Actors, take note: When it comes to the grueling haul known as pilot season, casting director Eric Dawson feels your pain. "I take my hat off to all actors during pilot season," he says. "[Just] know that the process is a horrible, tough process for everybody involved, but if you're really talented in this town, you're gonna work. If you're testing on shows and not getting [the parts], but you're getting to that point, or if you're getting callbacks, getting in front of producers, that says a lot about where you're at, and you have to believe in that."
Dawson should know: Ulrich/Dawson/Kritzer Casting, which he runs with partners Robert J. Ulrich and Carol Kritzer, has boatloads of series credits, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Nip/Tuck, Battlestar Galactica, Everwood, and The Dead Zone. Dawson got his start when casting directors Reuben Cannon and Carol Dudley came to Nebraska to do ABC miniseries Amerika. Dawson was studying psychology at the University of Nebraska at the time. "Reuben hired me as his assistant, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought, 'This is what I have to do in my life,'" he remembers. "At the end of the project, Reuben offered me a job in Los Angeles. It was my last semester of school, so I packed my bags, and two or three days after I graduated I was in Los Angeles, working for Reuben in casting."
One of the shows on Dawson's current slate is NBC's new drama Inconceivable, set in a fertility clinic. The series, which stars Ming-Na and was created by Marco Pennette and Oliver Goldstick, recently added a pair of regulars: Angie Harmon, best-known for her work as hard-charging assistant district attorney Abbie Carmichael on Law & Order, and Reynaldo Rosales, an up-and-comer who has guested on series such as The Closer and Numb3rs. "[Rosales is] somebody our office has loved for a long time, and we have been auditioning him for the last couple of years. We've been watching his career, and he's just somebody we like a lot, so it was really fabulous when he came in and it worked," says Dawson with obvious pride.
Looking to the future, he sees ample opportunities for actors on the show. "The show has sort of a light touch," he says. "You have the serious story lines about people who are trying to get pregnant, but at the same time, there's a lot of comedy thrown in. I find that we're casting a lot of people who are 35 to early 40s, because those are the people who tend to be going into fertility clinics. But we're also dealing a lot in the backstories of all the series regulars: their parents and things like that. We've had some big casts. In an episode we just did, there were 23 people in the guest cast. [The producers have] created a really great world; anybody can walk in through those doors."
And many of the guest parts are on the meaty side. "In the same way that I was attracted to Nip/Tuck, I'm attracted to this, because they write roles for actors to act, versus a procedural show," says Dawson. "They write these really emotional scenes, they write people who are in a time of crisis in their lives. They write roles that actors respond to, because they get to do something, rather than just move the plot along. And I think that's so much more interesting to cast."
Boarding All Roles
As far as casting trends this pilot season, Dawson sees a continued effort to create roles for minorities. "I think, every year it's more realized," he says. "It starts earlier [in the process] with the creating of the pilots, versus, maybe, at the end, saying, 'Where can we [add] some racial diversity?' I think now, when [producers are] developing the pilots, they're looking at that. Rather than trying to make somebody fit into a slot that they're not exactly right for, they have that in mind earlier."
He also sees less emphasis on beauty and youth. "I feel like a couple of the pilots we did this year skewed older, and it wasn't so important that everybody look like a model," he says. "Maybe that's just the projects we chose, but I felt like people were really trying to go with the best actor."
Though getting cast in a pilot is a dream come true for many actors, there is a potential downside. As pilots are often subject to retooling, actors sometimes find themselves being dropped or replaced before the show goes to series. "It is so uncomfortable, because oftentimes [actors] don't find out until after they've celebrated," he says. "Sometimes they've even been flown to New York for the upfronts, and then they don't get picked up. A lot of times it's not about the actor, it's about the role and how it tests. I had a pilot last year called Eyes where [the network] replaced one of my favorite actors in the whole pilot. They saw the show going a different way. My only words of advice are: Until you get the pickup notice, don't assume you're being picked up, even if they fly you to New York."
Just remember, he adds, a thick skin is key in this business. "I think you just have to pick yourself up and go on and know that you were good enough to get to that point, and that everybody at some point has been recast," he says. "When I sit and see the list of people being recast every year, it's a talented group of people. Casting is about matching an actor to a role, and so often after they shoot it, they look at a show and go, 'We want it to be more this or more that.' And sometimes it has very little to do with you."
Preparing for Takeoff
While many actors get their chance on new shows, what happens when a series becomes a bona fide hit? For example, FX's Nip/Tuck, which Dawson casts, has gone from under-the-radar newbie series to breakout water-cooler phenomenon. "We certainly have access to a lot more actors than we did [when the show first started], but it's never been the producers' intention to have the show be about how big of stars we could get," he says. "We still get our Vanessa Redgraves or Alec Baldwins or Anne Heches of the world, but then they balance that out with people you've never heard of."
Casting opportunities on an outrageous show such as Nip/Tuck tend to be a bit off-the-wall. "My opening episode [this season] is about a 600-pound woman," says Dawson. "So you're probably not going to be dealing with the celebrity of the week for that. The thing that I've loved about the show is the people we've gone out and found who are just so real in those roles. This year we've probably hired as many no-name actors as we ever have."
One of those previously unknown actors is Seth Gabel, who landed a recurring role on Nip/Tuck and has gone on to high-profile movie projects The Da Vinci Code and Running With Scissors. "I've taken a lot of pride in how well he's been doing lately," says Dawson. "He was a preread, and the moment he was halfway through the scene, I knew he was the guy. I walked into the session later that day and said, 'We've found him.' I'm usually not that bold, but he's such a phenomenal actor, and I'm really proud of where he's going."
As for advice going into the room, Dawson recommends doing your homework. "I think, with IMDb and TiVo, that you're able to arm yourself with a lot of knowledge that in years past you couldn't," he says. "I think it's important to know who the other characters are in the scenes you're reading. I think it's important to know who the casting director is, who the producer is, the director. When you're walking in and they introduce you, if you've done you're homework, you'll know which one is the director, and you can address him with your questions."
When asked if he's ever had to fight the network or show producers for a casting choice he really believed in, Dawson chuckles. "Oh, we fight all the time; that's part of our job. They pay me for my opinion," he says. "At the end of the day, NBC has to be happy, but I don't feel that I'm doing my job if I'm not giving my opinion, even if it's not everybody else's opinion. A lot of times on a pilot, you're going, 'How about so-and-so?' And they're saying, 'No'; they want to shoot you every time you bring up the name. And finally, they give in, and that person is magnificent, and they go, 'Why didn't we see that?' That's what makes you feel great--that you stuck to your guns. But that's what we get paid to do." BSW