Interview with Jane Alderman, Casting Director

Rachael: You began your career as an actress–

Jane: Yes.

And you periodically direct theatre-

Yes, I haven’t in a while, but yes, that’s correct.

And you’re a teacher as well as a casting director, so you obviously love the acting process and actors.

Yes I do.

When did you know that you wanted to act or direct?

Well, when I was six I had to act. That was all there was to it. I think I had just come over to this country from England and it was a little lonely because my mother was brand new to this country and so was I. We had this great big screened porch and I would put on acts and dance and then soon I had audiences. Although I was embarrassed I thought, "Well I need to do this" and even though I was a meek child, I wasn’t when it came down to making sure I was in the school play. And I always had to have the part that caused the most attention. In St. George’s Dragon I told the teacher that I would like to either be St. George or the Dragon and she said, "Why would you want to be St. George?" and I said "Because I’m a girl and if I was a girl playing St. George they would be sure to look at me.” And she said "Oh. Well then, you don’t want to be in the dragon’s costume because they won’t know who you are.” And I said it didn’t matter; "They will all say that the dragon was the best thing." She said, "Fine, you will be the dragon."

So that was your first role?

That really was. And then because it was a way of meeting friends, I made sure that I wrote (this is while I was in first grade) and directed little plays whereever I could. And then I would put in my friends. We were always doing that. We would put on shows in the back yard and I would make my parents watch.

So you were casting when you were in first grade?

Yes. And writing and directing. In third grade we were doing some musical, I think it was about George Washington, or something, and all the girl’s mothers made them little Martha Washington outfits. I told my mother she had to make a George Washington costume - which I still have to this day. You would think that I had a problem with my sexuality but I didn’t. I was quite clear as a girl and I liked it but –

The boys get to have more fun.

Well, they did. She made a powdered wig, the shoes and the stockings and the little pants that do up at the knees. So I brought it in and the teacher said, "Jane, what are you doing?" And I said "I want to play a boy." And she said, "But you’re a girl" and I said, "I know, but let the girls do what they want." So I was trying to do different things even then.

That’s wonderful.

I never stopped. I think a lot of people who act are painfully shy (as children and adults). And here I was in a new country even though I spoke the language. I think it was the only way I could have survived. And I was actually always either alone in my room or with company, but always putting on a play.

Now, how did you make the leap from doing theater to becoming involved with film production? Were you involved with film production before you began casting?

After I graduated from Adelphi, which is now Adelphi University in New York, I went into New York because I was going to do the theatre thing. I lived in Long Island and I was going to be an actress. I didn’t have anyone teach me what I believe people teach today in the schools, which is how to survive in the business. They just taught acting and that was it. I got to audition for some wonderful Broadway plays and I even was offered a part replacing a woman in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. But I said, "No thank you, I really didn’t like that part." Well you know, there was no one to guide me and my agent had an absolute heart attack and didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore and rightfully so. Suddenly no one was interested. I was also a model, but that didn’t pay much really, then I got a job as a secretary at MCA, which was a huge talent agency that no longer exists. It was as big as CAA and William Morris today, and I worked there for an agent and I stopped acting. And Stark Hesseltine–

Taught you about the business?

He did by osmosis, mainly. He would be in his room screaming and yelling all day but we adored each other. And I learned by listening to him. And he did teach me things about what makes an actor special and what makes an actor absolutely ordinary and whether they will change, and how to get that special thing out of them.

What do you think makes an actor special?

He was trying to teach me that with some actors, there was something that was different and special and that you would want to watch them forever, not just for two hours on the big screen. He tried to say what would bore us to tears - not that the person was a bad actor or that they were ugly or anything like that, but that they just weren’t going very deeply with anything and that they didn’t have something. He taught me how to look for stars, as opposed to just settling with someone who is just okay or fine. He taught me that's not enough if someone is good or fine. They have to be striving to be spectacular.

Along those lines, when you see an actor work, at either an audition or on stage or on film, what are some of the things you respond to that make you think, “That’s spectacular?"

Well, I guess I’m aware that I’m riveted by them, that I can’t keep my eyes off them. We're not talking about beauty. They could be funky little moles; it doesn’t matter. I could look at Danny DeVito until the cows come home and Rita Pearlman too. If I find myself truly watching them, I will also make note that I am paying attention to nobody else. If at the end of the evening I can only remember three people in the play, then that says something for the three that I can remember. I do look at their acting skills, but mostly are they taking me in. Am I roaring with laughter, am I falling in love with them, am I hating them passionately? What are they doing to me?

