{"id":2318,"date":"2014-04-11T12:20:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T12:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studio-t.it\/?p=2318"},"modified":"2014-04-11T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T14:07:50","slug":"casting-directors-get-their-due-in-hbos-film-casting-by-nytimes-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studio-t.it\/blog\/casting-directors-get-their-due-in-hbos-film-casting-by-nytimes-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Casting Directors Get Their Due in HBO\u2019s Film \u2018Casting By\u2019 – NYTimes.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

The casting director Marion Dougherty with the director George Roy Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By\u00a0STEVEN McELROY<\/a><\/h6>\n
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If you happened to catch Jon Voight in a 1963 episode of the television crime series \u201cNaked City,\u201d you may find it surprising that he went on to a successful career for the next 50 years. Yup,\u00a0it was pretty bad<\/a>. But today Mr. Voight has a\u00a0long filmography<\/a>, an Oscar on the shelf (for \u201cComing Home\u201d) and is still working, most recently in the Showtime series \u201cRay Donovan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

To some extent, Mr. Voight has a casting director to thank. In \u201cCasting By<\/a>,\u201d a documentary being shown Monday on HBO, he says Marion Dougherty, that casting director, forgave his early overacting and pushed the director John Schlesinger relentlessly to hire him for the role of the aspiring hustler Joe Buck in \u201cMidnight Cowboy<\/a>\u201d (1969). Mr. Schlesinger gave in, and Mr. Voight went on (along with his co-star, Dustin Hoffman) to an Academy Award nomination.<\/p>\n

While Ms. Dougherty, who\u00a0died in 2011<\/a>, helped many actors into career-boosting jobs \u2014 Al Pacino, James Dean and Robert Redford among them \u2014 she was never a household name herself. Casting is, after all, a behind-the-scenes endeavor.<\/p>\n

As Ellen Lewis, Martin Scorsese\u2019s go-to casting director, put it in an interview: \u201cWe want nothing more than for an actor to walk in and do a great job. That is our goal.\u201d And in some ways, it\u2019s a thankless one. As the documentary details, the casting director\u2019s is the only job listed in a film\u2019s opening credits that does not have an Oscar category of its own. Even a movement to award Ms. Dougherty an honorary Oscar in 1991, with Clint Eastwood and others writing letters on her behalf, failed when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences denied the request.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the HBO premiere, Steven McElroy spoke to a few big names in the casting world about their job, their own career highlights and the Oscar controversy. One piece of advice for actors: Do not bring a friend with you to an audition. How many times do we have to tell you? The person\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>trying to get the job often gets the job.<\/p>\n

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\"Left,<\/div>\n
Left to right: Lance Dawes\/HBO; Warner Brothers, via Reuters<\/h6>\n

Left, the casting director Lynn Stalmaster. Right, a scene from “Superman” (1978) with Christopher Reeve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lynn Stalmaster<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

HIS OWN CREDITS<\/strong>\u00a0In a career dating to the 1950s, he helped cast John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino in \u201cWelcome Back Kotter,\u201d and Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, conceived as a \u201ca tall handsome, kind of waspy character,\u201d in \u201cThe Graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A PROUD MOMENT<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m particularly proud of casting Christopher Reeve in \u201cSuperman\u201d (1978), because I had seen him in theater in New York,\u201d he said. The director, Richard Donner, was not familiar with Reeve and kept searching as Mr. Stalmaster placed Reeve\u2019s head shot on the top of a pile of photos at each casting session, he said. Every day, it ended up back at the bottom until the casting director got his way.<\/p>\n

THE OSCAR CONTROVERSY<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI totally agreed with all of those great actors and directors and producers that\u201d Ms. Dougherty \u201cshould have received a special Oscar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\"Left,<\/div>\n
Left to right: Lance Dawes\/HBO; MGM<\/h6>\n

Left, the casting director Ellen Chenoweth. Right, a scene from “Diner.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ellen Chenoweth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

HER OWN CREDITS<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cDiner\u201d (1982), \u201cBroadcast News\u201d (1987), \u201cThe Bridges of Madison County\u201d (1995), \u201cO Brother, Where Art Thou?\u201d (2000) and \u201cThe Bourne Legacy\u201d (2012) and many others.<\/p>\n

A PROUD MOMENT<\/strong>\u00a0Paul Reiser never intended to try out for \u201cDiner,\u201d Ms. Chenoweth said. She was auditioning comedians, and her assistant called the New York comedy club the Improv looking for suggestions. \u201cThey kind of misunderstood and sent some very preppy guys.\u201d Frustrated, she saw Mr. Reiser in the waiting area and thought he looked right for the part. \u201cPaul was, like: \u2018No, I don\u2019t have an audition. It\u2019s my friend. We\u2019re just going shopping.\u2019 He protested, but we dragged him in.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE OSCAR CONTROVERSY<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI can\u2019t say that I understand the strong feelings about it, against it. I don\u2019t understand why people are so dug in about it, but it\u2019s hard to change these things. We\u2019ve been academy members for, like, 30 years now, and we\u2019re still called members at large. It\u2019s a little sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

