Laura Gleason is a former actor originally from the San Francisco bay area. In her pursuit of acting, Gleason attended Northwestern University, then left early to begin acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Gleason finished her degree in theatre arts at UCLA. While in Los Angeles, she met her husband, actor James Gleason. “We lived here, both working actors, for five years and then went to New York, where we lived for 12 or 13 years. That’s where I started casting.”
In New York, Gleason worked as the original casting director for the soap opera Loving, and cast a few Broadway shows and independent films. “When I moved to Los Angeles, I worked with David Cohen, who was a casting director at the time. We worked together on the pilot for Key West and have since done a film together.” Gleason, who is a charter member of the Casting Society of America in New York, briefly moved into producing after casting the 1999 feature, Crosswalk. She is now hoping to head back into fulltime casting with theatre as the first stop on that road.
First Casting Job
Associate casting director at the Public Theatre. “I was a professional actress for ten years and then decided I wanted to make a switch. This job opened up at the Public Theatre, for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and I really learned casting under Rosemary Tischler. I worked with Stanley Soble and Ellen Novack and that’s how I got my start. There was no better place to learn. I got to know all of the agents in New York. Because I’d been an actress, I’d seen things from one side. Seeing it from the other side, I knew I’d found my niche,” Gleason recalled.
Coolest Casting Gig
“It’s hard [to select one],” Gleason insisted. “I love each one that I do! I love the theatre,” she said, noting that she has cast theatre projects in Los Angeles as well as New York. “The theatre is my favorite to cast for, but of course, that’s not where the money is. Still, I think my ultimate perfect job would be to be regularly employed casting theatre,” Gleason concluded.
Favorite Casting Tale
“I almost lost a job, early on in my career, working on a Broadway show. Chazz Palminteri had created the role and then the show moved to Broadway. The show had gotten raves in its nine months off-Broadway, but the producer did not want to use Chazz in the Broadway run. I fought for months. Every time I talked to the producer I said, ‘You’re not letting him play the part and we’ve found nobody better. You’ve got to at least give him a shot as understudy.’ Chazz was working as a bouncer to pay the rent at the time and I just knew he deserved to continue in this role. We were close to the final decisions and I was in a meeting with the producer when I brought him up again. The producer said to me, ‘If you mention his name one more time to me, I will fire you!’ I said, ‘Okay.’ Of course, the next day, I brought his name up again,” Gleason relayed. “He ended up with the part, as an understudy. I still wonder, to this day, what this producer thinks of Chazz’s career now,” she said.
Key Things She Looks for in an Actor
Talent. “It’s so subjective,” she qualified. “I was really highly trained as an actress and I really have an understanding of the acting process. I totally get what it’s about. I think, when an actor comes in who just has a freedom with their creativity, you can see it. When an actor has done their homework, they come in, they understand the role, they’re not afraid to ask a question, that adds to whatever talent is there,” Gleason continued. “As an actor, you need to make that audition time your time. It’s your time. I don’t care if 100 actors are waiting. Make the space your space. I’m very open to that. The only qualifier is, make sure, if you’re going to do anything physical with the reader – which is usually me – that you check that it’s okay ahead of time. I like to read with actors. I feel that I can tell whether they’re giving anything. But I don’t like being thrown around.”
Pet Peeves
The wrong kind of training. “Actors take these classes where they’re reading a page from a current TV show script. If you’re spending that money for a class, you should spend it on a good acting class, in which you’ll learn how to do good theatre pieces. Learning how to do theatre pieces is good because those pieces have substance. Cold reading workshops are a waste of time. Now, to be frank, I’ve done them, but I feel that I am qualified to teach. In New York, I taught an on-camera soap opera class. I think everyone should become comfortable with the camera, but I also think you need to have a solid theatre class. Workshops gave me a good chance to see actors, but an acting class should be something of substance for the actor.”
A major pet peeve for Gleason is runaway production. “And it’s not just [to] Canada. It’s [to] Australia, England, Ireland, and even the eastern European countries. I understand why it happens but no one is doing anything about it. The only way that the problem of runaway production will be solved is by giving the same tax breaks for filming at home,” Gleason explained.
Advice for Actors
“I always think of this scene from The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. A wannabe actor is working as an elevator operator and asks a producer what advice he would give him. The response is, ‘Keep at it.’ That’s really all there is to it,” Gleason clarified. “Keep yourself busy acting as much as you can wherever you can. Work begets work. Classes will keep you stimulated, keep you up on your game, and help you network with fellow actors and directors. Don’t let people dissuade you. If you feel a passion and you’re doing this because you’re passionate about it, you mustn’t be dissuaded. Everybody will tell you how hard it is, but that’s the name of the game. It’s debilitating enough and you have to find every way you can to keep your spirits up.”
“I feel very strongly that, for any actor that comes in, I want them to be wonderful. I want them to be the person that I can bring to the producers. I want it to work for them. I really feel that most casting directors feel that way. I love actors. I know how difficult the process is. I respect actors and really enjoy them as people and I want them to do so well. The thing that actors have to understand is that there are so many elements that go into casting – beyond their talents – that restrict the casting director in the decision. So often, the producer and the director have given the casting director guidelines that just don’t fit with that particular actor at that particular time. I think that every actor has to go in and do the very best they can. I will always remember them. It may be three shows later, but I will remember and bring them back in,” Gleason insisted.
Further advice from Gleason included knowing the importance of always working on something. “I can’t stress enough how actors just have to work. Whether that means a student film, or a small play somewhere, you just don’t know where an opportunity will present itself. Also, actors should be encouraged to take improv comedy classes. Not because the actor is funny but because improv really teaches you how to think on your feet. It gives you a looseness when you audition so that when the director gives you a change, you can go with the moment.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
“Get in a good play,” she advised. “When looking at a resume, my eye goes to theatre credits, where the play was done, and who directed it. When an actor comes in the room, even for a television audition, it is obvious to me whether they were trained in theatre. It’s a good obvious,” Gleason qualified. “Also, I open all headshots and resumes that come in. I look at videos but the actor must send a self-addressed, stamped envelope so that I may send the tape back.”
Her Opinion on Alternate Submission Methods
“You’re talking to a computer illiterate person,” Gleason joked. “I’m learning to like my computer, but there’s something tactile about that headshot and resume. That’s how I learned to do it, with stacks, and I like to go back to my stacks. I would rather go to the book and look through the book, than look someone up on the computer,” Gleason explained.
The book she refers to is the Academy Players Directory. “I cannot tell actors how important it is to list themselves in the Academy Players Directory. I’ve had a producer take the directory home, flip through it, and flag the actors he wanted me to bring in for him. It’s such an important tool for the casting director. It’s like your dictionary, if you’re a writer. I cannot stress enough how important that is to be in the directory and keep [the listing] up-to-date.”
What She Would Change About the Casting Process
“I wish that we had more time. Casting is a very fast process. I just wish there were time to see a few more people, to explore a little more. It seems to me that the casting director is the last one hired, and I would like to come in earlier in the pre-production process. The lack of time makes it hard to engage in what is really an artistic process.”
Her Biggest Casting Challenge
Casting the soap Loving. “I did it all and I had no assistant and no secretary. They wouldn’t spring for it. I did everything but cast extras and I had to beg them to buy me an answering machine! But I did it,” Gleason explained. “You rise to it. It was my first television experience and I needed the job, so I did what I had to do.”
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“It goes right back to actors,” she said. “It’s seeing the right actor in the right role and knowing you’ve succeeded. When the role goes to someone I’ve fought for because I know they’re right, that is a wonderful feeling.”
This interview was conducted on February 27, 2002, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.