Every year, the Casting Society of America (C.S.A. - those little initials that you see after most Casting Directors names on the big or small screen) salutes their own stars with an award called the Artios. The Artios nominations are out today, so I'm going to go over some of the highlights. Starting with yours truly, nominated for the Casting of "Samantha Who" on ABC. This is my 4th nomination for an Artios, having won once before for "Ellen" way back in 1998.
We've got tough competition in our category this year: Californication, Pushing Daisies, Chuck and Flight of the Conchords (these are all for the original pilot cast). Drama pilots nominated are: Damages, Mad Men, Gossip Girl, Saving Grace and In Treatment. Feature Dramas nominated are: Across the Universe, Michael Clayton, American Gangster, No Country For Old Men and Iron Man and the Comedy nominations are : 27 Dresses, Hairspray, Dan in Real LIfe, Juno and Enchanted.
The rest of the nominations should be posted later today at the CSA website: www.CastingSociety.com
Congratulations to all the nominees.
Actor of the week: Brooke Smith. Brooke is now on Grey's Anatomy, but she's always been one of my favorite actors. She starred in a great futuristic movie called: Series 7: The Contender which is a little bit like the "Death Race" movie coming out now. You know how some actors have a familiar face but you don't really know their name? This has kind of been Brooke's curse and perhaps strong point.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Good news and bad news
I haven't posted in a while, as it's been slow in the casting world. We've got a few things about to start, so I'll share them once they've been greenlit. In the meantime, I'd like to shout out to Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi who were married over the weekend. I've known Ellen for over 20 years. I met her after seeing her do standup at the Comedy Store on Melrose in Los Angeles in 1985. She had just moved down to L.A. from San Francisco and didn't know a lot of people. I thought she was the funniest person I'd ever seen, and I quickly recommended her for a pilot that I was working on (as a Casting Associate) for NBC. She was tested for the pilot, which she didn't get, but that was the beginning of a long friendship and working collaboration.
In 1992, I had finished law school (I went at night while I was casting "Married...with Children) and was going to leave casting to practice entertainment law. Ellen got a series and asked me to cast it. This turned out, as I've discussed before, to be a career highlight - casting "Ellen". So, my best wishes to Ellen and Portia.
Unfortunately, this week, news also came out about Christina Applegate's battle against cancer. Today I heard that she is cancer free after undergoing a double mastectomy. My thoughts are with Christina and her mom Nancy Priddy. I've know Christina since she was in her teens. She is a warm, caring, talented lady and I'm proud of her becoming a leader and role model in support of cancer awareness.
Actor of the week: Beatrice Rosen - Beatrice is a French born actress who you may have seen recently in "The Dark Night" playing the Russian ballerina that dates Bruce Wayne.
In 1992, I had finished law school (I went at night while I was casting "Married...with Children) and was going to leave casting to practice entertainment law. Ellen got a series and asked me to cast it. This turned out, as I've discussed before, to be a career highlight - casting "Ellen". So, my best wishes to Ellen and Portia.
Unfortunately, this week, news also came out about Christina Applegate's battle against cancer. Today I heard that she is cancer free after undergoing a double mastectomy. My thoughts are with Christina and her mom Nancy Priddy. I've know Christina since she was in her teens. She is a warm, caring, talented lady and I'm proud of her becoming a leader and role model in support of cancer awareness.
Actor of the week: Beatrice Rosen - Beatrice is a French born actress who you may have seen recently in "The Dark Night" playing the Russian ballerina that dates Bruce Wayne.
Friday, August 1, 2008
How'd you get into Casting?
Probably one of the most common questions I am asked is about how I got into Casting. I can tell you that, at least when I started, no one WANTED to be a Casting Director. It wasn't a career path that people considered... it was just something that people fell into. Now that we have health and pension benefits (only for the past 18 months - thanks to the great work of the Teamsters) - people might actually consider Casting as a viable career option.
