Long Overlooked for Awards, Casting Directors Are ‘Gobsmacked’ Over Finally Having a Chance at Oscars Glory
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When Bonnie Timmermann is helping Ridley Scott or Michael Mann find the perfect person for a role in films like “Black Hawk Down” and “Heat,” she will buy auditioning actors pizza or Chinese food and grill them about their lives and ambitions. Sooner or later, they’ll get around to reading the scenes, but Timmermann has an innate sense of what to do to put performers at ease.
“You need to understand who they are, so when they get in front of a director you know how to help them deliver their best work,” she says. “The only way you can do that is to understand their psyche.”
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And when she’s not overseeing casting calls, you’ll find Timmermann at screenings or plays on the prowl for talent. She likes to keep Polaroids and videos of actors she’s tried out — even the ones that she’s turned down, because you never know when the right part will come around. That’s what happened with the likes of Chris Rock, Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins, who were relative unknowns before Timmermann found roles that helped put them on the path to stardom.
“I’m obsessive when I take a job,” says Timmermann. “I think about the script and the actors that I’ve seen, and I sort of let it all dance in my head. And that means I need to do my homework.”
Timmermann’s all-consuming approach isn’t unique. This year’s Oscar contenders, from sprawling epics like “Oppenheimer” to intimate dramas like “Past Lives,” benefited from casting directors who were able to seek out fresh faces or give established stars roles that played to their strengths or went gloriously against type. And yet, in the 96-year history of the Academy Awards, their contributions were overlooked. That changed last week with the announcement that starting in 2026 there will be a prize for best achievement in casting, the culmination of a campaign for recognition that has taken decades.
“I’ve been in casting for 20 years, and ever since I started, it was a topic of ‘When are we going to get this?’” says Jenny Jue, a casting director on “Snowpiercer” and “Okja.” “And the last couple of years, we’ve been hearing rumblings that we’re the closest we’ve ever been to it.”
As the news hit, Jue reflected on why her profession has remained out of the spotlight.
“There’s a sense in casting that you toil away in the shadows, and that’s where we do our best work,” Jue says. “You shouldn’t notice that it’s good casting. It just is. So I think that lends itself to a certain humility amongst casting directors. We don’t want to be out there taking credit in part because a lot of our job entails making producers and directors feel like that good idea was their idea.”
Talks with the Academy have been ongoing for years, but in recent months members of the casting directors branch sensed that a new Oscar was likely to be introduced. For now, most think their acceptance speeches won’t be broadcast, although the Academy hasn’t made any official statement. They think adding more awards would make it difficult for the telecast to clock in at roughly three hours and that ABC, which broadcasts the show, would be upset if another category was added to a ceremony that it believes is already too long.
Even if that’s the case, most casting directors are thrilled to finally have their moment. They just wish it hadn’t been so long in coming.
“I’m gobsmacked that it happened in my lifetime,” says Marci Liroff, a casting director on “Mean Girls” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” “But there’s a lot of beautiful work that my peers have done over their careers that didn’t have a chance to be recognized. Maybe they will get some lifetime achievement awards.”
Still, David Rubin, a casting director who served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, believes that this Oscar will send a powerful message to those entering the business.
“You have to think about the impact it has on young casting directors and young casting associates and casting assistants, who are toiling away in very busy offices in the earliest stages of their careers,” he says. “It gives them a sense that what they are aspiring to become is being respected and acknowledged and rewarded.”
Clayton Davis contributed to this report.
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