How do spotmakers find actors? SHOOT recently discussed the subject with casting directors who worked on ads that were honored in the talent/performance category at this year’s Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show. The honorees are: Budweiser’s "Chick Magnet," directed by Speck/ Gordon—Will and Josh, respectively—of Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica, for DDB Chicago; Pohjola’s "Rock Star," directed by Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America via TBWA Finland, Helsinki; and "Relationship Counselor," out of Downtown Partners DDB, Toronto, helmed by David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous Content. Below is a look at how the spots were cast.
"Chick Magnet"
"I think that I probably run a commercial casting session differently from most people simply because I come from a different world," says Liz Marx, who cast Budweiser’s "Chick Magnet." Marx, a freelancer who has been a casting director for more than a dozen years, usually works in longform. Her résumé includes the upcoming WB series Like Family, the NBC comedy Leap of Faith, and a number of feature films, including Tortilla Soup and Dragonfly, starring Kevin Costner.
As "Chick Magnet" opens, a guy plans to use his adorable puppy to get the attention of some attractive women. But then two gay male joggers stop and proceed to fawn over the pooch. As the pair offers a variety of fashion tips for the pup, the guy, still ogling the women, realizes his plan has taken a left turn. The lead talents in the spot were: Chris Garten, Alec Mapa and Garrett Swann.
What was Marx looking for when she cast the spot? "It wasn’t so much about what was scripted; it was about what [the actors] would do with it," she says. "They had to take it off the page. We would improv with them and see what they brought to the table. It just sort of fell into place—what we like to say about it in casting is that someone walks in and owns the job."
Marx says Garten, who plays the guy with the puppy, "has a very ‘every man’ quality. It is a little bit of a Tom Hanks thing, where’s he’s appealing, but he’s not a ‘macho guy’ guy; he’s a real guy. Women like him, but men aren’t threatened by him."
Marx knew one of the actors, Alec Mapa, from her days casting Broadway musicals in New York. The third role went to Swann, whom Marx had never worked with before. More than a hundred actors auditioned for each of the parts, and the spot took a week to cast.
Marx’s commercial jobs have all been done for Speck/Gordon. "I’ve never done commercials for anybody else," she says. "I’ve known them for years, and I have great respect for them." She originally met the directing team when she cast the student short Idyllwild a number of years ago in New York.
Marx runs no-nonsense sessions. "When I’m in a commercial casting session, everybody has to pay attention," she says. "I’m very protective of actors. [Speck/Gordon] have great respect for actors, and they love to see what they can bring to the table, which is why I like working with them." Marx recently cast a cinema spot, Chase Manhattan MasterCard’s "Movie Trailer," directed by the duo for McCann-Erickson, New York.
Marx finds her talents through longstanding contacts. "I definitely have a stable of actors that I love to bring in on a regular basis," she says. "They do really great work for me because they know I’m on their side."
"Rock Star"
"[Director Tom Routson] likes to have a heightened reality to the people," says casting director Arlene Schuster-Goss of ASG Casting, Toluca Lake, Calif. Schuster-Goss worked on the Routson-helmed "Rock Star," a spot for the Finnish insurance company, Pohjola, out of agency TBWA Finland, Helsinki, and produced by Tool of North America, and Harry Nash, London. One glance at the ad and you know exactly what she’s talking about.
"Rock Star" sends up the excesses of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. As we hear Uriah Heep’s early-’70s metal hit, "Easy Livin’," the spot’s hero—played by John Ennis—a chunky lead singer in the Ozzy Osbourne mold, guzzles booze, gobbles up meals, and indulges in bad boy behavior—sort of. At one point he chucks a television set out the window—and hurts his back. In another scene, the portly singer appears to be groaning with sexual excitement. Then the camera pans down to reveal that the guy is just soaking his sore feet in ice water. The tag: "You’ve got a mission: to live. We’ve got a mission: to make sure."
