Guiding lights: Three directors and a casting vet share the 'Succession' limelight

For three-time Emmy-winning casting director Avy Kaufman — twice a victor for “Succession” and a nominee again this year for the show’s fourth and final season — the complexity of series television is twofold.

“Casting ensembles is tricky, because everybody has to melt into everything,” Kaufman says via Zoom from New York City. “You have to believe this person’s married to that person. You have to believe this person’s their sister. You have to believe all the energy that’s weaving in and out of everybody.”

Then there’s the conundrum of adding supporting players to that ensemble — as Kaufman did with Cherry Jones, Alexander Skarsgård and so many others. It’s about finding actors who can “keep the cast elevated and bring in even more fireworks,” she stresses about the guest stars. “It keeps me awake at night, because you want to just do an amazing job.”

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Judging from the fact that the series earned 14 Emmy nominations in acting categories again this year (of 27 total), the veteran casting director can sleep soundly.

The Envelope spoke to each of the fourth and final season's three Emmy-nominated directors over separate Zoom interviews: Mark Mylod from the tiny island of Isle au Haut in Maine; Andrij Parekh from London; and Lorene Scafaria from Los Angeles. Asked about the joys of directing the episode for which they were recognized, it’s unanimous: the dazzling scripts and that wondrous cast. But what were the challenges?

Mark Mylod

(“Connor’s Wedding,” Episode 3)

“The hardest part was doing that brilliant writing justice and diving in with an intensity over many days to make sure we dug as deep as we could at every moment,” Mylod says of his clutch episode in which patriarch Logan Roy collapses on an airplane.

With 16 episodes under his belt since Season 1, Mylod is the director who’s helmed more chapters of the series than anyone. He’s been previously nominated twice in that category and has won two Emmys as an executive producer of the series.

“I really thought we could dig our absolute deepest by running the whole moment of learning of Logan’s death in one unbroken take — which would run for nearly 30 minutes over three levels of deck on a big boat,” Mylod says. “Working out the craft of being able to do that with hundreds of background [actors] and all those moving parts was really hard but also one of the most creatively satisfying moments of my career.”

How about those actors: “Their fearlessness, their hunger and a relentless pursuit of a moment,” Mylod suggests could be the reason for those 14 acting nods. “Every season, we’re all, as a group, terrified of any kind of complacency. From Jesse [Armstrong’s] writing, down to any element of production. That everybody shared this dedication to just getting everything out of every moment — that, I feel really good about.”

Lorene Scafaria

(“Living +,” Episode 6)

Scafaria has helmed three episodes in all, two in Season 4. Last year, she was nominated for her first outing as director on the show, for the episode “Too Much Birthday.”

She reports having two challenging days while filming this season's “Living +.” The first was shooting Jeremy Strong — as his character, Kendall — floating in a roiling ocean. “That was something that wasn’t always in the script, but it was in an early outline, and it felt very important to me,” she says. “So, I must admit, I was adamant about keeping the beach scene, and there were days I think I was the only person who wanted to shoot it [laughs]. It was a logistical nightmare — a cold [Los Angeles] day in mid-October with rough seas. Jeremy was a good sport and really dove into those waves fearlessly. That was something I was really proud of pulling off.”

The other tough time was again shooting Strong — this time on a gargantuan stage, costumed in a “Top Gun”-style bomber jacket — making Kendall’s big “security plus entertainment, health and happiness, tech and pharma, cruise ship on dry land” pitch to investors.

“Ken’s presentation was definitely the day on the schedule I feared the most,” Scafaria admits. “So many pages. A seven-camera day — five film cameras, two video cameras. Again, all these manic ideas, including this flight jacket [laughs]. There were a ton of background actors in the audience that we needed for this to really make it feel alive for Jeremy.”

How about those actors: For Scafaria, the magic lies in the chemistry inherent in this perfectly calibrated troupe. “A wide range of different kinds of performers and interesting people who come from so many different backgrounds. A lot of brilliant theater actors,” she says. “And then, I think it’s just a group of people that had a lot of fun together, too.”

Andrij Parekh

("America Decides," Episode 8)

For the election-night episode, the show-within-a-show aspect is what Parekh found most daunting. The acclaimed cinematographer — who served in that capacity on “Succession” for Season 1’s first three episodes — has now directed six episodes over four seasons, previously winning an Emmy for directing Season 2's “Hunting.”

Read more: How 'Succession' made the craziness of election night feel so real

“Everything that’s on a TV screen [in 'America Decides'] was shot ahead of time, which was a terrifying amount of material to make, because we basically covered an entire election evening from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. over multiple networks,” he recalls. “I actually hope no one really notices it, because then we’ve pulled off something quite magical. If it feels effortless, it’s only because a lot of effort went into it.”

How about those actors: “I get emotional just talking about the cast, because I feel like they are the show in so many ways. Everyone has taken their own character and found so many interesting and beautiful things in them,” says Parekh, adding that the filmed theater nature of production — where all cameras are not only rolling but roving on set, and where any actor can be in frame at any moment — demands a supreme level of preparedness. “I imagine it’s terrifying for new actors that come to the show. One funny thing is that new actors would always sort of whisper, ‘When’s my close-up?’ And usually the answer would be, ‘We just shot it.’ ”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.