fincannons have also been rooted in the industry since the early 1980s. It’s interesting how I found myself with a company that had the same incredible reputation and history in the business coming from Tara Rubin and Bernie Telsey’s office. It prepared me for the hustle. It prepared me for building my own reputation within these offices that have incredible reputations on their own. I think my time in New York really showed me that this path is what lights me up and is just a perfect marriage of what I think that I am meant to do in terms of my skill set.

What was it like casting Outer Banks?

Outer Banks is so wonderful for our office, because we’re usually relegated to regional casting due to the location-specific part of the show and our relationship with the Pate Brothers. They wanted it to be so truly of the Southeast and so truly of Carolina kids. That show is such a milestone for us as a regional office to do it from top to bottom.

What was really amazing about casting Outer Banks is finding, I guess you could say, no-name talent at the time and building them into this empire of global phenomenon status. I say kids, but they’re not quite kids—finding young adults really from this region and bringing this story to life because everyone believed that they were kids from the Outer Banks. I think the authenticity of all of that and our market has always succeeded in that age range [with] those kids.

How much more intensive is the process when you’re going top to bottom versus a handful of specific roles?

In terms of the difference, I would say obviously workload. You have so many more characters to pay attention to [and] it’s all coming from you. Everything from the series regulars down to the one-line day player.

It’s also a very schedule-specific show in that we deal with a lot of locations and for some reason, we also shoot during hurricane season. There’s a lot of shifting around [and] it’s action-packed, so there’s a lot of changes. It really is such a whirlwind of a show.

It’s lots of hard work, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because I just feel like it’s really put our market on the map. It validated our office as casting anywhere is casting everywhere. Similarly to the actors that we cast. Just because we’re not in New York or LA, we still do the damn thing. I think it’s brought a lot of pride to our office.

Kim Wistedt, CSA, Lisa Mae Fincannon and the cast of Outer Banks. Photo courtesy of Kimberly Wistedt, CSA.

What’s your experience been like, watching Atlanta blossom into the production powerhouse that it’s become, and how does that feel as an Atlanta native?

It’s so funny. I always thought that in order to pursue this path, I would have to settle in New York and LA. While those places are very sparkly and fun and certainly full of opportunity and history in the business, I just knew that neither one of those places could be somewhere that I could be long-term.

I have so much pride that I can be in a location where I have the same access to what drives me in terms of the projects and the stories, the studios and everyone involved. I can live in a place where I’m near family and friends, where it’s not this constant struggle to survive. I’m really thriving here. I do think that success is a multifaceted word. I think that of course, you can move to LA or New York and do everything that it takes for the business, but I think other parts of your life could suffer in that way.

I have so much pride for Atlanta, and it feels very kismet, I think, that it’s worked out this way for me and I’m grateful. I’d say over the past 10, 11 years here in the market, the way that it’s changed and grown, Atlanta is no longer a secondary location. It’s very much a primary location, and the market has become a lot more saturated.

In casting, what’s been so refreshing and so wonderful is just the caliber of the roles that we are looking for. We are very often working in tandem with the New York and LA offices that we work on with our series.

The trust that producers have in us and in our market, and in the talent that we bring has grown tremendously. We’ve gone from the one-line bellhop, on location, local talent to series regulars and major recurring guest stars. We still have a lot of work to do to sew up the gap there in treating Southeastern actors with just as much experience as an actor coming out of LA, but I think we’re really making a lot of headway. It’s been really cool to see that transition and for us to be just legitimized on all sides.

Atlanta is also a big food city. What’s your go-to local dish?

I wish I had some very classic Southern stance on this. We do have really, really amazing brunch places. There’s this place in Buckhead called Buttermilk Kitchen, and it is just like, everything that you could quintessentially want when you’re in a Southern town and you would want for breakfast, they have. It’s just impeccable. The wait is always outrageous.

I’d say Atlanta brunch is a total vibe, but also, cuisine that I really like is Mediterranean and Greek. I don’t know what it is about falafel, but I just love it. We have quite a handful of really amazing Mediterranean, Persian, Greek restaurants. There’s a place called Cafe Agora in Buckhead that I really love. Rumi’s Kitchen is amazing. There’s a new [Persian] restaurant called Yalda that has a couple of locations, [and] it’s really delicious.

Atlanta is incredibly diverse, [which] I don’t think a lot of people realize. I think I read a statistic one time that it was in the top five most culturally diverse cities in the U.S. It’s a really bustling city, but they say it’s the city in the forest.

I think that’s why Atlanta is so great for this industry and also for industry professionals, because you get the balance of city life, hustle and bustle, skyscrapers, restaurants, amazing hotels and experiences, concerts, the whole shebang. You also get a calming forest vibe. You get hikes. The Blue Ridge Mountains are just an hour away. You don’t really feel all-consumed by city life. Lots of beautiful, sprawling neighborhoods and homes and all four seasons. Who can’t love that?