"[Routson] wanted to have the feel of the aging star," says Schuster-Goss. The casting director notes that finding the right guy for the role was tough. "The guys who are aging rock stars are not actors," she says. "The rock stars who have re-entered society don’t look like rock stars any more. It was a little frustrating to try and find the rock star because it was a real specific thing they were looking for. We did [try] a little bit of ‘real people,’ but we realized that wasn’t the way we needed to go. We really did need acting ability and understanding from an actor’s perspective."
Ennis eventually got the part and is truly hilarious as the rock star. It turns out that Routson knew Ennis from a previous job and had suggested that the actor audition for the role. Jeff Rosenman of Jeff Rosenman Casting, Los Angeles, cast the ad’s "real people" players, as well as Lionel Ames as the rock star’s manager.
After graduating from New York University in ’83, Schuster-Goss worked in film production in New York and Los Angeles. Explaining her transition into casting, she says, "On set, I always dealt with actors and helped out the second [assistant director], so I just thought it would be nice to actually work directly with actors full time." In the early ’90s, Schuster-Goss opened her own casting company.
Schuster-Goss has worked with Routson on a number of spots, including Earthlink’s "Web Rage" and "Elevator," via Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. Her recent work includes casting a series of Nyquil commercials directed by Sean Ehringer of Tool of North America via Publicis, New York. Additionally, she has worked on numerous Miller Lite spots in the last couple of years, including "Cat Fight," directed by Erich Joiner of Tool of North America through Ogilvy & Mather, New York.
Schuster-Goss has cast more than 1,200 spots, and has worked on reality TV shows like ABC’s The Mole and Spike TV’s Lap of Luxury. When asked if she specializes in casting certain kinds of spots, she says, with a touch of humor, "Today I’m doing models on mechanical bulls. Yesterday I was doing children, and the day before I was doing dialogue comedy. It’s all over the place."
"Relationship Counselor"
"I only had one day to do it," says Beth Melsky, of Beth Melsky Casting, New York. She’s talking about the last-minute casting work she did for Budweiser’s "Relationship Counselor," out of Downtown Partners DDB, Toronto, and directed by Kellogg of Anonymous Content. "There really was no time," she relates. "I had one shot."
The humorous "Relationship Counselor" depicts a couples counseling session gone awry. The ad opens with the male counselor asking the woman about the couple’s troubles. She urgently says, "There’s no communication. None. He just sits there like a lump watching the satellite TV." The counselor’s response is to ask how many channels the couple gets. The male half of the couple answers the counselor, and the exchange turns into a male-bonding session with a focus on television gear. Robert Stanton plays the counselor; Joe Smith and Crystal Block play the couple.
"I know what David Kellogg likes: great, subtle, comedic actors," says Melsky. "He wanted actors that could fill in the beats and bring something to the spot to make it more than just words on paper. I find that good comedy directors want the actor that can fill in the blanks for them."
Melsky has worked with Kellogg a number of times since the pair collaborated on "Relationship Counselor." She has cast Kellogg-helmed ads for clients such as Volkswagen, Gatorade, and Michelob.
How did she manage to cast "Relationship Counselor" so quickly? "I did a really strong prep on it," says Melsky, who points out that the Budweiser ad was a good spot to start with. "I paid a lot of attention to what David wanted, and what the script called for."
Melsky isn’t exaggerating when she says, "I grew up in the commercial business." She is the daughter of venerable spotmaking figure Barney Melsky, an industry pioneer who founded the commercial production companies Alton/Melsky, Lovinger Tardio Melsky, and Melsky Zander.
Initially breaking into casting as an assistant, Beth Melsky eventually founded her own casting company. She primarily casts spots and indie films, and occasionally casts television shows and theater productions.
Her recent work includes casting Black & Decker, Smith Barney and Ray Ban spots. Commenting on commercial work, Melsky says, "That’s what I started in, so that’s what I really do well."
