Casting Director Susie Farris

As part of our continuing ATX Television Fest coverage, join us for a captivating chat with Susie Farris as she reveals the secrets of casting and the challenges of finding the right talent. Whether the project is Mr. Robot or Wet Hot American Summer, the right actor makes the role, and Susie tells us about her process in finding those actors. Her career is amazing, and it thrills me to bring you this interview.

So I'm Les from the TV dudes. Uh, do you mind introducing yourself?

Sure. I am Susie Farris. I am a casting director.

So I'm always interested in how people end up in their specific job in the industry. I think a lot of us, when we're kids and we're watching, you know, TV or movies and we think, how do they make that, I wanna be involved in that magic world. We don't necessarily think about scripty or, uh, assistant camera or assistant director. Like, these were vital jobs. Mm-Hmm. casting. Um, I remember specifically the moment my mom realized that casting directors were a job. Uh, it was Interview with Vampire of the movie. Oh, wow. She was so mad at Tom Cruise's casting, and then I was like, Mom, you read the credits?? I didn't even know. Can you talk a little bit about how you got into your specific lane where you are? You are so good at your job!

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much.

You cast so many of my favorite things where I feel like casting was part of the clinch of how the show worked. Really happy to talk to you.

Well, I commend your mom 'cause I didn't know that casting was a job for, um, for very, very, very long. And I was actually working on Wall Street in New York. I graduated from NYU with an accounting degree and realized, realized pretty quickly that that wasn't what I actually wanted to do. And I started taking some acting classes at HP Studios and quickly realized that that was not for me either. I would be incredibly anxious, I was terrible. But I would look around the class and think these people are really talented. And of course I feel like I'm an entrepreneur mixed with that creative energy. I'm like, what can I do with them? I wish I had projects for them. And I was living in New York. And all of a sudden that light bulb went off for me that, wow, this is actually a job. And so I went out and searched, searched to see how I could get involved and, and got an internship. And the rest is history.

When you sit down to cast something, how does that process start for you? Do you, do you always have the scripts? Do you sometimes, is the show just a nebulous idea?

No. Um, well, every, everybody's probably very familiar with Jury Duty, which I did last year. But that was an, an anomaly. So I would say everything in my career. Apart from that, I'm basically handed a script and they have the characters and, and you know, the whole story obviously. And, and, you know, this is what they're looking for. And so then of course I'm working with the creatives on it and I wanna fulfill their desires, but I also bring my own creative stamp and perspective to that. So I'm sort of the filter for them that, you know, I see it in this way, keeping in mind what they're looking for. And, and so we accomplish the goal together. Every once in a while, you know, I'll, I'll bring who they want, but then I'll say, you know what, there are a couple people who aren't exactly the way that you wrote it, but I think that they would give it a really interesting perspective. Let's try these people. I don't actually ask. I just, I just try them and I, and I show them. And oftentimes it's the person who's doing something that is not expected. Who is the person that, that allows them to see it through new eyes. And they say, wow. We, we never thought about it that way, but we love it.

That's great. Yeah. So I know just auditioning for actors has changed. Yeah. Pandemic and not just pandemic. The advent of technology. Mm-Hmm. , uh, self-tapes. Mm-Hmm. weren't something that everybody could do in the eighties. You can't afford it. Uh, and now that's become so much more of a thing. Has that tech changed? Has that changed your job? Is it still head shots and you knowing the people that you've seen?

No.

Or do you get a lot of soft tape types today? Has that changed your job?

It's really, really changed the job. And I would say just as, just as tech in any other way has changed things for, you know, the better and the worse. Mm-Hmm. , you know, kids are, kids have access to technology and devices. You know, it's amazing that we have this technology. You don't want your kid on a screen 24 7. I feel like there's that same, there's that same dynamic in, in every other industry and in casting. So specifically, it really, it allows for, it allows for it to be a much bigger global, um, search. There's access to talent everywhere where there wasn't years and years ago before the self tape, you know, if I was in New York casting, someone couldn't audition if they were even in la It was just, they, they're not here. And so now it's, it's national. It's global. It definitely broadens everyone's horizons in a really great way. And the negative is that it makes it impersonal.

I always, I already kind of think of your job as like, well, there's a million actors out there and they're all pretty talented and several of 'em perfect. And and you've got to winnow it down to, to some manageable selection. Yes. Uh, and, and yeah. I can't imagine then taking that up several digits. Basically a number of people that you could be looking at.

It's really, it's gotten to insanity.

