If you've ever been in a position to cold-call casting offices—and we're absolutely not recommending it—you know that the people on the other end of the line are likely to range, with many notable exceptions, from a little harried to downright brusque. Not so at Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, one of the busiest offices in town, where the several voices that answer the phone are polite, businesslike, and even friendly. Speaking with one of the company's founding partners, we got an idea where this courteous spirit might spring from.
Gracious and exceedingly generous when it comes to advice for actors, Eric Dawson was working on his degree in psychology at the University of Nebraska when CDs Reuben Cannon and Carol Dudley came to Lincoln with Amerika, a 16-hour miniseries for ABC shot largely in Nebraska. He began working with them as an intern and moved up to assistant. At the end of the project, Cannon offered him a job in L.A. He accepted and in 1986 moved west, where he would meet future partners Robert J. Ulrich and Carol Kritzer, also working for Cannon. Three years later Ulrich and Dawson formed Ulrich/Dawson Casting. Kritzer became a partner in 1995 at the same time that Shawn Dawson, Eric's brother, moved out to L.A., joined the company as an assistant, and began working his way up the ranks.
Along with features and MOWs, the office has cast countless pilots and series: currently Nip/Tuck, CSI, The Dead Zone, 1-800-MISSING, and a one-hour pilot for Fox titled Crash Course; and recently The Lyon's Den, The Agency, Dark Angel, and a Warner Bros. for ABC pilot titled the Untitled Hotel Project, to name a few.
It's nip and tuck no longer: Although Dawson has never received so many passes from actors as he did during the pilot sessions of Nip/Tuck—the edgy, critically-acclaimed FX drama that he casts—with the show's success, the tide has certainly turned. "It's a phenomenal show to work on," said Dawson. "I've never enjoyed reading scripts as much as I have on this show—I'm as caught up in it as a lot of viewers are. It's also been great that it's become kind of a water-cooler show in the television community. I've never received so many calls from people just saying, 'So-and-so's a fan and would love to do the show'—people we usually have to chase. It isn't a show that we want to populate with a bunch of name actors, but a lot of really talented actors are coming forward who aren't necessarily names but spend more of their time in features."
Breaking into cable: Dawson said that despite the recent increase of interest in networks such as FX, USA, and others, cable programming can still be a place for new talent to break in. "It's always nice to have one marquee player," said Dawson. "We do The Dead Zone, for instance, and obviously we have Anthony Michael Hall, but we've surrounded him with non-name, really talented actors. We also just did the miniseries Battlestar Galactica for Sci Fi, and we had Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos, but then our other four series regulars were complete discoveries. I think that just financially speaking [most cable networks] can't afford to populate these shows with entire marquee casts, so it's a great place for people either to be discovered, rediscovered, or just continue really good careers."
When asked if this openness to non-name talent will likely change as cable dramas earn a greater following, Dawson replied, "It may, but at places like FX, for example, Kevin Riley, who was the head of the network when we did Nip/Tuck, really didn't want it to look like it could be on NBC, CBS, or ABC. He wanted different faces, and so he set out to do a show that didn't look like a network show by going away from those marquee players in the same way that HBO has in a lot of their shows. They've really stepped outside of those bounds."
Being the B-plan: We asked Dawson how much leverage casting directors have to suggest non-name talent for "star-name-only" guest-star roles. "You always have to have the B-plan," he said. "One of the shows we did this year was The Lyon's Den, and they wanted a lot of name casting on the show. So you come up with those lists, and you go after the different stars, but at the end of the day, you have to make sure you have somebody who's available in two days to get in front of the camera. At least 50 percent of the time, probably, you fail in getting the [name] person who will do it for the right amount of money, and whom the studio, network, production company, director, and writer can agree on. So you end up just casting with a really good actor."
With the necessity of coming up with a back-up plan, Dawson said he regularly has opportunities to put unknown actors in contention for roles before they're officially being considered. "So often in the process of finding the non-name actor as the back-up, [the producers] fall so in love with the non-name actor that they don't want the star," he said. "That happens all the time. I know when I was doing The Agency, CBS would want a name somewhere, and we would bring actors in, then [executive producer] Shaun Cassidy would see somebody who he'd love, and he'd say, 'Well, there's nobody on this list of name actors who excites me as much as the person who was just sitting right in front of me.' So he would call CBS with his excitement for the actor, and most of the time they'll defer to the executive producer."
Advice in the room: "The one thing that I find that so many actors proudly say when they come in to audition is that they don't watch television, and I just think that's so wrong," said Dawson. "If you want to act in television, I think you should watch it. It's important to know the shows that you're auditioning for and the characters that you're auditioning against, and now with IMDb and TiVo, it's really possible for actors to get a lot of information quickly about who the rest of the people in the scene are, even on shows they've never seen. As a casting director I work really long hours, but I still manage to watch every pilot that comes on television, and I kind of have a sense of all the shows that are out there. I just don't understand giving up that extra 20 percent help that that gives you going into a room. I don't think there's any room for snobbery."
When you come in to read, Dawson offered, "I think you have to believe that you've done your homework and you've made strong choices. You have to come in and do it and not apologize at the end or make excuses or ask on and on, you know, 'Give me direction.' I think that takes away your confidence, and so much of what producers and directors are looking at is that confidence that people carry with them. You just can't look too needy because often that reads. So it's important to come in, not talk too much, do what you're there to do, feel good about it, say a nice goodbye, and leave the room." But Dawson also mentioned that he loves for actors to ask an intelligent question or two when necessary.
Seeking out talent: "It's now become that the world is where we cast," said Dawson, when asked where he looks for talent outside the office. "On Nip/Tuck, for instance, Julian [McMahon] is from Australia, Joely [Richardson] is from England, Valerie [Cruz] is Cuban; I think we've been forced in the last years to really go outside our own borders, and it's exciting.
"Within our borders," he added, "we go to theatres, and I think we see a tremendous amount of pre-reads. Also we're just really lucky that there are four of us who are constantly in the trenches, and we help each other out a lot. If I need a 70-year-old woman for a session tomorrow, I can go to [my partner] Carol [Kritzer], who probably just cast it on CSI, and Robert [Ulrich] who may have just cast it on Lyon's Den, and Shawn [Dawson] who may have just done it on Dead Zone, and between us we can come up with a pretty great list in a matter of minutes; a lot of casting directors don't have that access."
Asked if he looks at his mail, Dawson replied: "All of it. Very fast, but all of it. And I do think that postcards are great, even though a lot of them will probably go by and nothing will happen. What you're working for is that day when somebody's looking for an African-American character actress, and all of a sudden your picture's in front of them, so I think those do pay off. I'm also a big fan of thank you letters. I don't think people need to give gifts, but I think thank you letters are great."
Most gratifying part of being a CD: "Discovering talent. Just plugging the known talent into the appropriate spaces isn't the thing that gets you up in the morning. It's finding that person whom nobody knows. Some days you sit in pre-reads, and you'll pre-read 75 people, and after the first 70 you go, 'Have I wasted my day?' Not that they aren't good actors, but they're not right for whatever reason. Then that right person walks in, and you realize that all your hard work has paid off. Also just seeing people's careers get started, it's really neat to be at the forefront of that. To see them go from starving artists to successful actors is really very rewarding." BSW