What’s some audition advice you could share?

For me, there’s many things, and each casting person always has their do’s and don’ts. One that I go back to is reading as if you have the role. I think it strips away this level of desperation of like, “Oh my gosh, I just want this role so bad.” Believe it or not, we can sense that energy on the other side. I think it also creates this level of play where you don’t feel like you have to marry yourself to some expectation like, “Is this what they need? Is this what they want to see?”

It allows you this room for discovery, for truly listening. I always like to say, “Pretend as if you have it and you’re on-set and you’re doing the thing.” I always like to say to find your environment and your business in the scene. I think that pretending that you have it and you’re on-set helps inform that as well, because you can see where you are [in that] place in time. Also, I love little tidbits, just imagining your head space in the moment before this scene happens.

Overall, just do it as if you have it, and it’s really incredible to see how much more fun it is for us to watch, and just how much more magic happens from the moment you press play.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• What’s Casting: Frankincense & Myrrh, Tech Brand Campaign, Major Skincare Brand Commercial
• Cristiana Dell’Anna Shares How Martin Scorsese and Three Self Tapes Helped Her Land the Starring Role in ‘Cabrini’
• Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins

The post Fincannon & Associates’ Kimberly Wistedt, CSA Talks Casting Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ and Atlanta’s Amazing Brunches first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Fincannon & Associates’ Kimberly Wistedt, CSA Talks Casting Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ and Atlanta’s Amazing Brunches appeared first on Casting Networks.

The actor sat down with Casting Networks via video call to share the eventful casting story that led to her playing the humanitarian/entrepreneur/visionary that was Francesca Cabrini in Alejandro Monteverde’s biopic about the first American saint.

From casting director Denise Chamian championing the actor to Dell’Anna pulling off her third self tape without a reader, you can catch all these insights and more in this on-camera installment of My Casting Story.

This video interview has been edited and condensed.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins
• Work Begets Work — The Power of Creating Your Own Projects
• Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’

The post Cristiana Dell’Anna Shares How Martin Scorsese and Three Self Tapes Helped Her Land the Starring Role in ‘Cabrini’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Cristiana Dell’Anna Shares How Martin Scorsese and Three Self Tapes Helped Her Land the Starring Role in ‘Cabrini’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, actors at the 39th Annual Artios Awards had a lot to say when it came to their appreciation for casting. You can catch all our red carpet interviews with them below.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• 30 Activities for Every Day in April
• Choosing an Audition Song: Advice for Non-singers
• What’s Casting: Reebok, Anti Social Social Club, ‘Lopez vs Lopez’ and More

The post From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, Actors Share Appreciation for Casting on the Artios Red Carpet first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post From Niecy Nash to Auliʻi Cravalho, Actors Share Appreciation for Casting on the Artios Red Carpet appeared first on Casting Networks.

The success they have had is undeniable, having cast films like You Hurt My Feelings, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Eileen and Shortcomings, just to name a few, as well as TV shows like The Get Down, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and the seminal The Americans. They spoke to us from their home base in New York City.

How did you both get into casting?

Rori Bergman: I studied directing in college and knew I wanted to do something in the industry. When I got out of school, I did a bunch of internships, trying to find my way. I was very lucky and just blindly applied to an internship with Bowling/Miscia Casting. I interned there for about six months, but almost immediately, I was like, “Oh, I think this is it.”

It was creative and it had all of the elements that I loved about being a director because I was working with the actors, breaking down the script and working with all these other departments, but it also had a left-brain admin element to it. They helped me get a job with Laura Rosenthal. I spent five years there and then just bounced around for another 10 years until I went out on my own.

Karlee Fomalont: I studied acting at NYU, and kind of similarly, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do that could take all my love of performing and channel it into something a bit more structured. I found amazing mentors who helped show me that casting was a career in the first place and that I would fit somewhere inside of it. It was kind of a beautiful accident shepherded by many amazing people.

That seems to come up a lot in casting origin stories. Happy accidents and great mentors, because generally speaking, casting is not taught at film school.

RB: There are a few programs in the country now. I think Syracuse has a casting concentration and Savannah College of Art and Design, but it’s very unusual. But Karlee, you were doing unofficial casting without realizing it in film school.

KF: A lot of my friends were in the film department and I was in the acting department. Tisch has a horrible crossover between the departments, and all of my filmmaker friends would come to me and say, “Karlee, who should I put in my thesis film? Who should I work with on this class project that I have?” So it was really me and one other person who’s now a casting director as well, Erica Hart. Between the two of us, we connected all these people. We both kind of made it up as we went.

Sort of on-the-job training without realizing you were actually on the job.

KF: Correct. I think one of the most interesting things about this moment we’re in right now, with the creation of the Casting Oscar, is it’s going to immediately add visibility to our craft. Maybe it will affect young kids watching the Oscars who didn’t realize that this was a job that they could have.