Do they elicit a passionate response?

Yeah. Are the manipulating me? I think that’s great. Did you cry and sob? Great, they got you. I do look for that. Also, let's say I'm watching someone audition for a guy who delivers packages; I'll be wondering if he can be a General in the Air Force? Would he be an executive of a corporation? If someone seems upper class, I will wonder if he could play a bum in the streets.

You’re talking about an actor that is capable of everything. It’s interesting to not limit casting to type.

There are some actors that I love bringing in because they can do absolutely anything. And I know that they will and that they can do comedy or drama. Barbara Robertson is one of those people. I know when I bring her in that she will just be phenomenal and will do whatever it is that she is being brought in for.

I was going to ask you about Barbara Robertson. She did a wonderful scene in The Straight Story-

Yeah, thanks.

How do you know what actors the directors you’re working with are going to respond to?

I have no idea. It’s just being intuitive to whomever I’m working with at the moment. It takes an enormous amount of energy and I like to pride myself in that, that I’m intuitive with all sides, the actors, the agents, and the director and producer, the studio. So I’m working very hard to get inside the directors' head and what they like. Or I know their body of work. For example, Scorsese, you look at his films, his tastes are not like those of Aaron Spelling and that’s all there is to it (at least publicly, I don’t know privately.) So I would know what they would respond to. They don’t even have to tell me. Or I get inside the script itself, which may be brilliantly written.

For example, let's take The Straight Story; I was hired by David Lynch, who to me is a god. And I was so excited to be able to do something creative for him. I was just immensely pleased. I read the script, which was beautiful and has nothing to do with his normal fare. But I didn’t need to say to him “Ooh, this is different for you,” because it obviously was. But he was still going to have the same taste in people. How he was going to direct the film and the script he had chosen were different, but it didn’t change his taste in people. So being a fan of his, I did know what he would like, and then he talked to me about how he saw someone in the script, and I had read that and I concurred with him. I wasn’t surprised with how he saw people. I saw on the average six people per part. Then he did make his choices and I thought they were wonderful. When he chose from the six that I gave him, I was thrilled, but then I knew that any one of the six would be wonderful in the part so it was just a question of which one he wanted. Then when he said he didn’t feel he had the character of so-and-so filled and we needed to keep looking, I did suggest, "What about so-and-so and so-and-so?"

“No” he said, “I don’t want them and here is why.” So he was very clear, so I only ended up fighting for one actor I felt he missed the boat on. I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t responding to him, but he just wasn’t. I made quite a case for the actor and even did a separate audition for him and David was willing to listen. So I can honestly say that he only rejected maybe two parts. So those odds are pretty good.

Working with David Lynch must have been rewarding.

Yes, it was. However, I have worked with directors who were very pompous, who were so insecure with themselves and what they wanted that I could have brought in Richard Gere and Mel Gibson and they would have had a fit saying that I was bringing in bad actors. So, when that starts to happen and I can’t please them with anyone, then I know it’s not me. I’m dealing with someone who clearly doesn’t know what they are doing and they are showing it.

Because you trust your intuition.

Yeah, I really do. When a director turns to me at the end of the day and says “We don’t have it,” (meaning for a certain part, not for the whole thing), 95% of the time I say I agree with you. I don’t feel we do either.

How was working with someone like Ron Howard?

Oh, it was heaven, just heaven. He’s painfully shy so you don’t sit and chat and shoot the breeze or ask him out for lunch or something. You sort of mind your P’s and Q’s with him because of his shyness. It was about him meeting actors and responding to them. And of course he always did and the actors were so thrilled. So that was a pleasure and he of course knows what he’s doing. He’s very secure. That always makes the process wonderful and exciting.

So working with Ron Howard must have been very different from, say, working with Bill Duke on Hoodlum. Bill has such a different kind of personality.

Also, even though Ron had been an actor and Bill Duke is too, I had actually known Bill as an actor first. I think he’s great, but he was really very jumpy with Hoodlum and I found it very difficult. He had the pressure of a studio wanting names like Queen Latifah and I was trying to give him solid actors from Chicago. And so it was a little jumpy, but we ended up having a great time. I had worked for him before on a television show, but it was a lot easier when he was free rather than having the studio on his neck.

Which makes sense.

Yeah.

You have worked on so many projects. What film you are most proud of having worked on?

