When I interviewed Linda Phillips-Palo, she had just wrapped the pilot presentation of And Justice for Y’all. Along with her husband [director Paul Palo] and Marty Breneman, Phillips-Palo produced this project. “It’s basically Bubba’s Arbitration Court,” she explained. “Our two leads, Bubba and Babe the bailiff, are two actors I cast in The Rainmaker. The law is not accessible to the common person, so Bubba hears disputes, and whatever Bubba says goes. It really deals with the last vestiges of southern culture. If a blues singer stops by during a court hearing, he’ll do a song for us. Bubba quotes the bible and we serve a buffet dinner, so that encourages people to come on by. We dispense ribs and justice,” she summarized.”
The pilot was shot in Memphis, an “adopted hometown” for Phillips-Palo. “When I did The Rainmaker, I stayed at the Peabody Hotel and I met everybody. I’d go into the film commission office and the blues clubs and just around town, asking who’s the most colorful attorney in town?”
Clearly, Artios Award-winner [for The Virgin Suicides] Phillips-Palo does not shy away from offbeat projects. In fact, she seeks them out.
First Casting Job
“I was acting in Buffalo, and I was also teaching an acting class at the University of Buffalo, where I was getting my graduate degree. When I would see movies, I was attracted to any casting director who really used faces. I would always kind of make a note of that, but not being in Los Angeles, I didn’t even know that job would ever exist for me. By the time I’d reached my early-30s, I realized that I’d been really responsible, but I hadn’t done anything full-tilt-boogie yet in my life. I told my husband that I needed to go to California to work in movies and he was less than thrilled,” Phillips-Palo recalled.
Phillips-Palo started out in San Francisco, registering at a temp agency called Star Personnel. “Los Angeles was just too huge for me to start out, but I figured, Star… Hollywood… close enough,” Phillips-Palo joked. “I was over-educated and under-office-skilled, so, I figured that was it. One day I got a call from that temp agency saying, ‘Please. Are you available today? Francis Coppola’s office just called and they’re looking for a secretary with a Master’s degree.’ I found out later that they had used Star Personnel for the same reason I had: Star… Hollywood… that’s it. I started out coordinating apprentices and helping Gio Coppola get ready for his GED.”
After the bulk of the studio moved to Los Angeles, Phillips-Palo received another fateful call. “Jennifer Shull called up to San Francisco and asked, ‘Have you ever done an open call?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ The minute I hung up the phone, I was like, ‘What the hell is an open call?’ What I learned was, if you put up a good front with a good smile and look like you know what you’re doing, and then seriously turn around and learn what you need to learn, you’ll be okay. You can’t do one without the other, though. You have to be willing to learn the work,” Phillips-Palo insisted.
“I ended up moving down here and Jennifer started me at a reception job first, which was part of the deal. We had to work our way up to casting, and that was how we made our relationships with agents, how we developed respect by saving one another’s butts. I came in and said, ‘I’m going to be the best receptionist of my ability.’ And that’s what I did. Then I started getting my promotions and I was in casting,” Phillips-Palo recalled.
Recent Non-Traditional Casting
Shetan, the Young Black Stallion, for Buena Vista. “We had a website and went around the country to try and find a girl who was middle-eastern, who spoke Arabic, who rode a horse like the wind, and who was beautiful enough to be blown up on an IMAX screen. We went to pony clubs and equestrian centers worldwide,” Phillips-Palo recalled. How did they find their lead? “This ten-year-old kid was surfing the Internet in Texas and found our site. He knew his friend would be right for the role. Bianna Tamimi sent in a tape and she was perfect,” she said.
Another cool gig was one that Phillips-Palo co-produced: Hostile. “It’s a feature about an Austrian town that bred Lipizzaner horses during WWII. As the Allies closed in, Hitler ordered them slaughtered. The German officer refused to do so and he turned himself over to the Americans and the officer he surrendered to was Dale Robertson, who later became a star in Hollywood in the 1950s,” she explained. “The things I look for are not the most common things,” Phillips-Palo added. “Some are mainstream, but I do look for projects outside.”