You both talk about having mentors who were indispensable to your career development. Do you in turn continue the unofficial tradition?

RB: I hope so. I think the best thing that you can do is foster an environment in your office where you’re giving people room to build their skills and learn and grow so that they either grow with you or fly the nest and go do their own thing. That’s what people did for us.

KF: A lot of the mentorship that happens is through osmosis. The entire reason I’m able to now function at the level that I’m at is because I’ve watched Rori do it for nine years.

I imagine the other side of that is knowing what doesn’t work for you.

RB: There’s that too. I’ve worked for 75% of the casting directors in New York at one point or another, even if it was just for a few days, and certainly you pick and choose. As you’re in different offices and say, “Oh, I really like the way they manage that and this person navigates difficult producers really well and this person is so artistically in tune with their director in this specific way,” or, “I love the way they give a note to an actor.”

You grab all these different things, including sometimes saying, “Okay, well that is not the way I would probably have thought to handle that.” Really, though, I think the casting community here in New York is just exceptionally generous with their time, not just with actors, but with the way they interact with the rest of the casting community.

People against whom you will soon be competing for an Oscar.

KF: I think the special thing about our community is that it’s not competitive in that way. We will be overjoyed for whoever we see up there. The idea of doing a campaign circuit amongst our community, everyone’s gonna have the greatest time and then whoever wins, everyone will celebrate that person. It’s going to be so genuine because it’s such a win for all of us.

RB: I feel the same way. Casting is such a behind-the-scenes part of the industry, that directors and producers end up being the face of the decision-making process. Then, obviously, the actors are the face of those decisions. It often feels like our work is overlooked.

I don’t think most of us mind that, since we chose casting because we don’t want to be at the forefront, but I think the recognition of it is going to be really valuable in terms of of giving it the respect and the value that it deserves, and hopefully further some of those conversations about acknowledging casting as the important part of the process that it is.

KF: It takes extensive work to make a lot of these things happen. So hopefully rewarding the people for doing that is going to show that. I think people are going to be really interested in learning about it and hearing about it, and how much depth it adds to the process. I’m excited for that.

What piece of advice or wisdom would you give to an actor coming in to audition for you?

RB: I always just say be prepared. Do whatever homework you can before you come into the room. I think educating yourself on the projects that either that director works on or that writer has written or the kind of projects the casting director tends to work on and get a sense of the tone of the world helps you make decisions and help fill out the world that we are building.

KF: All of that, and then I will also say, coming in with the tone and the context of the box you’re playing in. If you give yourself the emotional play space, and then the physical play space, it really lifts things off a page. At the Oscars, Da’Vine Joy Randolph made me cry because it was all about her just always being herself and having a strong point of view. That’s all we’re asking. We want you to come in fully as yourself doing your version of something, then let that filter through the prism of whatever environment you’ve built for yourself.

RB: Don’t spend so much time trying to fit yourself into the box that you think we want you in. You lose sight of everything that makes you you, and that’s ultimately what elevates something from a character on the page into something three-dimensional.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Casting Director Melissa O’Neil Provides a Deep Dive into the World of Commercial Casting
• How Social Media Can Help Your Acting Career…and It’s Not About Numbers
• Custom Profile Links for Casting Networks Profiles Are Back for Premium Members

The post Casting Directors Rori Bergman and Karlee Fomalont Discuss the Evolution of the Casting Industry first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Casting Directors Rori Bergman and Karlee Fomalont Discuss the Evolution of the Casting Industry appeared first on Casting Networks.

Here are some of the nuggets she was able to discuss.

What is your process for casting commercials?

It starts off with the client. Let’s say it’s Kraft. Maybe they want a new flavored mayonnaise. They go to their creatives at the ad agency and they’re like, “We want a new mayonnaise with garlic. What can we do?” The ad agency gets artwork on board and then starts picking directors that they want to work with.

Then the ad agency hires a director, which comes with a production team, and then the production and director hire me. I sit down with the director and the agency and we go over the boards. Then I prepare a casting call that says “Looking for great comedic actors, people who can riff, people who can improv” and whatever detail is specific to what I need. I put it out to the agents, giving them as much information as I can get.

All the agents send me their top people who they feel best represents [the call]. I go through all of those people and I bring in my cast or the people I feel that need to be scheduled and be seen for this role. You get the audition, you come in to see me and I usually put out the boards that kind of match what I was given to show you what’s happening in the commercial.

If there’s any dialogue, I send it out ahead of time so that you guys aren’t worried about the dialogue and you can come in and do your work because if you’re worried about the lines, you can’t act. All I see is you trying to get the lines out. Most people, when they get in the room, they don’t even want to be in the room. They just want to get out and say the lines, the way that they rehearse them in their car. They’re like, ”I’m out.”

