Confessions of a Casting Director

by Jen Rudin

  Susan Lucci Goes to Voice Mail: My Life as an Assistant

  I spent the next several years slaving away as an assistant at a reputable bicoastal talent agency and later on at a busy commercial casting office. Since this was the late 1990s, JPGs and PDFs had yet to be invented. Casting tapes had to be dubbed in real time onto three-quarter-inch or VHS tapes, then delivered to various producers long after FedEx closed for the evening. Assistants had to photocopy and fax all audition scripts. The machines were often jammed, and the phones rang off the hook. There was no way to win.

  I worked for a newly promoted powerhouse talent agent. My salary was $450 a week, with very long hours and no overtime pay. I could barely afford my rent in Brooklyn and subsisted on hard-boiled eggs and rice cakes. One of the commercial agents suggested I bring in a plate so that I’d feel more civilized when eating lunch at my desk. And when another commercial agent found me buried on a Sunday at the office, catching up on talent deal memos, he said: “You’re going to go very far one day.”

  The agency’s newest client was Susan Lucci from All My Children, and my boss was her primary agent. I was instructed to always put Ms. Lucci’s call through, no matter what. One day I stepped away to use the bathroom, and Susan Lucci went to voice mail. I was reprimanded in the hallway and was certain I’d be fired. Jack Romano, our legendary acting teacher from Stagedoor Manor, had often said: “You have to be superhuman to be in show business.” At that moment in the hallway, I realized I was hardly superhuman. Instead, I was flat broke and exhausted. It was then that I realized how much I wanted to be back on the creative side of the business: I wanted to work in casting.

  Can You Hear Me Now?

  I left the talent agency to work as a casting associate for a busy commercial casting office. My salary was now a whopping $500 a week (which doesn’t go too far in New York City) with no health insurance. Right after September 11, 2001, we got hired to cast the “Can You Hear Me Now?” campaign for a new company called Verizon. We were looking for a spokesman who was different from the Sprint businessman and Carrot Top in the AT&T spots. I auditioned hundreds of actors, of all ages and diverse ethnic backgrounds, saying, “Can you hear me now?” for weeks on end. I’ll share more on how we cast that famous part in chapter 8 when I talk about auditioning for commercials.

  In 2002, I cast the entire season of plays for the prestigious Ensemble Studio Theatre. I set up a desk amid the dusty costumes and mismatched shoes in a storage closet and cast plays for esteemed playwrights like Horton Foote. The New York Times raved about the actors I’d cast, so I had some praiseworthy reviews to add to my résumé, but I was still flat broke and barely surviving on plain bagels and cheap white wine. New York City was trying to recover from September 11. It was a dark, bleak time for all of us, and I was desperate for a life change.

  My Seven Years as a Disney Princess: Making Animals Talk and Mermaids Sing

  In 2002, I was hired for a few weeks to assist with the New York casting on Chris Rock’s movie Head of State. At one point, the L.A. casting director turned to me at the table read* and said, “You’re so ambitious. You should come to L.A. You’d be really successful out there.” My father had enough airline miles to book me a free flight, and I began to set up some meetings in advance of the trip. Then I panicked. Though I’d gotten my driver’s license in Wisconsin, I’d had no experience driving a car, and certainly not in L.A. My father insisted that this trip was not the time for me to learn to drive. “You can’t show up frazzled to your meetings. It’s not cute. Time is money, especially in Los Angeles.” So, despite my protestations, my father offered to pay for a car service for my ten days of meetings. He said it was an investment in my career and that I could pay him back later.

  I reconnected with Donna Morong, a former acting teacher from my teen years, who at that time was a casting executive at Walt Disney Pictures in Burbank, California. She mentioned that Walt Disney Animation Studios was searching for a new casting director, and they wanted to hire someone who knew theater actors. She faxed my résumé over, and I soon engaged in six long interviews with multiple producers in the animation division and racked up nearly a thousand dollars in car service fees. A few weeks later, Disney called with the official job offer. The company relocated me to sunny Los Angeles in September 2002, a year after the twin towers collapsed and a month shy of my thirtieth birthday.

  During my five years in Los Angeles working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, I quickly learned the politics of being a studio casting executive. I began to navigate the L.A. freeways, enjoy sushi power lunches with top talent agents, and do studio coverage for comedy festivals and the Sundance Film Festival. I also watched the animation division transition from traditional, hand-drawn (2-D) animated movies into computer-animated (3-D) movies. We started hiring celebrities to voice the characters in order to stay competitive with rival animation studios. I cast some wonderful films while on staff at Disney, including The Incredibles, Chicken Little, Brother Bear, and The Princess and the Frog. And of course I paid my father back the money for the car service.

