If Lori Cobe-Ross weren’t a casting director, she’d be a teacher. She conducts a weekly on-camera technique class, in addition to frequenting cold reading workshops and loves the opportunity to interact in an instructional way. Her casting credits include everything from 1989’s version of Divorce Court to the erotic thriller Animal Behavior, from the pilot The Everyday Adventures of Hannah Handleman to PBS’s On Common Ground.
With early aspirations for being an agent, Cobe-Ross attended law school rather than going the usual mail room route, worked as an agent for a short while, then moved into casting. By 1994, she was casting 20 features a year in the erotica genre. She now casts everything, including musical theatre, and says “every day is different,” which is an aspect of the job that she truly loves.
First Casting Job
Open House in 1987. It was a slasher film starring Adrienne Barbeau. “My dad was producing and I asked if I could cast it.”
Road to This Position
“Jag Mundhra, the director of Open House, kept me very busy after that,” she said. The most popular film she did with Mundhra was the direct-to-video favorite Night Eyes starring Tanya Roberts. Cobe-Ross was making such a good living doing erotic thrillers that she didn’t want to give it up, but eventually, she felt the proverbial envelope was being pushed in the realm of simulated sex. “I had to use the same people over and over again, because they were the ones willing to take their clothes off for scale.” Even though she was doing other projects as well, eventually, Cobe-Ross shifted to doing mainstream films. She cast her last erotic thriller in 1997.
Coolest Casting Gig
“Divorce Court was fun. It was the last season they did in Los Angeles of that run before moving to Florida. We did 110 episodes in ten weeks. It was great fun, actually. We got to Taft-Hartley people. I got to cast everyone I’d ever seen who I liked, which is hard to do when there’s a feature, especially independent features, with like 20 roles or something,” Cobe-Ross related.
Key Things She Looks for in an Actor
Be prepared. Make a choice. “You can tell who’s winging it,” she said. “Get the sides as soon as you can, and really make a choice, even if it’s wrong. Just let me see that you’ve made a choice. We can always redirect you,” she said. “There’s too much competition for you to do your best performance in the car. I respect actors who ask questions before they read. You need to have all the information available in order to do your best performance.”
Pet Peeves
Props and pantomime. Cobe-Ross noted that she feels embarrassed for the actors that feel they need props. “Also, don’t use your finger as a gun. You have the sides with you in one hand and this fake gun in the other, then you have to turn the page, so you lose the gun,” she explained. “You don’t have to act as though you’re eating if the scene takes place in a restaurant. I know you can eat. Just do the scene.”
Advice for Actors
Cobe-Ross acknowledges that this business is an intimidating one. “This is the only job where they’re rejecting you,” she said. “But you chose the job.”
“I recommend that you work in a busy casting office and see just how many envelopes are not opened. Then, you’ll know for sure if it’s the business for you.” Most importantly, Cobe-Ross noted, “You have to really want to do it. If you kind of want to do it, that’s not enough.”
Now, specific advice on doing erotic thrillers: “Do one,” she said. Cobe-Ross acknowledges that the allure is strong, since the money is so good. “But it’s hard to break out of that. And they try to make it comfortable for you, but the fact is that you’re naked with a stranger pushing the fake sex. You don’t want to get pigeonholed.”
She works hard to make sure that actors who read with her are very relaxed. Cobe-Ross occasionally employs a reader, but generally reads with the actors. “It’s in my best interest to get the best performance out of you. So, I want you comfortable.”
Regarding pilot season, Cobe-Ross had this advice: “In casting a pilot, we are looking for someone that an audience will care about every week. Make your character special, someone we will want to care about and therefore want to see week after week.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
Agent and manager submissions, of course, and cold reading workshops. “Make sure you have to audition to get in [the workshop] so that you’ll be paired up well. Make sure that the casting directors that go there actually work. We don’t need to go there for the money, because it’s not a lot of money. We go there because we truly want to see talent. I can see 20 to 25 good actors at once,” Cobe-Ross explained. “I book dayplayers myself, so if I know the actor is right, from the workshop, then I can just hire them.”
Do unsolicited submissions work? “They don’t get opened a lot of the time,” she said. “Postcards are good if you know what I’m casting and you know you’re right for something and they are much less expensive to send than a headshot, but if you’re telling me to watch you on Days of Our Lives, I’m not going to. But, actors feel that it’s good to be proactive,” Cobe-Ross continued. “But, my husband said to me, ‘If I knew that your job was this trash-intensive, I don’t know if I’d have married you,'” she laughed, indicating one of the pitfalls of casting projects from her home office. “Even for low-budget films, I get tons of submissions.”
Her Opinion on Alternative Submission Methods
“I use those [online services], but I like holding up the two headshots and deciding on them that way,” Cobe-Ross said. “I have no fear of the technological casting methods, and I think it’s especially good for commercials or things you have to get done quickly, and great for getting sides to the actors, but I like holding those headshots.”
Her Operating System
“I keep binders and binders of the people I’ve seen and think that I can use. I go through them when I start a project,” she said, “as well as going through my notes on the computer, notes I’ve put on their resumes when I’ve seen them.”
What She Would Change About the Casting Process
“Well, what’s to change?” Cobe-Ross acknowledged that there are elements that are uncomfortable for the actor, but that the process has been working so far. “Producers and directors need to hire the casting director that they feel comfortable talking to 25 times a day, and at midnight most times,” she said. Strength in that relationship makes the best environment for casting to take place.
Highlight of Her Week
Getting to call an agent to tell them their client has gotten the job. “I just love that. That’s the fun. We have to say no a lot more than we get to say yes.”
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“Seeing the finished project and feeling that it really worked. When you go with your gut, you’re usually right. That’s cool.”
This interview was conducted on December 21, 2000, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.