Usually the first couple of people that I work with, we workshop the spot. The rest of the day we continue letting people bring their ideas to the commercial or what their take is on it. Then I send off the tapes.

What really happens during callbacks?

Usually it’s the director and the ad agency that are giving you the callbacks. A lot of people think it’s the casting director, and it could be because my director may say, “Mel, who do you think? If I miss someone, who do you think should be in that room?” That’s normally when I get called, but for the most part it’s the director and the ad agency. Then when we go to callbacks.

Now here’s the interesting part. What’s going on in the background is that the callback is pretty much a dress rehearsal for the shoot, and the director is probably meeting the client in person for the first time, meeting the ad agency. While you’re auditioning and you’re in the callback room, there’s a lot of things going on in the background.

You need to just put your attention on yourself and walk in with your point of view. Some people call it subtext, some people call it coming in and not being vanilla, having a choice. After the callback is over the time, sit around and with paint chips, we put up your pictures on the wall and then everyone comes up. The director’s like, “Hmm, well I loved her. I love that, I love this.” And they’ll get the whole board together. They’ll have on the top length, they will have the hero cast that they want to present and then a backup cast. Sometimes if they think their client is tricky, building a third tier [of actors].

For the most part it’s a hero and a backup per role. Well, here’s where things get interesting. You may be the director’s first choice, and then someone may come in with ”I think we need more diversity.” So then another round [or so] will go up until they finally cement everything. If you get an avail for your commercial that you audition for, you are in the top 1% of your business.

What are the odds of getting a role in one of your projects?

How many submissions do you think I get per role? Thousands. Do you know how many I bring in per role? 25 per role. Do you see the odds of getting that?
Here’s the great news. There’s room for everybody in commercials, which is why I love it. There is a massive cry for diversity, not only in race, but in sexual orientation, in gender identity, in all skin pigmentation, all shapes and sizes. And the cry today is for people who don’t look like actors so that they’re normal looking people that their clients can appreciate and relate to.

Now, the thing that is not in your control, but as part of you, you can’t separate it is your looks, right? The good news is that that trend of having a perfect scenario, they used to call it P&G, Proctor and Gamble, that kind of look is gone and it is tattoos, it’s piercings, it’s all the things that before would hinder you. And now it could be to your surface, all different hairstyles, cuts, what have you. That is my process.

There’s no way I’m looking at everyone the same way. I’m looking specifically for what the client is asking me for on this project. There’s no, “How can I be right? What makes me right?” You make you right. You make it who I’m looking for, depending on the job. One of the biggest things that I wanted to talk about is there is no set rule, it’s per project base. And that goes probably for every casting director, not just myself. Because we are given the breakdown of what the client’s needs are. What is fitting into that niche at that moment?

What’s some advice you can give for actors when it comes to auditions?

Be ready. This is the thing, when you come in, we’re asking you to play. We’re asking you to take a leap. These are the circumstances of the role. How would you do it? Be yourself. Be your authentic self. It’s so funny, the minute I get “spokesman,” everyone’s talking like this and this is the new deal and this is the thing, when you just need to be like, “Hey, I found this. It works for me. I think it’ll work for you.” We want to get to the human being part. What are you bringing? What’s your personality? What are you bringing to life, right? So I’m looking for you. I definitely think it never hurts to, if you have dialogue, have it memorized so you can play, be on time, be professional.

What are your thoughts on self tape auditions?

The world of Zoom and self tapes have really changed the game. And I’m going to tell you some of the struggles on my end. I think there’s great benefits for both. The benefit for you coming in is I get to see you, I get to work with you, we get to workshop it and I get to give you instant feedback or my session runner gets to give you instant feedback. Sometimes when I get self tapes, this is what happens. You send me the wrong audition, you forget your slate, you film in portrait mode and I can barely see you.

Say you actually want to give this time and don’t audition in your car when I need to see you up and walking. People just tape in their cars. I asked for business attire. This guy was in his bathrobe. What do you do about that? I can’t call all the people back and say, “Hey, can you retape?” And so that’s in your hands to follow the instructions that your casting director gives you carefully. And most people are really pretty thorough about what they want to see.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• How Social Media Can Help Your Acting Career…and It’s Not About Numbers
• Custom Profile Links for Casting Networks Profiles Are Back for Premium Members
• Dakin Matthews Reflects on His Unique Career as an ‘Accidental Actor’

The post Casting Director Melissa O’Neil Provides a Deep Dive into the World of Commercial Casting first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Casting Director Melissa O’Neil Provides a Deep Dive into the World of Commercial Casting appeared first on Casting Networks.

How did you get into casting?

I have had a narrative for a lot of years about when I first discovered I loved casting, and I’ve been lying, because it actually happened when I was in junior high school.

