Ever since “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” showrunner Warren Leight said on Twitter that he wants to hire as many Broadway actors as possible while theater is dark, he’s been getting 15 résumés a day in his personal inbox.
“This is a particularly tough time and people are losing their Actor’s Equity health insurance,” says Leight. “And maybe with rerun money and the guest shot here, they can get SAG-AFTRA health insurance.”
Broadway and live performances have been shut down since March 2020, and “Law & Order: SVU” had a production hiatus last spring and summer, but has been filming since September; it’s currently shooting and airing its 22nd season.
An Acting Coach’s 8 Tips for Mastering Your Zoom Audition So how does one’s résumé move to the top of Leight’s inbox?
“I see a lot of plays, probably more than most showrunners,” says Leight. Before the pandemic, he used to scope out talent by seeing theater around the city (he’s also a Tony Awards voter). His piece of advice: “Just mention the plays you were in. [Actors] don’t need to do too much, just, ‘If anything comes up, I’d love to be considered’ is the polite way of asking.”
He then adds: “I’ve had a number of people say they need x in order to qualify for health insurance, which is kind of a way of saying, ‘It doesn't have to be as big a part as I might normally want.’ ”
For instance, Tony-winning actor Frank Wood recently had a small part in Episode 2 of the season playing a medical examiner. More recently, “Hadestown” star Eva Noblezada guest starred on an episode playing a cam girl who is stalked and assaulted by one of her clients (played by “Beetlejuice” lead Alex Brightman).
Other confirmed theater actors this season includes Tony winner Ari’el Stachel, Lucille Lortel winner Crystal Lucas-Perry, and Jess Barbagallo from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Leight sent over a list of 61 theater actors who have been cast in speaking parts this season.
“Alex [Brightman] mentioned that, on the first day, he was really anxious, because he hadn’t had the chance to act in a year,” says Leight. “And so part of it is just letting people practice their craft. People need to work for money, and people need to work for their emotional well-being.”
Leight does admit it’s tough to film during COVID-19. For one, he is not allowed on set because of the strict zoning system in place, which limits who can and cannot be present during filming. He’s been running the writer’s room, meeting cast and crew, and overseeing filming all from home. “Am I a showrunner or a Zoom runner?” Leight quips.
But there are the upsides, such as being able to book actors he wouldn’t have been able to because they would have been doing eight performances a week. And he’s hiring more locally, because it’s too much of a logistical hassle to fly actors in.
Overall, Leight admits that “Law & Order: SVU” is hiring fewer actors, to maintain some form of social distancing onset. “In the squad room we’ve been using the same extras who test everyday, whom we know. If we do a courtroom scene, we have fewer people in the gallery,” Leight explains. “We’re doing fewer on-location shoots.”
Leight does expect that there will be more on-location shoots as infection rates go down and New York City opens back up. And he does expect to hire more actors as the season progresses.
But he does offer a dose of reality for those actors looking to add early credits to their résumé with big-title works like “SVU.” “This is nothing anyone wants to hear: it’s a hard year for somebody to break in who doesn’t have some work already done.” He explains that auditions have been virtual. “We needed an actor who is confined to a wheelchair,” he explains, “and that’s for one episode. And the guy we ended up hiring, he just put himself on tape. There’s some people who have broken through on the strength of their Zoom auditions.”
On the other hand, the show’s casting directors Jonathan Strauss and Philip Huffman have been hosting virtual go-sees to meet actors, “which is just three words that should never have been put together,” jokes Leight.
The team has also learned to not expect pre-pandemic-level performances on a virtual audition. Because, well, if it’s harder to work at home, it’s also harder to audition at home. “It took us a while to realize the auditions, in general, are not very good this year,” says Leight. “And part of the reason is people are doing these auditions with, like, their mom reading the lines to them. The caliber of their scene partners has declined precipitously on a lot of the Zooms auditions.” So these days, says the showrunner, they’re grading auditions on a curve.
“And then we've done something we might not ever have done in the past: If we get close, and it'’s between one or two people, the director will do a Zoom callback and audition them via Zoom,” says Leight. “Now the nice thing for actors is they don’t have to come all the way over twice, get into their audition clothes. They don’t have to take a taxi or whatever to get to it. It’s a different way of doing it.”
59 Actors Who Have Been on ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' So the first day that an actor would meet a “Law & Order: SVU” team member in person is when they come in for their COVID-19 tests. Actors take a PCR test every morning, or a rapid test twice, and they get temperature checks every 12 hours.
And they’re masked until the director calls action. And this season, the show is set during the pandemic. So when the characters are in public, they’re masked, but when they’re inside in small groups, they don’t wear masks. There’s also plexiglass in the courtrooms.
It’s been a learning experience for the longtime showrunner: Leigh says it’s made him more nimble, responsive, and aware of the needs of his local NYC community—whether that’s helping out a local restaurant by shooting there or helping local actors by giving them work.
“There’s a lot of shows that shoot in New York, and they should all be doing this,” he says forcefully. “I think other shows in New York have been thinking about it. I hope they are.”