  In 2007, I moved back to New York to oversee casting and talent development for Disney’s theatrical division. My job entailed traveling around the country conducting open talent calls for children and adults for The Lion King and Mary Poppins. I organized a ten-city search to find a new young ingenue for the lead role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid on Broadway. I’ll share more about this job in later chapters. Sadly, after the 2008 economic crisis, several of Disney’s Broadway shows closed. After seven years at Disney, my position was dissolved in August 2009.

  Recession Fairy Tales: The Birth of Jen Rudin Casting

  Several months after leaving Disney, I officially opened Jen Rudin Casting. Today I cast for films, television shows, and animated movies in New York and Los Angeles. The best part of my job is casting someone in their first big role. Just before Thanksgiving in 2011, I was hired to do a casting search for a five-year-old version of the nine-year-old lead actress in a film for Universal Pictures called Mama, starring Jessica Chastain, executive produced by Guillermo del Toro. They’d done an extensive casting search in Canada and had not been successful. I auditioned more than seventy girls between the ages of two and seven and videotaped twenty little girls for the director and producers to view on location in Toronto. They chose a focused, smart five-year-old named Morgan McGarry. When I called Morgan with the amazing news, I said the magic words that every actor dreams of: “Guess what? You got the part!”

  There’s no direct path to success in show business. Unlike most professions, you don’t get an advanced degree in acting that comes with the promise of a job. Auditions are competitive, time consuming, and can be expensive to attend. There are multiple elements that an actor can’t control: last-minute auditions, the traffic to get to the audition, the long wait in the waiting room, the director who texts during your scene. Your job as an actor is to control the elements you can and be as prepared as possible. To thrive in this exciting, constantly changing, and completely unpredictable world, you must stay focused and organized while constantly managing expectations. If you want to be a professional actor, this book will offer you tips to succeed in the audition room—the first step toward getting the part.

  Me with Morgan McGarry at the 2012 New York premiere of Mama.

  I love being a casting director. We’re not the producer, writer, director, studio executive, or choreographer. We’re consultants hired to organize, research, and identify the actors for the play, movie, or television show. We present actors to the director and producer and work together as a team to choose the most qualified actors to populate the world of the project. Some days my job is easy and everyone collaborates and agrees on who to hire. During the more challenging times of the casting process I often play the role of a therapist, confidante, diplomat, or mediator, trying to balance the needs of everyone involved.

  Today I get to work with legendary directors such as Peter Bogdanovich. Here
we are doing auditions in 2013 for his movie Squirrels to the Nuts. (BECKY CHICOINE)

  As a former actor who now sits on the other side of the casting table, I wrote this book for all actors to help you navigate the audition process. Trust me, I’ve seen it all, and I’m here to share the good and the bad, practical tips, and advice to give you the best preparation possible to succeed. The rest is up to you.

  * * *

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  THE INITIAL INVESTMENT

  My parents spent a lot of money for me to pursue my professional acting career. I took voice lessons, acting workshops, and voice-over classes, and went to Stagedoor Manor for six summers. Every year my father would grumble as he wrote the check for theater camp, but my parents encouraged my creativity, no matter what the cost.

  If you want to become a professional actor, you need to invest wisely in your career. An acting career costs money. Prepare to make endless sacrifices, both monetary and emotional. In pursuing these expensive dreams, there will be many unglamorous steps along the way. The audition process is filled with daily highs and lows, yet the possibility of landing a dream role is what propels actors to keep auditioning. It’s hard not to get carried away in the fantasy, but you will likely go on hundreds, if not thousands, of auditions before you earn a penny. No one pays you to go on an audition. Look at your acting career as a marathon, not a sprint.

  Opening a Cigar Store

  Vocal coach Bob Marks shared this analogy with me: “If you want to open a cigar store, you need initial investment money. It takes money to rent the store location, buy a cash register, start to advertise, and buy cigars.” Think of your acting career like that cigar store, as a start-up business. When first starting out, you’ll need initial seed money.

  To jump-start your career, begin by making a list of start-up costs. Here’s what you’ll need to invest in:

  •Head shots taken by a professional photographer

  •Professional head shot prints and postcards

  •Acting lessons—both group and private coaching (it’s important to have both)

  •Workshops to meet agents and casting directors

  •Acting intensives

  •Vocal coaching

  •Dance classes

  •Subscriptions to reputable audition listings (examples include Backstage newspaper, www.backstage.com, Actors Access, and Casting Networks)

  •Transportation (bus, train, subway, gas, parking, toll) costs to get to auditions

  •Extra money for that Starbucks latte or snack during long audition days

  If you’re still in school, your parents will (hopefully) help you pursue your dreams, as mine did. If you’re an adult, you’re in charge of managing your own finances. I suggest that you have an amount in your head that you are willing to spend. How much can you truly afford? Be honest about your potential. If you’re not careful, you can really break the bank. Decide up front how much money you want to invest right away. This will help assuage the pain when the costs start to add up. You don’t need to spend a lot of money for success, but you do need to spend money on good training to gain more confidence when you walk into audition. The ends justify the means.