A woman named Shirley Grant, who I haven’t thought about in years, saw me in a show in Teaneck, New Jersey. She was a manager of kids, and she wanted to get me to do commercials and stuff and my parents were horrified. The only way my mother would let me do it is if I went to work for her after school. And I gotta tell you, that’s actually when I first knew really what I should be doing. But because I’m a slow learner, it took me a lot more years to get it.

So then you didn’t immediately give up acting and go into casting?

(Laughs) After college, I ended up being a reader for ABC in New York City. I realized with my back to the producers and the director, all the stress and tension was off of me, and it became this mission of life to get this person to relax and give the best performance they could. But I still went on and acted for a little while, and it wasn’t until I came to Hawaii that I ended up with some incredible mentors and found my way to what my true passion is, which is casting.

I want to talk about how you got to Hawaii, but first, let’s talk about this job reading. How did that happen?

I graduated and started the audition thing, began doing little things, under five roles and got my AFTRA card. I started doing television commercials a little bit more frequently back in the day when statistically you had a better shot at it as long as you stuck to it. I took a million acting classes and was working on a soap with a recurring role. It wasn’t every day, but I liked them and they liked me, and one thing led to another. I loved the casting people and loved the producers. There were signs along the way, but it did take me a while to figure out.

To be fair, a lot of times when you’re younger, you have your mind set on something and can’t see the bigger picture or even recognize some of the signs the universe might be sending you.

I think that is very true. But also, thinking back to being an actor in New York when I was coming up, there was a romance to it. Doing the craft, the academia of it and those late nights of so much cigarette smoke and drinking and talking about the essence of it. I feel a little bit bad for some of the people coming up through the ranks now because it’s so technical and so pristine. I think you have to work harder to just sort of let your hair down and be who you are.

That’s interesting. How do you see your role as a casting director in that space?

To be honest, when they come into an audition, I think it takes a lot more effort to create an honest and safe space to build a rapport with people, especially those living on an island. It takes a lot to build a relationship when I get to see people that I know here in our little pool.

That feels like a good segue to talk about how you ended up in Hawaii.

I went to college with someone who was born and raised here. I had moved from New York City with my husband to California to care for his best friend who was dying of cancer at the time. My friend from Hawaii called and said, “You guys should just come here, there’s so much work here and there’s so much to do.”

I was sort of tired of the industry, tired of everything and one thing led to the other. If you ever talk to other people who are transplants, this is not an uncommon answer, something happens when you get here. I’m getting emotional about it. That indescribable Aloha spirit thing. I looked at my husband and said, “We’re gonna live here.” Within 12 months, I had convinced him.

So then what was the process to go from becoming a Hawaiian transplant to where you are opening up a casting office?

I came here for a job that wasn’t in the industry. When that fell through, I was one of the few SAG actors [here] at the time, and when you live on an island, if there’s a new SAG actor, you’re a hot commodity. A local casting director, Margaret Doversola, got wind and I just started to book things.

I developed a relationship with her and she became my first mentor. I would help her with casting calls for commercial stuff and I finally said one day, “I really don’t want to do any more acting. What I really want to do is stick this out with you.” I worked with her for a long time.

I would think, working in a place like Hawaii, you’re also an ambassador for native talent.

We’ve spent all these years trying to convince folks to hire locally, instead of always automatically saying they “can’t do it,” or they “can’t handle it.” Part of my job is when I’m given the opportunity, if it’s a team that’s open to that kind of collaboration, that’s when I have to be there. I can’t push too hard. It’s doing the dance.

Was Next Goal Wins like that? Aside from Michael Fassbender, you must have cast everybody.

It was a very unusual set of circumstances. God bless Mary Vernieu and the people at Betty Mae casting. Without her, I wouldn’t have worked on half the great projects that we worked on here.

I want to tell you the story of my first meeting with Taika. The day that Taika and his producer showed up, they got lost trying to find my office, and I realized that he was literally around the corner and down the lane by one of the piers where the cruise ships come in. I’m going to get him and I realized, I have a minivan and I have a pet pig, and I had just done this thing where I had taken all the seats out except for the passenger seat to get my pig loaded in to get her to the school for this presentation for these little kids. And I’m running out down the stairs to get in the van, and I’m going “Oh my God, I have the Pigmobile.”

(Laughs) They never said a word. I think Taika is the one who jumped into the back where there were no seats. I just introduced myself and drove back and got him in and we proceeded from there. That was a great experience.

To bring this to a close, what piece of advice or wisdom would you give to somebody coming to audition for you?

Be prepared. Do your homework. I think one of the most important things you can do is be so prepared that for the day before you, you’re coming in, if you’re given the time, stop looking at it. Read a newspaper, pick up a book, go talk about something with your neighbor. Being prepared means that you’re able to step away from it and not think about it right before you walk into my room.

