Tales from the Casting Couch: An Unprecedented Candid Collection of Stories, Essays, and Anecdotes by and about Legendary Hollywood Stars, Starlets, and Wanna-Bes

INTRODUCTION

Making a movie can be compared to preparing a meal—the script is the recipe; the set is the kitchen; the chef is the director; and the ingredients are the cast. With the right ingredients, a fine experience can be had by all—those who make it and those who taste it. Choosing these ingredients takes care, understanding, insight, and imagination as to how it will all turn out. This is why casting right is so essential.

For the actor, casting represents two issues: a chance to act and thus show his skill; and a chance to get a job. When the latter is in the forefront the actor usually doesn’t show his best. This is particularly true in what are termed callbacks, when the actor is asked to return to meet with the director and/or producers a second and even third time. In callbacks the actor knows that he or she is being considered for the role, seriously, and therefore might get the job. Often these second performances in the casting room are not as good as the first, since now the actor is conscious of the future job potential rather than concentrating on the moment of performing. And this is the lesson that many actors learn. To be in the casting session, particularly if they are asked to perform in some way is, in fact, to be acting. And this is what an actor does. Whether you get the job or not, in the casting session you get to do your work. To act.

What is being examined in casting is the relationship between actor and director, and whether each can support the other in the realization of a vision of the story. But the power is in the mind and hand of the director. If he or she doesn’t feel the actor is right for the part, then it won’t work, even if the actor gets the part. This happens sometimes when the real power in casting is in the hands of the producers or financiers, an often dangerous situation. On the set, it is the interpersonal dynamics of the director and the actor—how they relate to each other—that determines the quality of the performance.

And casting is fun. No wonder the financiers, writers, producers, associate producers, and personal assistants all want to attend the casting sessions. Oftentimes an actor will come to a casting session and find so many people in the room that she or he doesn’t know who he is performing for or who in the room is in fact the director.

So, what’s the right way to run a casting session? Ask many famous directors and you will get many contradictory answers. It depends on the personality and habits of the director. For some in this age of electronics, they only look at videotapes, and don’t even meet the actors in person! For others it’s the one-to-one contact that makes the difference; sometimes not in the casting room, but in a more relaxed environment, at a meal, or just hanging together. Some directors require the actor to read scenes from the script. Some ask for more improvisational work, setting up situations in the casting session where the director is looking for the actor’s more spontaneous responses. Some ask actors to read with other actors who either already have a part in the film or are hired to perform that part for the casting sessions. Some directors like to read the roles themselves and have the actor read with them. Some ask personal questions to see how in touch with the flow of emotion the actor is; even in the pressurized situation of the casting session. Others like to videotape the sessions and study the tapes later. Most have their casting people screen many actors for the smaller roles before they see who the casting person thinks are the best candidates. Others demand to see everyone and anyone themselves, if they have the time.

Casting is a microcosm of the filmmaking process. It is a combination of talent, judgment, chemistry, timing, and magic. It is the first and crucial step in turning a script into a movie. And it has been said that once the film is cast, 80 percent of the work is done. Not quite true. But the wrong cast can ruin a movie—or spoil the meal. So great care—both creative and commercial—rests on these decisions. As you will feast in the following pages. . . .

—Jeremy Kagan, Writer/Producer/Director

CHAPTER 1

STAR SEARCH!

I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night—there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest!

-MARILYN MONROE

Legend

First Big Breaks

Actors may have rocket ship and the launching pad. But the flight can’t be made without the fuel supplied by the visionaries who give them their first break . . . and the agents, managers, and friends who keep them on their course.

THE OTHER MICHAEL DOUGLAS

By Charlie Hauck

Writer /Producer /Author

There was a young man named Mike Douglas on the floor crew of a public television station I worked at in Pittsburgh. He was very funny and very appealing, and he had an interest in doing comedy. When I went out to Hollywood in 1974 to write and later produce Maude, I kept in touch with young Mike Douglas, and encouraged him to try his hand in Los Angeles.

He came out and started getting on stage at the Comedy Store. I sent a manager friend of mine to see him, and he signed Mike up. I gave Mike a small part on a Maude episode, and that led to a regular role on a half-hour comedy All’s Fair, with Richard Crenna and Bernadette Peters. And I think he’s done pretty well since then.

Early on, Mike had to come up with a new name for himself. There were already Screen Actors Guild members called Mike Douglas and Michael Douglas. He bounced a few names off me, and I liked the one he finally chose . . . Michael Keaton.