I saw for the first time a couple of months ago, I saw a pitch deck that had been partially AI assisted so that the characters had headshots. So, one of the actors was AI generated in the headshot, but it was Kerry Washington. It just, it had put together "her". And, and it started me thinking. Has that happened yet? Do you, do you feel that threat coming? Or, or not even threat? Just a, I don't wanna term it an annoyance. I don't, I don't wanna crap on tech entirely. But that feels like an odd change. I don't know if that helps casting or hurts casting.

You know, I haven't, it hasn't, um, it hasn't affected me personally thus far. And I choose sort of the way that I live my life is like I put on whatever blockers I, I need to or want to naturally. And just as somebody, just as somebody can write a description in a script that they see this character as, you know, a blonde with, you know, I don't know, crow's feet or whatever, I kind of wipe that out in my mind because that's how they wrote it. If it's not imperative for a character to a blonde for some reason, and let's face it, we can all bleach our hair, do whatever. So I try to not take the physical cues unless it's, you know, absolutely mandatory for the storytelling. And I don't think I would respond favorably to seeing AI headshot of characters. 'cause that doesn't help me with who the actual three-dimensional person is.

I also think it would make it harder to then suggest people that aren't like, Hey, just think about wrong for Mr. Wood. Like, like, just think about this character for this. And like, well, I don't know. It doesn't look like Kerry Washington and that ai.

Yeah. I think, I mean, I think if, I think if creators are just casting by head shots and that's all that they're interested in, then they don't need a casting director and they're not gonna have a very good show. You know? And, and AI don't think can, can get as deep with the intricacies of who a person actually is. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she's robot dogs. Who knows? I don't know.

Have you had a moment where you, um, were thrilled that where you made a casting choice that you, that you feel like, um, moved the show into a, into a better direction where maybe wasn't the description on the page and you went and trust me, this person's magic.

You know, I've had, I've had a lot of those. Um, I don't know.

I don't know how Wet Hot could have worked with other people. I don't know Mr. Robot could have worked with other people.

I was just gonna, that's so funny that you just said the two because, yeah. Definitely the casting in Wet Hot to me was magical and looking for some of those characters was really difficult. Um, Elizabeth Banks was supposed to play the role that Marguerite Murrow was playing only because we couldn't find the Marguerite role. And, and Liz was great and we knew that. And then all of a sudden at the last minute, Marguerite came in and then we could actually slide Liz back into the role that she was really meant to, with the barbecue sauce all over her face. Like, I can't imagine that's anyone else doing that. So, you know, that was, that was a magical moment for me and my first feature that I cast solo without being an associate. And, um, and then, um, Carly Chaikin in, in Mr. Robot who played Rami's sister. She's so amazing. And I loved her. And I had met her several years before and just remembered that she's really special, but she was sort of hard to cast. And when I told Sam that I was gonna bring her in that I was really excited 'cause he had someone else in mind for that role. And I said, no, no, no, I have the girl. And he said, what do you mean she does sitcom? She's like a valley girl in, you know, that sitcom that I'm not remembering the name of right now and Atory. And I was like, no, no, no, just wait. And she came in and she nailed it. And that to me, that to me was so much fun because obviously she's very talented and can do a lot of different things.

I do that when I watch movies. I, I think, I think all of us that are particular level of nerdy have a secret list of actors that we don't feel like work enough and are in gems every time you see 'em. When I was growing up, I felt like that about William H Macy and of course it's SF:Everywhere. Of course. Yeah.

Yes, that is, I mean, that is, I I feel like in essence that is my job. That I remember people that my brain is just the storage. All the, all the education that I had, you know, it has been pushed out by actor names, but I have collected all of those people over the years and then I get to slot them in when it's right and when it's right. It's just magical and it's so satisfying.

It's gotta be fun to have an actor that you know, that you love, that you think is talented and then watch them be indelibly that character. Yeah. Like, like the Elizabeth Banks BBQ scene. No one else. That is their role.

Exactly. It has to be HER. That was, that was why it was fun doing Jury Duty because it was a blank canvas. I didn't have anything that, I wasn't slotting actors into roles. It was a blank canvas where they were kind of building this story. They had this story, they were building characters around the fun people that I brought to them.

It's a weird blend of what that show was. Yeah.

And so that was fun for me. All these, all these people who I've cast in really small roles before. So they weren't necessarily recognizable to the public. Then they got their moment to shine.

Thank you so much for chatting with me.

You're so welcome. OUTRO MUSIC