The more interesting you are as a human being, the more you know about the world around you, the more aware you are and the more generosity of spirit you have that comes across within seconds of you coming on screen or walking into the room physically, I’m going to know what your spirit is saying, what your soul is like, what kind of person you are.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• How to Prepare for Tax Season as an Actor in 4 Simple Steps
• How to Prepare for Tax Season as an Actor in 4 Simple Steps
• Success Story: How Jay-Z and Casting Networks Ignited and Kept Monique Mack’s Acting Flame Lit for Decades

The post ‘Next Goal Wins’ Casting Director Katie Doyle Shares Hawaii Life, Meeting Taika Waititi first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘Next Goal Wins’ Casting Director Katie Doyle Shares Hawaii Life, Meeting Taika Waititi appeared first on Casting Networks.

Based on Boonwurrung land (Melbourne, Australia), Telford and Leonard joined forces in 2018 after working together in the (natural-light-deprived) casting offices at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Fresh off their Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) win for Best Casting in Television (Deadloch) and Casting Guild of Australia (CGA) award for Best Casting in a TV Drama (Shantaram), we sat down with Leonard to discuss the importance of consistency, casting myths and more.

Could you walk us through some of the key moments that led to your career in casting?

When I was in grade 5 and the school play Charlotte’s Web was announced, I went home and wrote a big list of who in grades 5 and 6 should play each role and why. I was just obsessed with it!

Then, when I was in my first year at uni studying Arts, the Ned Kelly film started production in Melbourne. I asked the production manager, Catherine “Tatts” Bishop, if I could do unpaid work experience on the film. When she asked which department I’d like to work in, I just said “casting,” not really knowing what it entailed, but figuring it would be similar to “casting” the grade 5/6 production. I ended up as an assistant in the extras department casting hundreds of men with beards and firearm experience. So, it was a little different, but I loved it.

After 10 years in extras casting and stints as a casting assistant and associate, I wanted to be a casting director and get back to my grade 5 roots. I had met and worked with Alison Telford at the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation] and we’d instantly clicked. When she wasn’t available to cast one of Chris Lilley’s shows, she suggested I do it. And the rest is history.

You’ve been in the casting game for some time now. What keeps you excited about your job?

That’s funny. I don’t feel like I’ve been doing it that long, but I guess it has been 20 years altogether. Every job is different. One week we are looking for Marathi-speaking Indian actors and the next, we are putting together the British boy band Take That in the upcoming Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. Right now, we are looking at a whole cast of people living with disabilities. It is always exciting to start on a new show. Representation on screen has always been important to me, so that keeps me excited as well.

I also enjoy reading the script for a new show for the first time and [having] ideas come into my head. I love and admire actors. I love watching their work; seeing their nuances and their interpretations of a scene. Watching performances never gets old. Sometimes a tape is so good I feel like we should have paid to see that performance.

On exciting things: Telford Leonard Casting won two major awards in the last six months. What did these wins mean to you?

I was really happy for us. Alison and I started the business in 2018, and in a short space of time, we’ve worked on some great projects together. We work very hard. We laugh a lot, we talk about actors and shows non-stop and both have strong—slightly obsessive—work ethics. All this led to two of our projects winning casting awards, which was validating.

When you think about the actors you’re always happy to call in, can you spot any common threads they share?

Consistently great tapes or tapes that are improving. Sometimes we have an actor who often gets very close and we keep getting them back in, then are so thrilled for them when they land a role.

Are there any myths around the casting process you feel would be helpful to dispel for actors?

That you don’t need to be on the casting platforms with updated profiles and accurate search fields! All casting directors spend probably 80% of the day on these platforms, so it is important to be on them.

Other myths: an actor once said they weren’t sure their self tapes were even viewed, which is a huge myth. Casting directors watch everything, every single thing that comes in. We also watch a lot of Australian films, TV shows, web series and short films, and we make a note of everyone. We are always watching you —in the non-creepiest of ways.

A good reminder! Finally, what’s the last performance in a film, series, or show that blew you away?

We talk about this question every day! Rosamund Pike in Saltburn. I love her. And Kate Box in Deadloch.

Special thanks to Leonard for her time. Keep an eye on the Telford Leonard Casting Instagram and Facebook pages for the latest news and updates.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• ‘Next Goal Wins’ Casting Director Katie Doyle Shares Hawaii Life, Meeting Taika Waititi
• How to Prepare for Tax Season as an Actor in 4 Simple Steps
• How to Prepare for Tax Season as an Actor in 4 Simple Steps

The post Kate Leonard of Telford Leonard Casting Talks Key Moments Leading to Her Career, What Keeps Her Excited About Casting first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Kate Leonard of Telford Leonard Casting Talks Key Moments Leading to Her Career, What Keeps Her Excited About Casting appeared first on Casting Networks.

Butler did indeed join the conversation and contributed plenty in a chat filled with laughter and on more than one occasion, raised middle fingers (offered, it should be noted, with laughter). The casting team, partners for nearly two decades, is behind such smash hits as Black-ish, Cobra Kai, Fuller House, The Thundermans and Bones, among plenty of others. Their latest show is Netflix’s action comedy Obliterated. Koczara and Butler were in Los Angeles when they spoke to us, and Shevchenko in Atlanta.