Key Things She Looks for in an Actor
“I love focus, discipline, and actors who are just in love with what they’re doing. These people have this joy for what they’re doing. They come in and do their thing and the director and producer look at me and say, ‘Thank you.’ It is such a joy. It makes me so proud,” she expressed. Of course, Phillips-Palo understands that actors have good days and bad days. “If you’ve hit a bad patch, I recommend that you pull back until you can get yourself nurtured. The worst thing that can happen is for you to come in, after I’ve talked you up as a fun person, filled with joy, and you’re so down. It’s hard to explain away a scattered performance. I have to make sure that the actor has everything together before I bring them in again,” she explained.
But performance isn’t the only thing Phillips-Palo looks for. “As a casting director, I’m listening for any disruption. Actors have to be nice to my assistants. We have monitors out there for that, and if an actor comes in picking on someone, we’ll make a note of that. We have to be aware of that because it’ll happen on the set. We look at coping skills before casting someone. You don’t have to be perfect, but have common sense,” she advised.
Advice for Actors
“One thing I always recommend is a good haircut. A good haircut makes you feel like you’re taking care of business. It also says something about your self-esteem. Being an actor is so much about self-esteem and so much of the time your self-esteem is getting battered. You have to be able to have internal tools to secure yourself. Now, actors are meant to be kooky, so I’m not trying to dictate their life. I just feel that certain things like drugs and alcohol deflect focus. They put a layer between you and what you want to get accomplished. They also dull ambition. Actors need balance,” she clarified.
To that end, Phillips-Palo teaches a seven-week course at AIA called “Mastering the Actor Within,” based on the Julia Cameron book The Artist’s Way. “It is so emotional and involves so much work on the part of the actor. They have 98 pages of homework before they even get to the first class. I’m basically teaching an expanded version of the master’s-level class I taught at the university,” she explained. “If you’re going to be an actor, be happy having chosen that.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
“Let me count the ways! I watch a lot of television. I make a lot of notes on junior characters, people who deliver one-liners. If there is one scene that sticks out from the rest, after you’ve forgotten the rest of the movie, and that scene is yours, you’ve been noticed by me, for sure. That’s the reason that Matt Damon was so prominent in The Rainmaker. I had seen his work in Courage Under Fire, and that was a film where he worked on basic character, putting everything into that part. A lot of producers, directors, and casting directors really took notice of that fully-developed role. It was easy to take a scene from Courage Under Fire and show Francis that Matt could really do The Rainmaker,” Phillips-Palo related.
“Another really good way to get seen by me is to have excellent training credits, an interesting face, and write me a letter – not ‘Dear Casting Director’ or ‘To Whom it may Concern’ – but mention that you’ve seen films I’ve cast and noticed that I always use people of your type. Tell me where I can see your work. Offer to send your tape. I’ll ask to see it if I’m interested. I discourage phone calls. Don’t take the risk that you’ll get on that bad list of actors who call a busy casting director,” Phillips-Palo insisted. “Now, don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear from me right away, after you’ve sent a letter. It could be two years or more before I call you. So, if your phone number keeps changing, you’d better keep me updated, or else you’ve missed your chance.”
“Be listed at SAG and in the Academy Players Directory. It’s one of the biggest bargains in town. We use the Academy Players Directory all the time. All casting directors do. Actors can’t use the excuse of not having an agent, because you can get yourself into the Players Directory. You can do many things that don’t cost an arm and a leg to improve your chances of getting seen by me,” she insisted. “Postcards are good. Remind me where we met or tell me when I can catch you on a show. I attend theatre and a lot of showcases when schools are graduating. Choose wisely when deciding where you want to showcase your talent. Go see the showcase. Audit it. What is the cost? What is the caliber of the actors? Do they get a lot of casting directors to come out? It’s better to not be seen than to be seen in a bad play where the casting director has wasted her time, has traveled, is there after a long day at work. We want to be entertained.”
Phillips-Palo’s take on cold reading workshops? “Use your best judgment when choosing where to spend your money. Some actor workshops provide valuable information and are worth the money. If I, as an actor, sat there and wondered, ‘Where is my money going? I’m not getting anything out of this,’ I would never go back and I would tell everyone I knew not to go there,” she insisted.
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“I like getting up in the morning. Everything is gratifying about my job. I like to see actors when they start. Later, when they have these careers, and you can see the people who helped along the way, it’s wonderful. I’m just happy at any given time. I’m so happy to see actors walk into my office.”
This interview was conducted on April 17, 2002, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.