How to Get Cast on ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’

Unrelated to the similarly titled 1998 Ben Stiller black comedy, Apple TV’s “Your Friends & Neighbors” follows Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Hamm), whose life has just imploded in every way possible. Still reeling from his divorce, the disgraced hedge fund manager resorts to drastic measures in the wake of his firing: To maintain the lifestyle to which he and his family have become accustomed, Coop starts stealing from his affluent neighbors in the wealthy Westmont Village. But his new venture finds him swept up in the dangerous secrets and illicit affairs his neighbors have kept hidden behind locked doors.

Season 1 of “Your Friends & Neighbors” featured a compelling cast of characters, including:

• Jon Hamm as Andrew “Coop” Cooper
• Amanda Peet as Mel Cooper
• Olivia Munn as Samantha Levitt
• Anna Osceola as Maggie Haber
• Hoon Lee as Barney Choi
• Mark Tallman as Nick Brandes
• Lena Hall as Allison “Ali” Cooper
• Aimee Carrero as Elena Benavides
• Jordan Gelber as Paul Levitt
• Matthew Rauch as Gordy Hughes
• Eunice Bae as Grace Choi
• Isabel Gravitt as Tori Cooper
• Miriam Silverman as Gretchen Reagan
• Donovan Colan as Hunter Cooper
• Corbin Bernsen as Jack Bailey

Season 2 will welcome Emmy nominee James Marsden into the fold as a new neighbor, Owen Ashe, who threatens to upend Coop’s new normal.

Cindy Tolan (“If Beale Street Could Talk,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Suzanne Ryan (“Law & Order,” “Blindspot”) are the primary CDs on “Your Friends & Neighbors.” The pair also worked on the 2024 limited series “The Penguin” for HBO Max, which saw stars Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti win multiple acting awards for their roles. Yes, these CDs know how to assemble an amazing cast—and they are eager to see you succeed.

Ryan told us, “Nobody wants you to be good as much as we do. Everyone in that room is pulling for you. Everyone on that set is pulling for you. You should keep that in mind.” She added, “One of the best joys of this career is having a hand in getting people work and helping them further their careers and dreams.”

After all, as Tolan told us, CDs are storytellers, too. “It’s easy to say the cinematographer did this or the production designer did that, but we are storytellers just like a cinematographer and editor and production designer; we just work with people. We’re helping tell the story with real people, and real people always possess inequalities that you can’t easily shake to transcend into a performance,” she shared. “It’s about knowing people and who’s going to fulfill the story the director wants to tell in the best way possible.”

“Your Friends & Neighbors” wasn’t initially conceived as a TV show. “I never really sat down to write it,” Tropper told Deadline. “I started writing it as a novel once, got about 100 pages in, and I don’t know, got busy and didn’t do it.” 

But as his concept began to form, Tropper could only imagine one man playing Coop. “And once the show crystallized for me, the problem was it was a very specific character to me. And looking out at the landscape, the only actor I saw that I felt could really do it in a way that I thought would be true to what I was trying to do, was Jon [Hamm],” he explained. “The problem was I didn’t know him, so I got my agent to set up a lunch—in retrospect, it was kind of a ballsy move, but I just said, ‘Let’s do a lunch.’ I pitched him the idea, and once I saw his interest in the idea, I went home to write the pilot. At that point, you know, he became that voice in my head. That was the character.”

“We sparked together when we sat down and met, and it wasn’t that long for [him] to turn around and get that script to me, which, when I read it, I thought, Well, this is great. Let’s shoot this,” Hamm added.

Similarly, Tropper approached Peet with some early iterations of the script. “Tropper gave me the first two episodes. I thought it was a really fun idea that she’s a shrink who then steals self-destructive behaviors from her patients. And that was the moment I wanted to play her,” Peet told Deadline. “But I knew he was a great storyteller and that the characters were going to have depth, and that he had a wonderful sense of comedy in my opinion, and also a wonderful sense of dialogue.”

She continued, “Tropper didn’t want her to be ‘a wife.’ His big thing was that he really wanted to convey this spark between them that they can’t let go of, and obviously, I’m a huge romantic comedy fan, so I thought that was really fun and different…. Tropper had told me in the very beginning when he was pitching me the show, he said, ‘This is a real romance,’ which is so weird when you have divorcées who are having a romance. So, I just didn’t know how he was going to do that. But I found it to be so poignant when I read it, and I’m assuming he did too, because I think we gave a lot to it.”

