Casting Directors Roundtable: ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Beef,’ ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble,’ ‘Jury Duty,’ ‘The Traitors’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
Seven top TV casting directors will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&A event with 2023 Emmy Awards nominees. Enjoy our lively 18-minute roundtable group panel. Guests are from: “Abbott Elementary” (Wendy O’Brien), “Beef” (Charlene Lee, Claire Koonce), “Fleishman Is in Trouble” (Laura Rosenthal, Jodi Angstreich), “Jury Duty” (Susie Farris) and “The Traitors” (Erin Tomasello). Gold Derby senior editor Denton Davidson is the host.
Watch the exclusive video interview above for the roundtable. Click on each name above to watch that individual chat.
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“I woke up one day and said, ‘I want to be a casting director,'” reveals Angstreich. “I was in sixth grade. I did not know what that meant, but I saw it in the end credits. So I was like, ‘Yeah, I wanna be a casting director.” Other panelists had much different paths, including Tomasello who says, “I was a broadcast major. I knew I had this great big personality. I didn’t know what I was going to do to put it to use. I kind of wanted to be a host or an actress, so I took all kinds of broadcasting classes and was a news reporter. I finally made the jump to Los Angeles to make my dreams come true. I got down here and I was like, ‘I cannot report the news! I need to work in something fun.'”
SEE 2023 Emmys: Complete list of nominees
Rosenthal was inspired by an article she read about Juliet Taylor and managed to land an interview with the Emmy winner. “They weren’t looking for anybody, but I kept hounding them,” she explains. “I ended up starting in their office as an intern and my first job was Woody Allen’s short film ‘New York Stories.’ I hit the road and found real people for him.”
The panel of seven Emmy-nominated women also discusses why casting is one of the rare female-dominated jobs in Hollywood. “We have to be very nurturing,” says Farris. “It’s also a very political role. We deal with producers, networks, agents and managers. There’s a lot of multi-tasking. These are skills that go hand-in-hand with what women are good at. It’s nice to be surrounded by smart, creative, powerful women.” Koonce adds, “It is a largely unsung profession. Our job is to make people feel like they’ve found each other and capture that lightning in a bottle. Sometimes our profession can go unsung and I do think women are more used to that.”
While discussing some of a casting director’s biggest challenges, O’Brien remarks, “Budget, for sure. It seems it’s just getting tighter and tighter. We have a faster turnaround now. You’re trying to fill your dance card with a rapid schedule. And the limitations that they’re putting on the actors to stay available for one series, but then they have 10 months of no work. That’s part of what everyone’s fighting for right now.”
Lee’s advice to actors hoping to impress a casting director? “Do not be afraid to bring part of yourself to the role that you’re auditioning for. Have a unique point of view with the character.”
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