Susie Farris (‘Jury Duty’ casting director): ‘It could have gone incredibly wrong’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“It’s always exciting to be nominated, but specifically for this show,” says casting director Susie Farris, who earned her second career Emmy nomination for casting the Amazon Freevee comedy “Jury Duty.” “It was something wildly different than anything else that I’ve ever worked on. It could have gone incredibly wrong. It was lightning in a bottle.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Jury Duty” earned four 2023 Emmy nominations including Best Comedy Supporting Actor for James Marsden and Best Comedy Series. It follows the workings of an American jury trial through the eyes of Ronald Gladden, a juror who is unaware the entire case is fake. Everyone except him is an actor, and everything that happens is carefully planned.
“This was the perfect medium for an actor to self-tape,” Farris says of her casting process. “We gave them two prompts. They could either choose character A or B and then they would have to talk for a minute in that character. It was important that they came up with interesting things to say, that they made choices, yet weren’t too crazy so that they wouldn’t give away the whole thing. They had to feel very credible. They had to feel like real people you could actually run into and exist on a jury in Los Angeles.”
Farris reveals Alan Barinholtz, who played Judge Rosen, did come from a legal background. “It was fun being able to cast him because in his teens he wanted to be an actor, but life didn’t happen that way. He’s been living in Chicago as a lawyer all these years. He had two very successful comedic sons, Ike and John, and this was like a dream for him. He has now moved to L.A., he’s pursuing his acting career, he has an agent, I’ve cast him in two other shows since ‘Jury Duty,’ so that was a really happy story for me.”
Farris was previously nominated for Best Drama Casting in 2016 for “Mr. Robot.”
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