Munn was on the brink of leaving the industry entirely when she got the offer to play Sam. “I called my agents and my manager and said, ‘I’m done being in front of the camera—don’t put me up for anything,’ ” Munn told the Los Angeles Times. But, once again, the writing was so compelling, she simply couldn’t say no. 

“There’s a carelessness with which they live their life,” she said of the characters. “They feel impervious to the world and it’s so fascinating to watch these people crumble.” She described her own character as “a survivor—she’s going to do anything to maintain her place and take care of her children.” After enduring postpartum anxiety and multiple breast cancer surgeries, the “Newsroom” star was drawn to the role.

While Apple has already renewed the series, a filming schedule for Season 3 remains unconfirmed. Given that Season 2 production kicked off in April 2025, coinciding with the show’s premiere, it’s possible that “Your Friends & Neighbors” will return to its Hudson Valley shooting location this spring. The area will once again serve as the backdrop for the show’s fictional Westchester County village.

There aren’t any open casting calls at the moment, but for those interested in background work, we suggest following Waldron Casting on Facebook or Instagram, as the Manhattan-based company has worked to cast extras for the Apple TV series in the past. 

However, those interested in landing a regular or recurring role might benefit from securing representation. Here’s how to land your own acting agent if you don’t yet have one. In the meantime, check out these streamer gigs and New York–based projects that are casting right now. And check out our guide on how to audition for Apple TV.

With so many industry veterans leading the series, the “Your Friends & Neighbors” cast members agree that with age comes a renewed sense of freedom. And while these lessons are ultimately learned over time for those in the entertainment business, the show’s biggest stars emphasize the importance of continued learning and artistic purpose, while also establishing a work-life balance that allows you to succeed professionally without sacrificing personally.

For Peet, it’s all about embracing new challenges. “I’m still madly in love with acting and I’ve gone on such a huge journey, and I think it’s true what some people say, the older you get and the more you do it, the more you realize you shouldn’t be working so hard…. Something about being in a state where you’re not trying too hard can be very critical. I think what’s so exciting is to be given the chance to keep learning,” she told Deadline.

“I keep testing myself. How much more real can you make it? How much more can you not try to arrange your face or orchestrate this take? I still find it so delicious, the whole process of trying to pretend that it’s real. It sounds so simple, but I still feel challenged by it. And so, it’s been very exciting for me,” Peet added. “I think it’s just about really good writing; it’s not really a particular kind of role. Even if it’s like one scene, it’s about looking for that challenge of really good writing.”

Marsden echoed this sentiment in an interview with Forbes, noting that experience now allows him to work with purpose—but it took a lot of effort to achieve said clarity. “As you grow through life and mature into ‘an old man,’ things come into focus more clearly of what’s really important to you—how you want to spend your time. From a storytelling perspective, what good can you put out there?” he said. “What truly resonates with you? When you’re young, you take jobs and you take work to work. You do the best and I still loved it—you want to make it as great as possible, but you also want to work.

“I think when you’re younger, you don’t value time as much,” he added. “I love working, but I’ve been sort of slowly reevaluating how much time I do want to be working and how much time I want to be living. One of the things that’s in the job description with being an actor is the feeling that you’re never going to work again. That’s been with me for a really, really long time. What that’s caused is a great fortune in a business that’s been very good to me, but a lot of time away—a lot of time traveling, a lot of time working. I feel like, nowadays, I want to really make sure that I insert value in my time, more than just on the work level.”

But there’s only one way to find what truly drives your passion for acting: You must get out there and audition. “All you can do as an actor is be prepared and love what you’re doing. It’s out of your hands. It’s not a perfect world when it comes to the business, but you have to remember, it’s art married to commerce. It’s called show business,” Tolan explained. “The business side is the part that can cripple an actor.”

The CD also noted, “When you do get the job and you’re on set—because that’s where I think you get nervous, especially if you’re not as experienced—be professional, show up, and do what is asked of you. Don’t ask too many questions. I’ve observed actors being like, ‘OK, where’s my mark? Where’s the camera? What’s the shot?’ Less is more in those situations. Talk to your friends about what it is like to be on set. Actors have such a great community, so talk to your colleagues about it. That’s what we do, and I would hope that’s what actors do, too.”