In 1997, producer Robert Halmi’s production of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the CBS miniseries, won a CSA Artios Award. Julie Selzer (who won the Artios along with then-partner Patrick Rush and location casting director Lynne Carrow) is proud of that accomplishment. Halmi was so pleased with Selzer’s work that when he produced the 2000 miniseries Jason and the Argonauts for NBC, Selzer was, again, his casting director.
Selzer, a former actor, has also cast the feature films Heathers, Amazon Women on the Moon, Bad Girls, and RoboCop, just to list a few. Recently, she and current partner Lauris Freeman have done an MOW for TNT, after having partnered up for Brokedown Palace in 1999. On partnership, Selzer comments, “I like having a partner. It’s how I was trained. It makes casting more fun.”
First Casting Job
“I think it was Grease 2 in 1980,” Selzer calculated. “I knew all the young kids in town from drama festivals because I was acting and doing waiver theatre. I was a Theatre and Journalism major at Cal. State, Northridge. I started working as an assistant to Sally Dennison, who later became my partner. We had to do the singers, the dancers, the actors,” Selzer recalled of her work on Grease 2. As for leaving acting behind, she commented, “I found that I liked working behind the scenes better. I fell into it naturally. I had a good eye. I knew where the actors were coming from. I could speak their language, having been one.” One of the best aspects of being a young actor-turned-casting director? “The ability, at a very young age, to have a room full of men take me seriously. That was really empowering,” Selzer said.
Road to This Position
Selzer was an assistant until the age of 23, at which time she began casting films on her own, in addition to casting for Catalina Productions Theatre. “I partnered up with Sally in 1984. We were both up for the same job at Paramount and decided to go in as a united front. It worked out well because I was young and knew the young talent and she had been in the business a long time. It was a great fit. We were together through 1992.” Then Selzer partnered with Patrick Rush, her former assistant.
Her Biggest Project
Keeping up with Molly, her ten-year-old daughter. Does Molly have aspirations for the business? “I’m afraid so. Her dad’s a director, her mom’s a casting director. And while we do have her in basketball and playing drums, she does want to act. She did, however, say no to doing extra work on ER because she didn’t want to get covered in blood. She thought that was pretty icky,” Selzer joked.
Coolest Casting Gig
“With the exception of one film that I quit, I’ve loved every movie I’ve ever done. I’ve found actors and formed relationships on every project. I always have a really good time working with [director] Jonathan Kaplan [Selzer’s former husband]. The Accused meant a lot to us because of Jodi [Foster] getting the Oscar. And I had a great time on RoboCop too. That was back in the days when we got to do the location casting too. It was a collaborative effort all the way around. Casting really is putting a family together. A lot of times, the question is, ‘Do we want to have this person in this family?’ Actors need to understand that,” Selzer added.
Her Favorite Casting Tale
“My first picture [Grease 2]. We found Michelle Pfeiffer for that. She came in with her then-husband, Peter Horton. She was literally waiting to pick him up. We saw her face and started grabbing things for her to read,” Selzer recalled. Pfeiffer had not come in to audition at all. “There’s an important lesson in this, for actors,” Selzer began. “You might not get the first movie you read for with me, but maybe the fourth or fifth. I have a whole stable of actors that I just keep bringing in and in and in. Eventually, it’ll hit. And you never know when. I still work from old-fashioned notebooks to keep up with who I’ve seen. As for Michelle, she just had a look. We’d seen everyone in town and hadn’t found it. We were looking for something special and she had it. So, you never know,” Selzer summarized.
Key Things She Looks for in an Actor
“I look for talent. I look for confidence. I also look for if the actor is having a bad day or not. I am the queen of understanding that some actors just don’t audition well or have an off day. The casting director and the actor both know if the actor is having a bad day. The hard thing, in a callback situation, is to convince the producer or director to see someone again when they’re the ones who are now under the gun. But if you’ve really got a legitimate shot and you just blew an audition, I’ll bring you back in. If you don’t really have a shot, I won’t bring you back because it could actually hurt you,” Selzer explained. “A good casting director is worth her weight in gold. Trust us. We’ve been in the room all day. We can give you clues and advice based on what’s going on in that room.”