How did you get into casting? Anyone can jump in.

Christine Shevchenko: I’ll go first. I actually went to school for directing. I took a lot of acting classes from the director’s perspective, and when I got to direct something, I really liked working with the actors, more so than the technical stuff. So when I moved to L.A., it was obviously very hard to just become a director.

I got little gigs here and there just to get my foot in the door, and I ended up getting a job with Junie Lowry Johnson, one of the biggest casting directors out there. I decided, “Wow, I really love this because I get to work with actors. I get to get performances out of people and then send them to set.” It’s funny how you major in one thing, then when you get here, you veer off and find your true calling.

Alexis Koczara: Exactly the same thing happened to me. (Laughs) No, I actually grew up in Michigan, so I never thought I would work in Hollywood. That was definitely not on my radar.

When I was in college, one of my cousins, Bill Prady, is a producer. He created The Big Bang Theory. He was writing Dharma & Greg and said, “Come out and do an internship and you can be a PA.” I did that and I hated it, but when they didn’t need me, they said, “Feel free to wander around.” I stumbled into the casting trailer one day and Nikki Valko and Ken Miller said to come in and help sort headshots and sit in on some pre-reads. I immediately fell in love with casting and thought, “This is exactly what I want to do.”

Gianna? How about you?

Gianna Butler: I was a theater major. I wanted to be an actor. In my junior year, I auditioned for the spring musical and didn’t get it. It was the third show that year that I didn’t get and I went to my advisor and said, “Alright, screw this. I don’t want to be an actor. What else can I do with my major?”

He was the one who suggested casting. I got an internship then moved through a couple of different offices and finally found Alexis and Christine. I’ve been with them, it will be nine years in June.

How did you two first hook up?

AK: We were teamed up to teach a workshop almost 20 years ago. We both showed up and didn’t know that we were co-teaching that night.

CS: We were not happy about it.

AK: We were annoyed because we each like to teach our own way. Then, by the end of that workshop, we were best friends and have been for 20 years. We just fell in love, as Christine likes to say. Then, completely randomly, three weeks later, we got set up to teach again together.

CS: And the crazy thing is, they’re usually not paired. Usually, in most workshops, you just taught your own workshop. But this was so random that these two different times we got paired up, it was like the universe was putting us together. We had to partner after that.

AK: We started spending time together outside of work. We were in different offices. I was with Vicki Rosenberg and she was with Junie, and then Vicki was getting ready to phase out and I said “We need another casting director.” She said, “Well, do you know of anyone?” And I said, “Actually, I do.” That was Christine. You can finish it if you want.

CS: I was at Junie’s for four years, but there wasn’t really any place for me to get promoted from associate, so I took the leap of faith. We worked together for a year, then Vicki decided to fully retire and we went out on our own. That was 2005.

Gianna, how did you come onto the team?

GB: I was an assistant with Margie Simkin for nine months. The project we were working on stopped and I interviewed with five different casting offices. They all said no. They were the sixth.

AK: Lucky us! I genuinely do not know why other people didn’t hire her. They are so dumb. We were sitting there in the interview, and Christine and I were looking at each other, like, “Where did you come from? You belong with us.”

She was such a perfect fit into the dynamic of our office. You could just tell immediately what a hard worker she was, how passionate she was about casting and that she shared the same philosophy as we did in terms of our approach.

Is there a division of labor between you? Like, one does certain things that the other doesn’t?

AK: As I mentioned before, we are a very collaborative office, we all work on everything together. But I do read with the actors because I’m better at being with them.

CS: Whereas when we used to be in-person, I love running the camera, just coming from the director’s background. I actually like to watch actors on a monitor. I don’t like to look up at them live. it’s so much easier for me to critique their performance by looking at them on screen.

AK: And Gianna does everything. But it’s amazing how we might have 16 things going on, and miraculously I’ll go do five things and then Christina will go do five things, and Gianna will say, “Oh, that’s great, because of the other six things I was about to start working on.” It feels a little bit like an accidental symphony.

CS: It’s Jedi mind stuff.

Or, a Jedi symphony, if you will.

(Everyone laughs)

AK: Yeah, it’s a Jedi symphony.

One of the things I find interesting about your filmography is how often you work with kids. Was that by design or did it just happen?

CS: I think it kind of happened, but we fell in love with it. It’s really neat to discover these kids with this raw talent and put them on their first show. And we’ve been fortunate enough to be on shows that have lasted many seasons. The kids on Black-ish, for instance, to watch them grow over those eight seasons was very gratifying for us.

