Peter Golden always knew he wanted to work in television. “I didn’t know there was a job in casting. I was just in awe of actors and acting. My interest was behind the camera, behind the scenes. I was fascinated by people’s abilities to turn themselves into people they weren’t. I was somewhat star-struck,” he explained.
From shooting 8mm film with friends in junior high to working as a PA at PBS’s WNET while at Colby College, Golden worked with actors. In his current position as Senior Vice President of Talent and Casting for CBS, he works with many actors, but one former-actor in particular: Leslie Moonves. “Les has a keen instinct for casting,” Golden said. As he shared information from his over 20 years in network casting, I learned that Golden’s instincts are dead-on too.
First Casting Job
“I never thought about casting as casting,” Golden began. “I knew I wanted to work in television. I watched a lot of television and I always assumed that Don Adams was Maxwell Smart and Barbara Eden was Jeannie and Elizabeth Montgomery was Samantha Stevens and Sally Field was the Flying Nun. I never thought about how that happened. It just was. I just saw shows and thought that was the actor that was right for that part.” Through a friend of a friend, Golden became an assistant for Julie Hughes and Barry Moss in New York. “We were an across-the-board shop, doing Broadway, Off-Broadway, features, and, at the time, covering New York for ABC and later NBC. I worked up to associate and later began covering shows on my own,” he recalled. Hughes Moss Casting was assembling the cast for Endless Love when Golden joined the staff. “They needed help for their open calls, for which they were legendary, after having found Rick Schroeder for The Champ that way.”
Road to This Position
In 1986, Golden moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in the television casting department at Universal. He was later hired by Joel Thurm as head of casting at NBC, then by Grant Tinker to head casting at GTG. Golden later went to work as head of casting for Stephen Cannell and eventually moved into development. John Landis and Leslie Belsberg at St. Clair Productions hired him as vice president of development, and shortly after Leslie Moonves came to CBS, Golden did too.
Key Things He Looks for in an Actor
Listening. “If I’m reading with an actor and I pause, mid-line, and an actor jumps in, thinking it’s his cue, I know he isn’t listening,” Golden said. Listening extends to the sounds indicated in the script, even when not provided in the casting session. “If the phone rings, you should pick it up after you’ve ‘heard’ the phone ring or looked to it as if the ring drew your attention there. Those details are important to the reality you should create for us,” he summarized.
Pet Peeves
“Trying to figure out what I’m looking for, rather than just coming in saying, ‘Here I am. This is me. This is who I am, what I look like, what I sound like, how old I am, and how I interpret this character. If that is what you are looking for, then I am that,'” Golden explained. He acknowledged, “It’s a lot more complicated than just that and it’s not a fair town,” but in this town, according to Golden, one way to level the playing field is to know who you are and just be that, rather than trying to crawl into his mind.
Golden mentioned an agent-level pet peeve: “Agents who keep actors from auditioning. They are trying to protect the actor, and I appreciate that, but in doing so – in forcing us to make an offer before the actor even reads for us – they keep the actor from learning about the character and they keep us from learning about the actor,” he said.
Advice for Actors
Golden explained that the only person who should be an actor is one who cannot not be one.
“Act at every opportunity. Go do tiny theatre out in the Valley where no one may ever come out to see you. Do student films that no one will ever see. Do the state fair. Don’t do these things because they pay the rent, but to creatively satisfy yourself,” Golden advised. “An actor should always, always be acting somewhere.”
To that end, Golden recommended class. “Always be in class, working on your craft. Whether you’re earning $20 million or you can’t make the rent, you should always be working on acting,” he said. “And be a good observer of people. Borrow from what you observe. It’s the little things – like what an actor friend of mine said she observed strangers do on a subway – that could add to a character exactly what it needs.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Him
Agents. “Agents are my saviors. They call me when they get excited about someone, and I’ll see [an actor] based on that,” he said. Golden also relies on his “amazing, incredible staff” of Lucy Cavallo (dramatic programming), Fern Orenstein (TV movies), and Karen Church (comedies), as well as other CDs, to notify him of excellent work.
The Senior Vice President of Casting prereads actors on occasion, but primarily oversees the casting of all prime-time dramas and comedies, daytime programming, MOWs, miniseries, reality shows, and pilots. In assembling his staff of casting directors, Golden ideally looks for someone with whom he’s worked in the past. Always, he seeks to employ casting directors with good credits, strong recommendations, and “a wide vocabulary of the acting pool,” he said.
While the staff meets regularly as a group, Golden speaks with each casting director at least five times a day. He was quick to add that the “departmental secret weapon” for casting at CBS is his senior assistant, Marilyn Fischer. “She knows everything,” he added.
“You never know what will happen. If you send me your headshot and resume and it gets to me on the right day, that could be your way in,” Golden explained. “However, make sure it’s a realistic picture,” he insisted. “It doesn’t serve your purpose to send a somewhat misleading picture to me.”
Put together a demo reel of your work. “I don’t judge an actor on just their experience in the room [during a casting session]. That’s such an uncomfortable setting for so many actors. That’s why you must have tape. If you don’t audition well, your most valuable tool becomes one great scene, even from a student film.”
Trends He Has Observed in the Casting Process
Moving too fast. “There was a time when we would build shows around performers who had really worked, who had material, who had defined their voice. Now, the climate is so competitive, that we all take a shot on any stand-up with a good set and wait to see if it works,” Golden lamented. “Performers need the experience behind them so that something happens beyond the actor delivering the words.”
That being said, CBS is a good place to be, right now. “This is a very different CBS than the CBS I joined in 1995” Golden said. As he gestured toward the wall where each network’s fall schedule is posted, he beamed with pride. His favorite? “I love them all,” he shared. I’m very excited about The Amazing Race, and of course, Everybody Loves Raymond is the best half-hour comedy on television. Judging Amy is a traditional CBS situation with a hip, edgier take, and CSI is not how you traditionally thought of CBS four or five years ago. It’s a great time, here.”
His Take on Reality Television
“I see Reality Television as just another element of the divisions that already exist: News Magazine, Half-Hour Comedy, Single Camera Half-Hour Comedy, Drama, and so on. We are fortunate enough to have, as Les says, the Rolls Royce of Reality Television with Survivor, but I don’t think it really affects the casting process for the other types of shows,” Golden explained.
He expressed that, once your motivation in being on any show, reality-based or not, is fame, you, as an actor, are working toward the wrong goal. “Unless you really want to be challenged, there is no reason to be on a reality program. While it could be a step toward meeting a casting director, if you’ve been on a reality show, it really is apples and oranges to compare the two.”
What He Would Change About the Casting Process
“Television casting is so quick. We have to deliver sometimes as many as 22 episodes very quickly. I wish we had more time to cast. It’d be more comfortable for both the actors and the casting directors. Of course, if there were unlimited time, producers and directors might never make final decisions, so the limit can be a plus,” Golden laughed.
What is the timeline? “Within four to six weeks of getting the script, we’re shooting the pilot, so sometimes our casting directors hold auditions with just an outline and one scene,” Golden relayed. “The actor will go from reading for the associate to the casting director to the producer, do a callback, maybe read for the director, get to the studio level, and then final choices go to the network, all in just a few weeks.”
Highlight of His Week
“Reading a terrific script, identifying an actor who is perfect for the role, and having that actor turn out to be available, interested, and affordable,” Golden said. “And that happens more times than you’d think. It’s great.”
Most Gratifying Part of the Job
“I love television. I love watching the promos for the coming season and thinking that I had some small part in that.”
This interview was conducted on August 22, 2001, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.