I started, as many CDs do, as an actress. I was in lots of children's theatre and high school productions and then went to UCLA as a Theatre major. When I got to UCLA, I quickly realized that there were a lot of other actors who were more beautiful and more talented than I was and so I shifted my focus to behind the scenes. This has always served me well as a CD, because I think I really can empathize with the actors who come into my office.
I got an internship at Fenton- Feinberg (Mike Fenton and Jane Feinberg) and immediately got to work on E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Arc. I like to tell people that I started at the top and worked my way down :) When I say I worked on these projects, I mean that I answered the phones and opened envelopes. I think at that point, I wasn't even allowed to set up appointments - so my contribution was very minimal.... but it did give me an exciting look into the world of casting. I found that I had a knack for remembering actors faces and names, and that I would go into movies and watch the credits at the end to see who the actors were. Remember, this was before computers were used to do most work - so there was no IMDB to look up that kind of stuff. In fact, at the beginning of my career, we typed out cast lists manually on typewriters and when we made mistakes, we had to use the correcting ribbons. It was very primitive.
When I finished at UCLA, I was offered a job with a busy casting company called Holstra/Ross. Judith Holstra and Marcia Ross (currently head of Movie Casting at Disney) and got to work on a variety of movies. From there, I went on to working for a number of different great Casting Directors (the late Elisabeth Leustig - with whom I did Private Resort - starring Rob Morrow and Johnny Depp and others) before landing in television at Embassy TV. This was a great company. My boss was Stephen Kolzak, who was the original Casting Director of "Cheers". Steve was an amazing mentor - he loved live theatre, knew every actor in town and was really dedicated to casting as an art form. He was also an incredible activist - who taught me about standing up for what I believe in and taking an active role in community organizations. Steve helped me to get my first solo Casting gig, which was "Married... with Children". That was an incredible gift to me, as I was only 24 at the time I took on the show.
So, that's how I got my start. Not by direct intention, but more as a reaction to the reality of showbusiness.... and it's been an amazing career. I feel very lucky to have had such a long and successful run.
I started, as many CDs do, as an actress. I was in lots of children's theatre and high school productions and then went to UCLA as a Theatre major. When I got to UCLA, I quickly realized that there were a lot of other actors who were more beautiful and more talented than I was and so I shifted my focus to behind the scenes. This has always served me well as a CD, because I think I really can empathize with the actors who come into my office.
I got an internship at Fenton- Feinberg (Mike Fenton and Jane Feinberg) and immediately got to work on E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Arc. I like to tell people that I started at the top and worked my way down :) When I say I worked on these projects, I mean that I answered the phones and opened envelopes. I think at that point, I wasn't even allowed to set up appointments - so my contribution was very minimal.... but it did give me an exciting look into the world of casting. I found that I had a knack for remembering actors faces and names, and that I would go into movies and watch the credits at the end to see who the actors were. Remember, this was before computers were used to do most work - so there was no IMDB to look up that kind of stuff. In fact, at the beginning of my career, we typed out cast lists manually on typewriters and when we made mistakes, we had to use the correcting ribbons. It was very primitive.
When I finished at UCLA, I was offered a job with a busy casting company called Holstra/Ross. Judith Holstra and Marcia Ross (currently head of Movie Casting at Disney) and got to work on a variety of movies. From there, I went on to working for a number of different great Casting Directors (the late Elisabeth Leustig - with whom I did Private Resort - starring Rob Morrow and Johnny Depp and others) before landing in television at Embassy TV. This was a great company. My boss was Stephen Kolzak, who was the original Casting Director of "Cheers". Steve was an amazing mentor - he loved live theatre, knew every actor in town and was really dedicated to casting as an art form. He was also an incredible activist - who taught me about standing up for what I believe in and taking an active role in community organizations. Steve helped me to get my first solo Casting gig, which was "Married... with Children". That was an incredible gift to me, as I was only 24 at the time I took on the show.
So, that's how I got my start. Not by direct intention, but more as a reaction to the reality of showbusiness.... and it's been an amazing career. I feel very lucky to have had such a long and successful run.
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