Probably The Straight Story because I’m proud of the results. I’m proud of the chance that Chicago actors got just to be seen by a gazillion people. It is a lovely movie that I could have anyone see, old or young, of any religion, and not be embarrassed by it. Also, it was a labor of love. I have had more wonderful movies to work on than nightmares. For example I loved Rudy; I was very proud of Rudy. And anything Costa Gavras worked on was unbelievable. Of course, those were projects that I shared with another casting director.

Wasn't one of your first projects Bad Boys, with Howard Feuer?

That wasn’t my first film. It was one of them though. My first film was Four Friends, with Arthur Penn directing. I was in awe working with him. I couldn’t believe that my very first feature film was with him. I have been trained very well. I really have had far more unbelievable directors to work with. They may not remember me but I sure remember them. And Bad Boys was very difficult because Sean hurt himself doing one of his own stunts and we had to shut down. It was a long, difficult movie because of that, and I think I got 4 cents for working on it in those days, but I sure love that film.

What are the different considerations when you are casting an episodic show, like Early Edition, as opposed to a feature film?

How quick can I get somebody down there? Who will be available in the next three days? It’s so fast. Now the funny thing with the episodic is that it’s almost like being in summer stock or rep for an actor, because it keeps you on your toes. With the episodic there is no time. You have one half of an afternoon to cast 25 parts, which all work in the next three days, and you have to do it quickly and there is no fooling around. But at the same time, you have to remember did I bring these people in before? Have they worked before? So we had to keep our own data base. There is no time for six people [to audition] per part. It’s three. And so you better know the actors off the top of your head. So it was all pulling things out of your shoes and your hips. Your brain is just thinking, three people for the nurse, three people for the doctor, and then you have to get one of those people right. If I ever felt unsure I would add another person, but I needed that session to be over with and finished and everyone selected. I didn’t have time for another session. People asked why they couldn’t come in for Early Edition, and I said sometimes there is no time. When they [the producers] would forget to tell me they needed a bus driver who was over 40 years old and really large, I would have to come up with three really large bus drivers over 40 and get them to come down. I can’t pre-read. I must know them and know they’ll do the job.

They have to be actors you trust to make choices.

Yeah, and also more so with TV than anything else, whatever the actors bring to the table at the audition is usually what will end up on the small screen. If I bring in an actress for the nurse and she doesn’t quite have the concept of what nurses in the ER do and she is not quite with the program, then they’ll [the producers] look at me because I have wasted their time. You almost have to watch the show to understand it. So all three actors have to be ready to go and be that ER nurse. Well, those are the things I have to know. I have to be able to trust that the actor will do that. And so it became very hard on the actors because they felt they never got a shot. I can say I will bring in 500 ER nurses…I can’t. So I need three that I know very well. And of course that is my business to know as many people as I possibly can.

What is one piece of advice you could give to a theater actor going to his or her first film audition?

I would say never mind what the medium is. Never mind if there's a camera, never mind that it’s for the big screen or the small screen. And if you don’t know how to audition for the camera, don’t obsess on that. If you need to ask some simple questions, ask them. Do I look at the camera or do I look at you, Jane or the reader? Those are simple questions you get to ask and that is all you have to worry about. And then my other advice is just be the most spectacular actor and don’t worry about anything else. If the part is an ER nurse, know what the nurse's problem is, what the nurse needs to say or to solve, then go do that and don’t worry about anything else.

So have an intention, even for the nurse.

Yep. She has to be there for a reason, or she will get written out. Or he will. I bring in boy nurses too.

Because girls should play the dragon and boys should be nurses.

What would you be doing if you weren’t casting? What would you most like to be doing in the world?

Oh God. My life long vacation. I love teaching, I love people, I love creating, teaching, directing, producing anything in the arts. I like children and pets, but anything to do with people. I love aviation and I love medicine. I couldn’t be a preacher. But I sure could be a pilot or a doctor. But I didn’t go there, too late.

Were there any doctors in your family?

No. But I am the doctor of the family. If anyone has a colostomy bag to be looked at or gash, I’m the one. Jane’ll see it. Jane’ll change it and check it out.

So you’re not squeamish?

No.

If you could take anyone in the world out to lunch, who would it be?

I would love to take out whoever the President of the United States is, just because of my awe of the office. I may not admire the president politically, but that office absolutely fascinates me. I’ve always said that if I could go to the White House I would drop what I was doing, even if I hadn’t voted for that particular President.

What keeps you in Chicago?

I just love it here and I love the actors here. There really is no other reason. There is a whole force here in Chicago of casting directors and agents and producers and teachers promoting actors and I want to be a part of that. I serve actors better being here, rather than being one of a gazillion in another city. That’s all.