[After Ms. Chenoweth was interviewed, the Academy announced the creation of a new casting directors branch, elevating casting directors to full membership with three seats on the board of governors.]\n

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\"Left,<\/div>\n
Left to right: Ryan Miller\/Capture Imaging; Dale Robinette\/DreamWorks Pictures<\/h6>\n

Left, the casting director Kerry Barden. Right, a scene from “The Help” with Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kerry Barden<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

HIS OWN CREDITS<\/strong>\u00a0Helping cast the movies \u201cBoys Don\u2019t Cry\u201d (1999), \u201cAmerican Psycho\u201d (2000) and the TV series \u201cSex and the City.\u201d With his business partner, Paul Schnee, Mr. Barden has worked on \u201cWinter\u2019s Bone\u201d (2010) and \u201cThe Help\u201d (2011), among others.<\/p>\n

A PROUD MOMENT<\/strong>\u00a0Pushing hard for\u00a0Jessica Chastain<\/a>\u00a0to be cast in \u201cThe Help.\u201d \u201cWhenJessica Chastain<\/a>\u00a0came in, she blew us all away,\u201d he said. \u201cShe had us in tears, and she had us howling with laughter.\u201d He later added, \u201cWe really fought hard for her to get that, because there were other choices that were at the moment a little more famous.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE OSCAR CONTROVERSY<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI feel like in the best of circumstances we are a very integral part of the filmmaking process,\u201d Mr. Barden said. \u201cThere\u2019s an argument that \u2018Well, they don\u2019t make the final decision,\u2019 but it\u2019s the same thing with a production designer. They bring choices to the director, and the director says, \u2018I like that table,\u2019 \u2018I like that fabric.\u2019 But the production designer didn\u2019t weave the rug or build the table. So it\u2019s one of those things where, to me, the argument is not very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Left,<\/div>\n
Left to right: Lance Dawes\/HBO; Jack Manning\/The New York Times<\/h6>\n

Left, the casting director Juliet Taylor. Right, Meryl Streep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Juliet Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

HER OWN CREDITS<\/strong>\u00a0More than 40 Woody Allen films, beginning as part of the team on \u201cLove and Death\u201d (1975). \u201cI always thought it was because he was too afraid to meet anybody new,\u201d Ms. Taylor said in a telephone interview. \u201cHe just figured he felt safer with someone he knew, even if she was only 25 years old.\u201d Among her non-Woody Allen credits are \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d (1976) and \u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d (1993).<\/p>\n

A PROUD MOMENT<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThere are casting directors or people who expect casting directors to say: Oh, I discovered this person,\u201d Ms. Taylor said, explaining that she was resistant to that concept. But she did cast Meryl Streep in her first feature, \u201cJulia\u201d (1977), even if Ms. Taylor didn\u2019t quite discover her. The director, \u201cFred Zinnemann, was living in London at the time, and he didn\u2019t know who she was, so that was a good push,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just the lucky person to be able to find the right thing for her to do in her first movie. In the New York theater, everybody here knew that she was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE OSCAR CONTROVERSY<\/strong>\u00a0Ms. Taylor said an Oscar category would be great and is especially disappointed that Ms. Dougherty was denied an honorary award. \u201cIt was just stubbornness on the part of the Academy that they were afraid if they opened the door a little, they would be in a fix and would have to do more for the casting community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:<\/p>\n

Correction: August 4, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An article on Page 12 this weekend about the HBO documentary \u201cCasting By,\u201d which examines the contributions of casting directors, includes a quotation lamenting the fact that for more than 30 years these directors have been \u201cmembers-at-large\u201d of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but have never had a presence on the Academy\u2019s Board of Governors. After the article had gone to press, the Academy announced the creation of a new casting directors branch, elevating these directors to full membership, with three seats on the board.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:<\/p>\n

Correction: August 11, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An article last Sunday about an HBO documentary on casting directors misstated the location of the comedy club that Ellen Chenoweth\u2019s assistant called when she was looking for actors for the 1982 movie \u201cDiner.\u201d It was the Improv in New York, which is now closed, not the Improv in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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A version of this article appeared in print on August 4, 2013, on page\u00a0AR12\u00a0of the\u00a0New York edition\u00a0with the headline: Faces of Those Who Pick Faces.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/08\/04\/movies\/casting-directors-get-their-due-in-hbos-film-casting-by.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n