  At this early stage, you need to make sure that you really want to be an actor and that you’re not just an impulse buyer.

  Who Am I, Anyway?

  Now that you’ve created your budget, it’s time to get your head shot* and résumé assembled. If you’re calling yourself a professional actor, you need a professional head shot so you can start to submit for work. Your head shot is your business card. The photo must look like YOU. Take a quick look in the mirror. What do you see? What color is your hair? Is it curly or straight? Do you wear contacts or glasses, or both depending on the day? Your head shot needs to reflect you as you really are (with a little professional retouching to enhance what you already have!).

  An excellent head shot will cost you money. What makes a great photo? Everything from your outfit and makeup to the setting, lighting, and of course, your smile. Your photo should represent you on your best day. It’s always disappointing when an actor comes to an audition and looks nothing like his or her head shot.

  AUDITION STORIES

  * * *

  My First Audition

  My first audition was for a Stella D’oro cookies commercial. I looked right into the camera and yelled “Stella!” I booked that one and got my SAG card.

  —BONNIE ROSE,

  www.BonnieRoseNY.com

  How to Find a Head Shot Photographer

  •Ask for recommendations from fellow actors.

  •Check out photographers’ websites.

  •Narrow down your choices. Then make an appointment to visit each photographer’s studio to meet them and see if you feel comfortable with their vibe. Note: there should be no charge for this meeting.

  •At the meeting, look through their photography books.

  •Ask the photographer for wardrobe requirements and ideas for what to wear at the shoot.

  •See if the photographer can provide a stylist for hair and makeup. Usually photographers have someone they like to work with. It’s worth the extra cost to have a professional there who can help you look your best.

  •If you’re on a tight budget, ask the photographer if they ever offer specials or seasonal discounts. Like them on Facebook or join their e-mail list so you can be the first to hear about any discounts.

  •If you can’t afford to pay the full price for head shots, try bartering a bit. Explain that you don’t want to insult them but would love to find a way to make it work. It might not work, but it never hurts to ask.

  ASK THE

  PHOTOGRAPHER

  * * *

  What makes a great head shot?

  A great head shot reveals who you are. Confidence and accessibility are the yin and yang of a good head shot, and they must be in balance. Get plenty of sleep before your shoot. Have fun. Let go and you will naturally reveal your unique spirit.

  —SHANDON YOUNGCLAUS,

  owner, Amazing Headshots

  (www.amazingheadshots.com),

  Los Angeles

  Sample Head Shots of Real Actors

  To give you a sense of what professional head shots should look like, here are two excellent examples from actors that I’ve worked with:

  (JORDAN MATTER)

  I love Stephanie’s photo because she looks beautiful and natural. She could play an assortment of roles—ingenue, best friend, young mom.

  (TESS STEINKOLK)

  I would easily cast Peter as a lawyer, doctor, or businessman based on this photo. Peter told me his reasons for choosing this photo: “I thought it conveyed some strength and honesty with a hint of ‘I’m still a regular kind of guy.’ I thought it would be multifunctional, working well in theater, television, and film. It’s an investment that’s paid off well, as I get called in for television and theater on a regular basis.”

  ASK THE

  PHOTOGRAPHER

  * * *

  What makes a great head shot?

  The most important thing is that the head shot look like the actor on a really good day. Everything today is so reality based that you don’t want a head shot with all kinds of dramatic mood lighting. You want a head shot that looks like a real person, whether it’s a serious (legit) or a smiling (commercial) head shot. Is the person expressing an emotion that they’re really feeling? Are they communicating a real thought?

  —DOUGLAS GORENSTEIN,

  Douglas Gorenstein Photography

  (www.douglasgorenstein.com),

  New York

  Choosing Your Head Shots

  After your photo shoot, your photographer will send you a digital link or DVD to view your photos. Now comes the overwhelming task of narrowing down your head shot choices. Ideally, you want to have two or three photos:

  •A happy commercial shot (bright colors, great smile)

  •A more serious shot for theater and film


  •A wild card—a photo that you love and will use once in a while when a great role comes up

  HEAD SHOT DOS AND DON’TS

  DO work with your photographer to narrow down your choices.

  DO get some professional opinions about your photos. If you don’t have an agent or manager guiding you, ask a few trusted friends and family members.

  DO be selective when sharing your top choices and gathering opinions.

  DO keep perspective. Your mother’s views may add to your stress. Take all opinions with a grain of salt.

  DO e-mail the digital file of the photo to a reputable place for reproductions. You’ll need some hard copies for auditions. Visit www.modernage.com or www.reproductions.com. Even if you don’t live in the city where these companies are based, you can still e-mail them your digital files and have them process your photos, send you test prints, and ship the completed prints to you.

  DON’T post the link to your proofs on Facebook. Having your thousands of friends comment will not help you select your photo.

  DON’T try to save money by taking your own photos or, worse, paying someone with a digital camera who is unqualified and inexperienced.