I GET A KICK OUT OF JODIE FOSTER

By James Komack

Producer

Jodie Foster was six years old when I was doing a show called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. Jodie came in to audition with her mother, Brandy. I looked at Jodie and said, Are you an actress? She said, Yes. I said, Well, we need a tough little girl. Are you a tough little girl? She then kicked me in the shins . . . and I gave her the part!

MAGNUM LANDS SHARON STONE

By Charles Floyd Johnson

Producer

In 1985, Donald Bellisario, the creator and executive producer of Magnum, P.I., had just written a two-hour script entitled Echoes of the Mind as the season opener for the fifth year of the series. His script called for a stunningly beautiful young woman who could play the dual role of a schizophrenic who believed she was both herself and her less outgoing sister. We attempted to cast several established actresses and kept coming up empty-handed for a variety of reasons; so, we decided to look for a newer, fresher face, which is always a tall order for very challenging roles.

Our casting director, Donna Dockstader, sent us numerous tapes in Honolulu and among them was a stunningly beautiful young actress at whom she suggested we take a very serious look. One viewing and we understood why Donna made the suggestion; even with few credits on her resume. She possessed extraordinary grace and style in her work. Hands down, we decided to cast her, but there was a hitch—her agents wanted more for her services than our budget could afford, and no one wanted to justify spending money that we didn’t have for a little-known talent with no marquee value. But, as usual with television schedules, the eleventh hour was upon us with no decision and no actress.

In an effort to expedite the decision-making process, not to mention the production schedule, I furiously started calling everyone involved and insisted that they were missing the chance to not only cast the right actress for the part but clearly an actress who was going to be a big star in the future. Well, it worked; she got the part, we got our actress, and I can happily say that Sharon Stone went on to prove how accurate my crystal ball was that day.

SALLY FIELD

Under the Right Street Lamp at the Right Time!

By Eddie Foy III

Casting Director

This happened when I first started casting at Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. Executive producer Harry Ackerman had the most impossible project I ever had to cast. For four months I looked at every teenager in town—interviewed and read over five thousand girls. I went all over Southern California to plays and workshops, looking for this girl. The prerequisites were that she had to be cute, tiny, and able to play comedy.

Four days before we were going to shoot the pilot for ABC I told Millie Gussey, the head of casting at Screen Gems, We don’t have her. And then she told me, Keep looking.That night I went back to a workshop at Columbia Pictures—it was called the Film Industry’s Workshop. I retold Tony and Pat Miller, who were in charge of the workshop, about the role I was trying to cast. Then they told me about a kid who had just started working with them. I said I’d like to meet her.They said,She just left! I said,I’m going to go find her!

So I ran out and looked up Beachwood Drive and saw what appeared to be a big furry animal under the street lamp. I walked up, cleared my throat, and when she turned around I asked, Are you Sally Field? She said, Yes. I said, Would you like to play Gidget? She was flabbergasted.

To make a long story short, she came in to read and did something very cute. At one point she crossed her eyes. It was the most instinctive move . . . the next day she started shooting Gidget. I have a picture in my office, To Tootles—the one who started it all! She used to call me Tootles.

YOUNG, RESTLESS, AND BROKE

By Eileen Davidson

Actress

Before I landed my first well-paying job on The Young and the Restless, I didn’t even know how I was going to make my rent. I was feeling disillusioned at the time and kind of beaten down by Hollywood. I had been waiting tables and, after paying for acting lessons, I had three hundred dollars in my bank account.

A friend of mine was in the South of France and he said, Why don’t you just fly over to France, I’ll pay for the ticket. I stayed there for two weeks and when I came back, I didn’t have any money—but I did have more confidence. I was feeling like I didn’t want to be an actress anymore. Then The Young and the Restless hit. I read for the casting agent and was called back for the producers. During my screen test I lost one of my contact lenses and was blind in one eye. I was bumping into furniture and having to feel my way around. It was horrible . . . . When my agent told me I got the job I screamed! It changed my life.

GRAB ALEC BALDWIN

By Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson, and Michael Hirshenson

Casting Directors, The Casting Company

Often, actors have only one chance to do the best job they can in a room Filled with strangers. This can be a nerve-wracking experience. When Alec Baldwin read for the John Hughes film, She’s Having a Baby, we knew he was nervous and was not going to get the job. We believed he could do better and were discussing among ourselves, Should we let him go? By this time Alec was disappearing at the end of the parking lot. . . .

Michael ran after Alec while Janet went into the room and asked John if he would give him a second chance. John agreed.

We brought Alec in to read again—and this time the part was his! As casting directors, it’s gratifying to know our instincts are right. Alec has since gone on to become a major motion picture star.

