If, as many suggest, great casting is what makes for great commercials, then it seems that some of the most important people in the production community aren’t getting all the credit they deserve.
Seldom do commercial credits include the casting director—the person who is on the front line of rounding up the actors for a spot. Example: on the Web site of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), the results of the 2004 honorees in the talent/performance category at the AICP Show give the names of actors, directors, production companies and agency creatives and producers, but not casting directors.
To shine a little light on the role they play, SHOOT recently talked with the people who found the talent in this year’s honored spots: Joe Blake, who found Annie Kehoe for Toyota Tacoma’s "Girlfriend," directed by Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica, for Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif.; Lisa Fields, who found Nigel Thatch for "Team," as well as a host of other Budweiser spots produced by bicoastal/international Partizan, and directed by group executive producer Greg Popp and group creative director John Immesoete of DDB Chicago; and Ross Lacy, who found Matt Walsh for Morgan Stanley’s "Kevin," directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.
Connection
All three attribute much of their success in finding the honored actors to close and longstanding relationships with the directors. Blake, principal of Joe Blake Casting, Los Angeles, has worked often, but not exclusively, with Smith in recent years. "I know what Baker wants for the most part, what he responds to," Blake says. "People think it’s easy, that you keep bringing people in, throw enough mud at the wall and something’s bound to stick. [But it’s actually the] symbiotic relationship you have with a director who you understand and who will trust your creative notion of what the spot can be. You’re going to facilitate his idea, so you have to be able to process it."
Fields, owner/president of Lisa Fields Casting, Los Angeles, says the relationship with a director is based on trust and taste. "They get comfortable; they know your tastes," she shares. "They know they can depend on you, especially with these commercials that turn around so fast."
Fields works regularly with a number of directors on both spots and features. "Michael Bay has been one hundred percent loyal to me for close to fifteen years," she says of the director who helms spots out of The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, Santa Monica. "I did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which he produced [the film was directed by Marcus Nispel of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander], and I’m working with him now on the remake of The Amityville Horror." Bay is producing that film; director Andrew Douglas of bicoastal Anonymous Content is set to direct.
Popp, the co-director on "Team" has worked a lot with Fields since he met her when he was the agency producer and she was the casting director on "Election," a spot for Dairy Management Inc. directed by David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous Content. "When you connect with a casting director, you feel like you communicate to them what kinds of characters you’re looking for. At the end of the day, you feel like you’ve seen people who have delivered against that spec," Popp says. "It comes down to taste."
Lacy, principal of Ross Lacy Casting, Los Angeles, has been Murro’s casting director for the last seven or eight years. "With any director, a good working relationship is made on an understanding of the process of what they want and expect for their spots," Lacy says. "Noam and I have a shorthand that we can use to refer to other spots we’ve done and what kind of person we’re looking for. As the relationship goes on, you end up being able to fine tune and hone that ability to communicate what the director desires."
The three casting directors say that their methods of finding talent vary with the directors and timeframe involved, and that the factors that make a performer right for a particular spot vary widely from job to job. Their experiences with the three award-winning commercials bear out those observations.
"Girlfriend"
For "Girlfriend," Blake saw about 45 actresses, about the maximum he could see in the two days he had, out of the approximate 1,000 proposed by agents. "I don’t inundate Baker with a cattle-call situation," Blake says.
The commercial, in which Kehoe attempts to get even with an errant boyfriend by pushing his Toyota Tacoma over a cliff, was the actress’ first, Blake notes. "I’m always trying to find someone we haven’t seen, he explains. "Annie had a natural ability and a comfort level, and she also had an element of this personality that played very well. She had range. There was a sly kind of cadence to her personality. When you push the button, she could get big real fast, and it was very genuine."
Blake has been in the casting business for a number of years, starting off with features and music videos. When he broke into commercials in the early ’90s, he specialized in finding real people, working with director Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA for about 12 years.
Lately, he has gravitated to working with actors, recently finding the talent for the Sprint ad "Anthem," directed by Brian Beletic of bicoastal Smuggler via Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco. The spot revolves around an ABBA-like ’70s band. Blake also found Brian Baker, the recurring "Sprint guy" in the black coat who talks to people about cellular phones with a Jack Webb/ Dragnet inflection to his delivery.
"The right actor all depends on the spot," Fields says. "Each one needs something different. It could just be a look, but if it’s dialogue-driven, then it needs a strong actor. But always, the best actors will inevitably bring something more to the role.
"Team"
For Budweiser’s "Team," Fields was asked to find someone to play "Leon," an NFL football player with confidence, charisma and a bit of attitude. The original spec called for a big man around six feet tall, and according to Popp, Fields came up with some good people, but none that was the perfect choice, he thought. So they backed off on the size requirement and Fields recalled Nigel Thatch.
"I’ve known Nigel for about twelve years," Fields says. "I met him in the hallway at my casting office. I was auditioning young African-American boys for a Meatloaf music video for Michael Bay. He came in and said, ‘I’m curious about becoming an actor.’ I gave him some advice and he would come by from time to time to tell me what he was doing."
The night before Popp came back with the new spec, Fields had seen Thatch on an episode of HBO’s sports sitcom Arli$$. "I called him and said, ‘This would be perfect for you.’ He came over and booked the job. He did so well in the role, they expanded it."
What made him right for the role, according to Fields, is the way he carries himself. "He’s a very good actor, great with improv," she observes. "He understood the character. He’s a smooth talker, a handsome guy, and he’s worked hard."
What Popp liked about Thatch was that he didn’t just come in and read for the part. "He wanted to get the back story of who this Leon was, and work with the material on his own in the hallway before he presented it to us," he remembers. "The thing you look for first is that the actor has really gotten his head into who this character is and what he’s all about."
Fields started casting at now defunct Propaganda Films in the late ’80s, where she met some of the directors she continues to work with today. The Amityville Horror remake is occupying most of her time these days, along with recent commercial work for T-Mobile featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones out of Publicis West, Seattle, helmed by Phil Joanou of bicoastal Villains.
"Kevin"
Casting the Morgan Stanley spot "Kevin," which was produced along with a similar spot called "Julie" in the same campaign, was an extremely demanding process, Lacy recalls. Both spots place a conference table in an unlikely environment, with an actor playing the various personalities of one person having a meeting to discuss financial planning.
"It was very specific," Lacy says. "It had to be a talent who had the ability and wherewithal to carry out six or seven different characters. To find an actor with that kind of depth and subtlety proved tremendously hard."
Lacy saw hundreds of candidates over a two-week period in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. "With Noam, it’s always about getting great performance with a very interesting face that is not a clean, pretty face, but someone who is very real and appeals on a very real level," Lacy reports. "Noam likes to look very deep and see a lot of people."
The final callback boiled down to 10 people for each spot, with New York actor Matt Walsh selected for "Kevin." "It was a challenge, but a lot of fun," Lacy relates. "From the first audition Matt did, he just kind of got it. He had an everyman appearance and the acting chops to do it. There’s an energy, a presence that an actor has—or doesn’t have in some spots—that you look for. It’s a push and pull between what they can give you and what you, as a casting director, know that they have and what they’re going to bring to the project as themselves."
Lacy himself came to Los Angeles to act. He formed his company about 10 years ago and now concentrates on casting for commercials, although he works with directors occasionally on short films. Recent work includes the current Holiday Inn Express campaign directed by Martin Granger of bicoastal Moxie Pictures for Fallon, Minneapolis.
