Get To Know the Casting Director: Rachel Tenner

Rachel Tenner’s body of work is stacked with impressive titles. Her three most recent film credits alone include names like George Clooney’s The Tender Bar, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Red Notice, and Justin Lin’s F9: The Fast Saga. As for TV, Tenner’s work has won her an Emmy and two Artios awards. The casting director has seen much success but embodied a down-to-earth attitude when she spoke with Casting Networks, even sharing a deep-dish pizza recommendation at the end of the interview. Keep reading for a window into the person behind all the casting credits.

It’s great to virtually meet you, Rachel, and I’d love to kick things off right at the beginning of your casting journey. When was the moment you knew it was the job for you?

I realized early on at NYU that I wanted to work in the industry, but at that time, my end goal was to be a writer on David Letterman. While I was a creative writing major, I wasn’t in Tisch School of the Arts and didn’t really have a path to TV writing. But I was a huge fan of his show and worked very hard to get an interview for the NBC page program because that seemed to be the best route to take at the time. I didn’t get accepted, though, so I went back to my hometown of Chicago to pursue an internship with a talent agency. While there, I heard of another internship opening up at Jane Brody Casting — which I got — and that’s when I transitioned over to casting. They were casting The Hudsucker Proxy when I got there, and I instantly loved everything about the work! I was thrilled about what I was doing, whether it was paperwork or being in the room with the actors or breaking down scripts. Casting just clicked for me right away.

It must have been nice to so clearly recognize your passion for casting.

It’s funny — it’s the only thing I’ve ever done. But at that time, there was so much to learn about the job, and I had to put in the work to make sure I was fully equipped for the role. Since I didn’t want to be an actor, I was unfamiliar with that side of things, so I took acting classes and read books on acting to help me communicate with actors and facilitate their best possible auditions. But yes, after it clicked that casting was for me, I never really looked back. I went from interning at Jane’s office to working part-time and then full-time, eventually buying the company with Mickie Paskal when I was about 25 years old. It was one of those weird timing things where Jane was looking to retire, and we were both young and hungry and excited to take it over. Mickie and I owned Tenner Paskal Casting together until 2002 when I moved to LA.

And now you have Rachel Tenner Casting, along with an Artios nomination for your work casting season four of Fargo. Congrats on that, as well as on your previous Emmy and Artios wins for your past work on the series. What can you tell us about the process of assembling the cast for season four? 

There were so many things that were exciting about this season. For one, it filmed in Chicago so I got to work with my old partner Mickie, as well as Jen Rudnicke and AJ Links, in addition to my office of Rick Messina and Danny Gordon. It was fun to collaborate and an opportunity to connect with a lot of the actors I hadn’t seen in so long, plus a reminder of how much I love Chicago and the community there. We were able to cast a high number of series regulars out of Chicago, which was exciting. There was a lot of wonderful name talent in this season, but then we were able to flesh out the remainder of the cast with some faces that may be new to the audience.

It sounds like an all-around fantastic experience.

A lot of it is set by Noah Hawley. His writing, the specificity of the tone, and his excitement about the casting process make working on Fargo such a fun experience. He’s all for trying to take things to the next level every season. For example, some of the main characters were Italian this season, and he was in agreement that the best way to bring the characters to life was to have native Italian speakers. We were able to hire Barbara Giordani and Francesco Vedovati in Rome to help us cast those roles. We ended up with such a rich group of actors overall, having cast from Italy, London, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. The casting of season four felt very big in general, the biggest of all the seasons.

You mentioned working with Hawley, and I have to ask about another filmmaker with whom you frequently collaborate. Since you’ve cast a number of projects directed by Ben Stiller, can you share how that partnership started and continued over the years?

How I remember it is that Ben went to see A Serious Man, which is a film that Ellen Chenoweth and I cast for the Coen brothers. After that, he and I talked about working together on a project that ended up not coming to fruition. He later reached out about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which began our collaboration. Ben loves the casting process and working with actors. He really celebrates the process, which keeps me excited about it as well.

I can imagine you’d want to keep working with someone like that.

He entertains all my crazy ideas. [Laughs] It’s a lot of fun to work with him, and he’s very meticulous about the details. Every role is important, and every person is important. When we were starting Escape at Dannemora, for example, he flew me up to Dannemora. While the other department heads were tech scouting, I was able to walk around the town and get a sense of what the community was like, which informed my casting. We even interviewed former prisoners who had actually worked in the sewing room to play characters in those scenes since that was such an important part of the story. There was just a lot of detail and authenticity that we could bring to casting the series thanks to Ben’s passion for what he does. The same is true of every project I’ve worked on with him.

Before the interview wrapped, we asked Tenner one last get-to-know-you question. When queried about hobbies done in her free time, she included a unique one with her response. The casting director shared her passion for researching and test-driving new cars, along with how it benefits others. “My friends come to me now when they’re buying or leasing, and I send them a list of cars I think will fit them,” Tenner told us. “It’s like I take my casting know-how and apply it to helping people find the right car for their needs.” The casting director added that she similarly assists people wanting to adopt a dog and even helped Stiller find one. In order to get a full profile on the Chicago native, though, we couldn’t leave before finding out her favorite place for deep-dish pizza in the Windy City. “There are so many good options, but Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria was my favorite when I lived there,” Tenner noted. “I actually found a place in Los Angeles called Doughbox that does great deep dish in case you’re interested.”

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This interview has been edited and condensed. 

 
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