BOB NEWHART, AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION

By Bob Finkel

Director /Producer

I  was producing the Emmy Awards, hosted by Fred Astaire. The sponsor happened to be Lilt. I had booked Elaine May and Mike Nichols who wanted to do a brilliant satire on a Lilt hair product commercial. The network came to me and said, Lilt does not want that satire. When I told Mike Nichols, he said, We’re either doing that or nothing. They left and returned to New York.

The show was just two days away and I had to find a replacement for Nichols and May. On my desk was one of those demonstration acetate records of a young comic from Chicago. His name was Bob Newhart and he was just hysterical. There were two comedy pieces we could use. One was The Khrushchev Landing. The next was about a German submarine that came up off the coast of Miami. I brought the acetate to Hal Kemp, then vice-president of programming, and asked if we could fly this guy in from Chicago. We flew him to Los Angeles and he did the two pieces for the show. The day after the Emmys Bob Newhart was the biggest name in show business!

I BELTED RICHARD ROUNDTREE

By Joel Freeman

Producer

Richard Roundtree was a model who was also starring in a play in Philadelphia, The Great White Hope. He had never been in a film before and when he came in on a cattle call, we knew he had the qualities we were looking for. We wanted to create a new Black hero image, and here he was. He was likeable, very cool, had some sophistication—and never forgot his roots.

We wanted to give Richard a screen test, but we didn’t have a lot of money to spend and there wasn’t anyone available to do the test with him . . . so we shot it in 16 mm, in our New York office, and I played the scene opposite him. Gordon Parks directed, and Richard did very well. When he arrived that day, he didn’t have a belt, so he borrowed mine. Well, he had it framed and I never got the belt back! Once Richard got the role of John Shaft, I said, Now, I want you to go to the gym . . . here’s some money, eat plenty of steak, get yourself in top form. Not that he wasn’t in good shape, we just wanted him to be in great shape.

MICKEY ROURKE ON THE ROAD TO BODY MEAT

By Fern Champion

Casting Director

Once in a while an actor comes in who has something special. When I was casting a film called Fade to Black, Mickey Rourke came in and totally blew me away with his reading. He was incredible. I brought him in to read for the part of the best friend. My director, who was also the writer of the screenplay, took notes as Mickey read. Mickey stopped him and said, Listen to me, you (CENSORED)! I’m here to read! I want a part! Either you’re going to listen to me, or you’re going to write! Mickey does have a power to him . . . always has. The director put down his pen and said, I’m going to listen.

Mickey Rourke got the part. As a result, he also got his Screen Actors Guild card. The rest is history.

JOHN STAMOS, TEEN IDOL

By Marvin Paige

Casting Director

During the nine and a half years I cast General Hospital, we were constantly looking for interesting new talent with star potential. One such instance was when we needed to find a young actor to develop into a teen idol. After a long search, I found a young, then unknown eighteen-year-old named John Stamos. For his lack of experience, he gave a very intelligent reading and had tremendous appeal.

John had previously done some minor commercials and plays and was in his high school band. I called in the head writer, Norma Monty, to see him. John ran through some more scenes and they decided to take a chance. He was only on the show for two weeks when the mail started to pour in and all the other soaps were trying to steal him. I recommended that General Hospital put him under contract immediately, which they did. The character of Blackie became one of the most popular on the show and John did become a teen idol. He eventually went on to become the popular star of the TV series Full House.

ALFRE WOODARD—YOU CAN’T JUDGE AN ACTRESS BY HER COVER

By Robert B. Radnitz

Producer

One evening during the period that director Marty Ritt and I were casting Cross Creek—the autobiography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who also wrote The Yearling—I went down to the Mark Taper to see a play entitled For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. I was struck by a young actress, Alfre Woodard. I turned to my companion and said, "She’s the perfect girl to play Geechee in Cross Creek." The following morning I had breakfast with Marty and said to him, I think I’ve found our Geechee.

Alfre came in to read for us, and we were totally wiped out. She read with Mary Steenburgen—who played Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in the film—and with Peter Coyote and Rip Torn, who were other major characters. I think all of us were floored by Alfre’s performance. I am frequently told, You like to cast people on the actual location. I do. I like the indigenous quality they bring. With Cross Creek, some were sure I found Alfre in the swamps of Florida. Not exactly, I replied. Alfre graduated from Brown University, where she studied acting. What particularly stands out in my mind about Alfre, and still does, is that she has a quality wherein, if you took thirty disparate people and put them in a room, by the end of the evening—with Alfre’s persona—they’d all love each other . . .a very rare gift.

The greatness of Alfre is an ability to bring to her roles something that is innately hers—and at the same time lose herself in her performance. I have enormous respect for her as an actress and a human being. When Cross Creek was released, Alfre’s performance was lauded and she was nominated for an Academy Award.