AK: We actually started in drama, segued into comedy and then some of the kids’ stuff started to filter in. Both Christine and I had little children at the time, so that was also really nice to be able to work on things that our kids could watch or things that we could watch with them and share with them. Gianna has a slightly different experience because she’s younger than us…

Actually, I was going to ask. Gianna, you look younger and…

AK: (flipping the bird) I’m gonna ignore that, Neil. (More laughter)

GB: I think that was also one of the selling points, other than that the interview with you guys was so easy and natural. You started listing, oh, the Muppets, Fuller House and I was like, “This is exactly what I want to work on.” It’s just been a dream to work on things that I watched as a kid.

That’s the first time someone’s flipped me off in an interview.

CS: (flipping the double bird) I don’t like to be outdone. (Even more laughter)

AK: We are very professional, we really truly are, but our philosophy is that we want to have fun. You have to love the people you’re hanging with, and when you’re doing this, that’s kind of half the battle.

One of the things that keeps coming up in these conversations with casting directors is how underappreciated the craft is, in spite of the fact that it could be argued that, other than the director, a casting director has the biggest impact on a production, because it’s the actors who are drawing the attention. You can get away with bad cinematography or bad production design, but one miscast role can ruin a whole project.

CS: Thank you for saying that. Not many acknowledge that.

AK: It’s not even just one miscast person, but chemistry among a cast. We have seen shows that have an amazing script, production design, directing, all of these things and the cast just don’t work together. You don’t believe them, and it really takes you out of it. We’ve had two experiences in our career that stand out the most. The first was the pilot for Bones. When David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel chemistry read together, you could hear a pin drop, everybody was so riveted by their chemistry together. The second was the pilot for Black-ish. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, when they read together, that was like watching a masterclass in acting and chemistry. You saw the show right there.

What is it about TV that you prefer over film?

AK: Personally, I prefer the pace. The thing that’s cool about TV, especially when you’re in a series, every week, you get a new script. You get to add new characters, and that’s really fun. Whereas features move a little slower. You’re living with that same group for the entire time.

CS: Also, it’s fun to be a part of a crew that’s together, like our crew at Black-ish. A lot of us were there from the pilot, and it was so neat on the very last episode, to look back and see all the people that had been there for the pilot. You really do turn into a family, whereas I feel like features come and go and come and go. We were on Fuller House for five seasons, and Cobra Kai for six. You really do bond with all these people.

Gianna, what’s the best and most important lesson you’ve learned from working with these two?

AK: That’s a good question.

CS: That is a good question. I’d like to know.

Thanks. I’m a professional.

(Everyone laughs)

GB: The first thing that comes to mind is to be nice to everyone because you don’t know what project you’re going to work on with them in the future, or where those people are going to end up. It relates to actors, too. That’s how you get the best performance. And we are really rooting for the actor. We love actors, we love working with them and we want to see them get the job. We want to see them succeed.

It’s interesting you say that because my last question is always the same: What piece of advice or wisdom would you give to somebody coming in to audition for you? A lot of people say exactly that.

AK: I would say be yourself.

CS: I literally was just about to say that! Bring yourself into the character. Because while we enjoy watching actors, I don’t want to see you acting. I want the character to come through you. I think sometimes people push too hard because they’re trying to impress the casting director. They actually take it to another level when they really just trust their instincts and trust who they are.

AK: Trust your instincts is a good one. I would also say to ask questions and take risks. Casting is a collaboration between the casting director and the actor, so ask questions to help you prepare because that’s what we’re here for, to guide you through that and then take a risk here and there because it could pay off.

Gianna? Anything to add?

GB: Don’t take it too seriously. Enjoy it. I don’t know if that’s a good answer.

AK: I think enjoy it is a good answer, because acting is such a hard job. You have to have an ego of steel because you’re facing so much more rejection than acceptance. Sometimes you not getting a part has nothing to do with what you did in the room. There are a million reasons why you might not get a part despite giving an amazing read. You have to know that you’re coming in and giving your best work, so go out and have fun and enjoy it. Because when you come in and you don’t enjoy it, or your heart’s not in it, or you’re so stressed about it, we read that immediately.

GB: Thank you!

AK: I got you, girl! (Laughter)

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Casting Director Anousha Zarkesh Discusses Her AACTA Win for ‘Shayda,’ Casting Directors Finally Receiving an Oscar Category
• On the Verge: Elliot Warren Talks Breaking into Writing and Acting, Apple TV+’s ‘Masters of the Air’
• ‘Black Cake’ Casting Director Rose Wicksteed Discusses the Teachings of Casting Legend Nina Gold

The post Netflix’s ‘Obliterated’ Casting Directors Alexis Frank Koczara, Christine Smith Shevchenko and Associate Gianna Butler Reflect on Their Casting Journeys first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Netflix’s ‘Obliterated’ Casting Directors Alexis Frank Koczara, Christine Smith Shevchenko and Associate Gianna Butler Reflect on Their Casting Journeys appeared first on Casting Networks.