Ken Lazer Pulls Back the Curtain on Casting Two Artios-Nominated Spots
It’s a big deal to be nominated for one Artios award, and Ken Lazer showed up twice on this year’s list of nominees for the Casting Society awards show. He received nods for his work casting two important spots and sat down with Casting Networks via video call to pull back the curtain on finding the right talent for each.
Our first question for Lazer was on the prostate cancer PSA called “Family,” one piece of an educational campaign from the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Titled “Talk That Talk,” the initiative is also a call to action to “drive prostate cancer awareness and reinforce the importance of screening for early detection among Black men.” The Talk That Talk website shares that Black men are at a higher risk of prostate cancer. The “Family” PSA references the issue of feeling unseen and unheard during medical appointments.
You can view the full spot here.
Lazer shared that he felt the responsibility of getting to cast such an important PSA. He also provided a window into the casting process behind the spot, which included 11 principal actors and 20 background actors to portray guests at a wedding. Lazer revealed that auditioning for the latter roles involved some fun, with actors giving their best dance moves to “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.
We then asked about the other project for which Lazer received an Artios nomination, a spot for Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK). Its website explains that “SPARK is an autism research study and a growing community of autistic individuals, their families, and researchers on a mission to advance the understanding of autism.”
Lazer cast the SPARK for Autism spot titled “You’re a Lot Like a Scientist,” which speaks to the organization’s mission of making discoveries for those in the Autism community. “This is important to me, that the people who are looking for answers and support can reach out to SPARK,” the casting director noted.
You can watch the spot here and can catch all these insights — and more — in this on-camera installment of Pulls Back the Curtain.
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This video interview has been edited and condensed.
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