ANDY GRIFFITH DISCOVERS JIM NABORS

By Sheldon Leonard

Producer

There was a nightclub that specialized in giving people the opportunity to stand up on stage and show what they could do. Andy Griffith had been there and had seen this young man who had a gorgeous voice—inconsistent with his country appearance. Andy suggested I go and see him, which I did. We were so very much impressed with him we decided to build a character for him into The Andy Griffith Show." We called the character Gomer Pyle. And Gomer Pyle became such a success that eventually he wound up with a show of his own.

DEMI MOORE AND JANINE TURNER SOAP UP

By Marvin Paige

Casting Director

We were looking for a couple of new characters on General Hospital to replace the Genie Francis character of Laura. Agent Edgar Small brought in Demi Moore, then an unknown actress. My producer, Gloria Monty, met with them and then brought me into the room. Here was this wonderfully interesting girl with this husky voice. She hadn’t done very much, except for a horror film, but we decided to take a chance and put her under contract.

Demi played a character called Jackie Templeton, and she was marvelous. Now, we needed another actress to play her sister, another new character named Laura. One particular actress gave a very impressive reading, and so I took her to meet Gloria Monty. Because we didn’t make the decision right away, this actress decided to go back to Texas to be with her family. When I got the call from the producer saying, Let’s go with her, I suddenly remembered she was at the airport about to take off on a plane! I picked up the phone and tracked her down at the airport just in time. She came back to play the role of Laura. Her name . . . Janine Turner, who, of course, is one of the stars of the television show Northern Exposure.

Janine Turner was on General Hospital for a couple of years and did such a great job she received Emmy nominations. It’s very rewarding when we help young actors get started and they later become superstars.

CHUCK McCANN The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

By Joel Freeman

Producer

When I was asked to become involved in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, the only actor that had been cast was Alan Arkin. We had to find someone to play opposite him—the character of Antonapolis. Alan Arkin’s son had seen a clown on television and brought him to our attention. So Robert Ellis Miller and I went up to the William Morris office in New York and they ran some footage for us of this actor who played this clown on television. His name was Chuck McCann. He had never done a feature film. The qualities that we saw in him were many. We knew he could play a mute magnificently, because he mimed very well, and that was the key. He was stocky and seemed sympathetic, much like a child, which is what we were looking for . . . kind of immature. And he had this great aura of humor about him. It was good casting and an experience I will never forget.

THE DONKEY THAT CAME BETWEEN ALLEN AND ROSSI!

By Marty Allen

Actor/Comedian

I  split up the very successful act of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi, after playing with my partner in every major nightclub and appearing on every television show—forty appearances with Ed Sullivan, including the first show with the Beatles when they arrived in America! Why? I wanted to diversify my talents, which included acting. I was called in to audition for a lead role in The Big Valley. The executive producers had seen me in Las Vegas. The producer looked at my Don King hairstyle and asked me if I would cut my hair. I said, I’d shave it and sleep with the donkey in the show if I got the part! On the set, Linda Evans dazzled me with her kindness and beauty. But the real thrill was Barbara Stanwyck telling me to pursue more acting. You’re a helluva good actor, Marty. And you’re doing a great job on this show! I must say it was my first time out of the box and it was a great thrill.

In case The National Enquirer wants to know, I did sleep with the donkey!

SALLY STRUTHERS PLAYS FACE

By Dennis Doty

Producer

In the late 1960s I was the programming executive at ABC handling variety shows like The Hollywood Palace and The Lawrence Welk Show—when variety used to be a business. One day one of my colleagues buzzed me on the intercom and said, I have a young girl in my office I’d like you to meet. I said, Is this a worthwhile thing? He said, Yes, she’s really unique. He brought her over and said, Go ahead and do for Dennis what you did for me in my office. She said, I can play my face. She proceeded to slap her face and move her lips and it sounded like a percussion section playing several songs. It was extraordinary. I’d never seen anything so unique. I asked what else she did and she said, I can sing, act, everything. At the time we were doing The Summer Brothers Smothers Show, so we decided to talk to the producers and told them we’d met this girl who was so perky and cute and plays her face . . . we thought she’d be good as a regular on the show. Her name was Sally Struthers. She did become a regular on the show and later went on to a real career starring in All in the Family—where she didn’t have to play her face. A star was born!

DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH, JACKIE MASON

By Steve Allen

Actor /Author/Composer /Personality

On our old Sunday night NBC comedy show we held regular auditions, because I’ve always tried to give new and therefore unknown entertainers an opportunity to get their foot into the television door.

In one instance an unknown young comic named Jackie Mason struck me as so funny that