Pet Peeves
“Someone who is unprepared, for whatever reason, and then who tries to act, once in the room, like it’s the casting director’s or their assistant’s or the agent’s fault. We’re all adults. Be honest. Otherwise, it makes me look bad too. My job is to help you, and if you do a good job, even if you’re not right for that role, directors will remember you for other projects. I did RoboCop with Paul Verhoeven, and a lot of actors we weren’t able to use he ended up using in Total Recall and Basic Instinct.
Another peeve, for Selzer, is a bad attitude. “Any kind of negative attitude, leave it outside. I understand if you’re in the moment in a scene and need to have something going on in you, but there’s no excuse otherwise. You’re not going to be allowed to be that way on a set,” she concluded.
Advice for Actors
“Be prepared, obviously. Have the lines as memorized as you can. Some actors need the security blanket of holding onto those sides, and that’s fine, but have a good handle on the material. Auditions have different tones, whether they’re feature film or television auditions. It’s hard to know that, until you’ve had the experience.”
Selzer continued, “Read the room as if you’re at a dinner party. Follow the leader. If it’s a casting director you’re comfortable with, let them segue into everything. If you get into the room and realize you know the writers, follow them. I’m real careful with this: some actors like to come into the room and do the material with no chit-chat. I really try to steer it that way. Sometimes you can’t help it if the director wants it to go another way, but I understand that. I get that. So, I try to let the actor take the space. It’s your time. It’s your space. Whether it’s five minutes or 50, if you’re not ready, take a minute. People will only respect you for it. Just say, ‘Can I have a minute?'”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
“Through an agent, obviously. Another way is by being in a show around town that’s getting raves. It’s hard to get seen if you’re a complete unknown unless you’re in a really great show. As far as mailings go, or postcards, for me, if it’s a current project, and it’s a quick little, ‘Hey. Remember me? I’m on Law & Order tonight,’ that helps me more than, ‘Here I am. Let me meet you.’ Unsolicited photos for me are very job-specific. I find, if I’m doing a search for a big project, part of the process is uncovering every stone, putting out Breakdowns, getting the word out, ‘Come one. Come all,’ especially when we’re looking for young talent.”
Her Opinion on Alternate Submission Methods
“I don’t use [online casting services], personally. [Internet casting] won’t have an impact for me. Now, a network or television casting director might find it essential, but for me, an excellent photo is the best use of your money, ever. A good photo never goes out of style, as long as you still look like it. That kind of consistency is helpful, actually,” Selzer added.
Trends She Has Observed in the Casting Process
“Everything is quicker and we don’t have as much time in the process. I’m sorry about that. Time gives everyone a chance to know one another better. It used to be a little looser, where there would be a lot of time spent in auditions. Everyone uses video now. Everyone now wants first auditions taped. I don’t like doing that. I only like to use the videotape for callbacks. It takes away from what you’re there to do, in that first audition, to tape it. I’m a big believer in the rehearsal process. In theatre, in films, and in life, and I don’t like having to put that down on tape. We don’t have the luxury of not taping first auditions, though, if that’s what the director wants,” Selzer lamented.
Her Biggest Casting Challenge
“In general, just convincing some director or producer that I’m right, that the person I know is capable is right for the role. The big challenge is hanging in there and fighting for who you want. It’s not just the casting director getting the director to agree. It’s then getting the studio to go along with it. The power of the casting director really fluctuates from project to project. Some projects are just more of a collaborative effort, where I can say, ‘Trust me on this one.'” An example of this, for Selzer, came with casting Jodi Foster in The Accused. “Paramount didn’t want to see her that way,” Selzer recalled. “She had been at school and out of the limelight, and I just had to keep saying, ‘Test her. Test her.’ It’s about finding someone who has the right energy for the part, and that means every job is a challenge. It’s about the chemistry.”
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“Getting actors work. Discovering new talent. It’s always fun being there in the beginning, and being able to say, ‘I got so-and-so her SAG card.’ That’s great.”
This interview was conducted on February 21, 2002, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.