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Casting Director Victoria Thomas Talks ‘The Morning Show’ and Its New Character


December 12, 2023

Victoria Thomas has her fingerprints on numerous memorable films, casting Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Django Unchained, Jaymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall, and his upcoming The Book of Clarence. She’s also prolific on the small screen, casting recent shows like The Last of Us, Bosch: Legacy, and The Morning Show. 

The Morning Show, streaming on AppleTV+, chronicles life at a news station and stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as the fictional network’s top anchors. Season Three introduces new characters, namely Jon Hamm, an Elon Musk-type entrepreneur who becomes Jennifer Aniston’s love interest. Thomas, who has been casting the Emmy-winning series since its inception, spoke to Casting Networks about the show’s evolution, how real-world events affect the casting process, and seeing secondary characters on the show getting larger arcs and more moments to shine. 

Jon Hamm’s Paul Marks was a very bombastic character and had a storyline that was fun to watch. How did his casting come about?

Jen (Aniston) is a producer on the show, and she’s involved in the casting. We talk about a lot of actors for various roles, especially those actors who are going to be in scenes with her. You want someone who can keep up with her comedically and bounce the ball across the net if she bounces it towards them. (For Paul Marks) it was about finding someone who could play a bigger-than-life character with great magnetism and sexual chemistry and who is a great actor. Jon Hamm was a very obvious choice. He was game! It was a scheduling nightmare because he was doing another show, but he was worth it.

Reese is also adept at comedy, but she’s also known for dramatic work too. What types of considerations do you take when casting actors opposite her?

It’s similar in that you want someone who can stand opposite her and have their own power but also give and take from her, so she can give and take from them. Usually, the people around Jen have been more comedic in tone, and with Reese, there have been more dramatic scenes and characters. Both girls want strong actors (around them). If an actor is going to have several scenes with them, they are going to have something to say about it. We want them to be happy with those choices.

Mindy Kaling has appeared in all three seasons as a rival anchor, but her appearance is very sporadic. Why is that?

Because of Mindy’s busy schedule and everything she’s got going on in her life, we knew that character would never be in ten out of ten, or even eight out of ten, episodes. We wanted to use her judiciously and hopefully in a way that popped up in the particular episodes. We knew that she was not someone who was going to be around a lot but that she added something. Sometimes, you don’t know how much you will be writing for them in a new season, so I think we took the available time we had with her and used it well.

How do you cast a show not knowing if characters are going to grow or be written out? Joe Tippett, who plays Reese’s brother, had a surprising arc as a January 6th insurrectionist. Did you see that coming?

When we (were casting) Season One, no one knew any of that would happen. The casting of Season One was a very rushed process. We didn’t even have all the scripts. There were a lot of characters to cast, and we didn’t know which ones would be bigger in Season Two. It wasn’t easy because we were moving so quickly. You want to give every actor their due and cast the best person for each role, but I couldn’t tell them, ‘You’re going to have this big subplot in episode six’ because we didn’t know. We had some inkling of where we thought characters were going to go, but the process was a little chaotic.

Then came Season Two.

The pandemic hit when we were on the verge of shooting the second season. They had to scrap (the storylines) and rewrite Season Two (to incorporate) the pandemic. But in the real world, actors go out for other roles. If you don’t own them as a series regular, they can go and audition for other projects. Joe Tippet was auditioning for other things and working on another show. Once it came around to Season Three, real-world events affected the storylines and who would be back. One of the storylines involved Joe. I don’t think we could have predicted that. 

Tell me more about how the casting was affected by the pandemic.

When you’re doing a topical show, you want to reflect what’s happening in the world. Originally, we had a whole different storyline for Season Two with a big part for a particular actor. When the pandemic happened, that storyline got booted, and it became a much smaller role. 

Did that actor still appear on the show?

Yes, but in a reduced weight. 

Are you especially proud of any particular casting for the show?

I’m proud of casting Lindsay Duncan in Season Three in the episode with Billy Crudup, playing his mother. She was spectacular. Gugu Mbatha-Raw was great in Season One. Greta Lee (as Stella Bak in Season Two and Three) is great. Its hard to pick your favorite baby.

Billy Crudup won an Emmy for his role as Cori Ellison and continues to be a critic and audience favorite. Why do you think people have responded to him so much?

He is a great actor, and he’s found a way to take a character you might’ve seen a dozen times on other shows and portray him in a unique way. When Billy first got cast, he said, ‘I have a take on this guy.’ And he did. It was not the usual scumbag. It was not a black-and-white portrayal. I think it culminated in the Season Three episode with Lindsey Duncan, where you see some very deep, dark stuff with Cori and his mom. You start to wonder, what happened there? That episode showed you a deeper side of him.

Let’s talk about Lindsay as Martha Ellison. How did that casting happen?

We worked with Lindsay on The Leftovers, and she’s a great actress. We wanted someone who could put Billy’s character in his place, stand up to him as an actor, and have her own gravitas. I’m also very proud to add that there have been roles on this show that are very meaty for actresses of a certain age.

There are a lot of fantastic actors who are part of the on-air crew of the fictional news shows, like Shari Belafonte, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman…As the show grows, we start seeing some of those characters’ personal lives. Karen, who plays Mia Jordan, the producer at the news station, had a love story with a war photographer in Season Three. 

That’s a good example of someone whose life we can see a little bit more outside the news station. That’s an example of (writer-producer) Charlotte Stoudt wanting to give Karen, a love story to play. I think Charlotte intentionally wanted to give that character another life. 

We spread a wide canvas in terms of characters in the first season. We had a wealth of good actors but not always the time to delve into each one as much as we wanted to. Nestor is so talented and funny, and I’m glad we got to see more of him this season. I thought his scenes with Nicole Beharie were great, so hopefully, we’ll see more of him in Season Four.

Have you started casting Season Four?

We have not started yet. There will be a big character they (showrunners) talked to me about, and said I should start thinking about who that might be.

Does that mean you’re watching demo reels? Pouring through IMDB profiles?

The role is opposite Jen, and it’s a certain type of character. So we talked about the character, and they gave me characteristics of the role. I threw out some names. Michael Ellenberg, the producer, threw out a name. You start letting it percolate in the brain and maybe jot down a couple of names while falling asleep at night. We’re trying to elevate the show and go for people you don’t often see on TV – someone could stand opposite Jen, who could make it interesting for her and the audience. 

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