This Is Happening — Verse 4

Casting Part 1

It is incredibly easy to fuck up this part of the process. When you get into casting your film, you are told that the only way you will raise enough money to make your film and, more importantly, sell it, is if you secure an actor with foreign sales appeal. The argument to this point is so compelling from everyone who works inside Hollywood that you start out playing an unwinnable game, especially as a first time director. You make a list of actors you like and then you show it to someone in sales and they circle one girl’s name — Emma Stone, and one guy — Jesse Eisenberg (he might have been crossed out, actually), and that’s what you’ve got. If you can’t cast these two people, you are fucked. Good luck!

Thankfully, there was a counter to this point. I was connected to a director named Adam Leon, who made a phenomenal film recently titled Gimme The Loot. Adam enjoyed much success with a film populated by unknown actors. His advice was simple: cast the best actor for the role. Don’t play their game. If you play their game, you will hire people that aren’t right and your movie will suck and you won’t sell it anyway.

HIRE THE BEST PEOPLE FOR THE FILM. MAKE THE BEST FILM POSSIBLE. THEN TAKE YOUR CHANCES IN THE MARKET.

Yes. This advice deserves all caps. And because it was given in all caps, I was smart enough to take it. In some ways, this advice is equally as difficult to enact, because you need actors who will not only be willing to work with you, first timer, but are also great at what they do. Not good. Great. They have to be great.

This leads to piece of advice #2 — this one from yours truly: get a great casting director. Get Billy Hopkins. Do not pass Go. Go straight to Billy. And if Billy doesn’t say yes, I don’t know… beg. Billy is almost entirely responsible for our incredible cast (I say “almost” because Billy’s casting associate Ashley Ingram had much to do with our cast as well).

Billy pushed Mickey Sumner from day one (not a hard sales job after seeing her in Frances Ha, but she was Billy’s idea), saw the short I made for this film and insisted I cast James Wolk right away (more on how critical of a decision this was later), and gave the film the credibility it needed to attract a real life Oscar winner like Cloris Leachman. Further, Billy’s prowess helped lure names like Judd Nelson, Rene Auberjonois, Emily Tremaine and Mike Wade.

I freaking love Billy and Ashley. And to them I am grateful. And more importantly, I trust them. And trusting people to do their jobs was a mantra from day one. There is no way I know talent better than they — this is what they do, all day, every day. I was surprised to learn that many directors take their casting directors’ ideas for granted. Don’t be that director. Trust that they know what they’re talking about because they do.

If and when you see This Is Happening, know that the caliber of the talent onscreen is no accident. I trusted a legendary casting director, cast great actors as a result, and now look better than I am at my job.

Thanks, Billy and Ashley.