Casting Director Nancy Nayor on the Evolution of Casting, How It Looks, and How It’s Used to Find Unseen Talent

Part of the magic of a film begins at casting. Casting directors are responsible for figuring out who will be perfect for the role, and their job is to look at sometimes hundreds of auditions to get down to who is right for the role. Seasoned casting director Nancy Nayor happily chats to The Mary Sue about the process, what it takes to make it far, and working with esteemed film directors.

You can read our full conversation–edited for clarity–below.

On casting–how it works and how to get into it

TMS: I’ve talked to directors, writers, actors, but there’s something so fascinating to me about casting directors, and I never know how people get into that. So, a little bit on your background. You’ve been in the business for a while. What made you say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be a casting director’?

Nayor: Well, it really was my first job in the business, officially. I mean, I came from a very theatrical background. My dad was a trial attorney, and my mom was a professional ballerina. I went to Summerstock Theater as a kid, and I was in all my school plays, and I thought that I wanted to be an actor, which a lot of casting directors start that way. I went to NYU, and I studied with Lee Strasberg, and I really was convinced that was my path. But when I was out of school, I heard about an internship in casting at Manhattan Theatre Club. I’ll learn what they say when the actors leave the room. And literally, within the first, I think, 24 hours, maybe 48 hours, I was like, I think casting is for me. And I got to be surrounded by actors. I got to help be a conduit to their careers blossoming. And it just felt like that was the one. That was the path.

TMS: Being on that path for this long and kind of going through all of those changes and adapting to them, what’s that been like?

Nayor: Well, certainly, in theater, everything was in person. Because ultimately, when people got hired, they had to perform before a live audience. So they had to be able to deliver in person. Whereas now, cut to this many years later, and transitioning into film and television, everything can be on tape now. I mean, I’ve had entire projects where, even though the producers are in LA, we all just do everything on Zoom and by text. And we see actors. We have meetings. So it’s really become a very streamlined process, which I think is beneficial for me, because I get to see more actors, and beneficial for actors, because more people get the opportunity to audition.

TMS: Seeing someone in person and seeing someone online are two very different things. Has that affected any way of how you’ve approached casting since things have moved to Zoom?

Nayor: One thing that we always do is enjoy the virtual process for the first round. I think as we get closer and closer to decisions, especially if it’s a film that’s a two-hander, has a sort of central relationship at the core, especially a romantic one, we still find a way to do chemistry reads in person. Because I think you wouldn’t marry someone you only met online and never was in the same room with them. So we find, you know, a way to get everyone together at our producer’s office or at a studio or a network. And we feel the pheromones in the room. It’s really essential. And I find sometimes you go in thinking, ‘Oh, I’m sure based on the online auditions, the virtual auditions, I’m sure this is the pair.’ And then you get in the room and you realize it’s not at all.

Exploring genres and how bodies of work affect casting

TMS: You’ve done a lot of different genres. You most recently did Office Romance But then, you know, you also have Send Help or Barbarian, which are very different. Is there a different way you approach looking at actors for these different genres?

Nayor: In those instances, [we] count on the body of work and know that in their essence, they’re right for the character. When I was casting The Exorcism of Emily Rose, it was between Jennifer Carpenter and Alison Pill. We had to pad the walls of our office and the floors with futons because they were having epileptic seizures. They were being possessed by the devil. They were speaking in tongues. They were eating bugs off the floor. The character really had to twist themselves into a pretzel to win the role. And, you know, they’re just not a normal day at the office, but they also give new people such an opportunity to show off incredible emotional range.

TMS: When it comes to getting down to the wire and you’re down to the last few actors, is there an intuition to figuring out who is perfect for the role?

Nayor: Yeah, I would say a lot of it is intuition. And again, at some point in the process, it becomes clear. I mean, everyone has that aha moment. As Oprah would say, where you realize, oh, this is it. I mean, there’s no one else that could play this role. But you also can’t fall in love too much with any one choice because there have been times where you absolutely thought you found the perfect person and they suddenly got another project. So I always feel it’s important to have backup choices. And if the casting gods are smiling, then sometimes your backup choice becomes the person later that you say, ‘Oh, thank God fate brought us this person.’ This was really the perfect person all along.

TMS: Is there any particular role or maybe a film or a project that you encountered, not that was difficult to cast, but it was kind of like one of those instances where it was just really difficult to pin down who you wanted in the final for these roles?

Nayor: Well, it’s funny because, I mean, when I was at Universal and I was an executive, we did a mix and match session for Dazed and Confused. We had a big pizza party and we invited all these cool actors. And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, we could cast three different films with all the great people who showed up.’ It’s gonna be very hard to put this Rubik’s cube of a cast together because they’re all so interesting. One of my mentors, Don Phillips, he found Matthew McConaughey in a bar and he discovered him there. It sometimes goes through a gauntlet of different options and then all of a sudden it becomes clear.

TMS: Kind of like on the opposite side of that, was there ever a moment that it was just really easy and really clear who you wanted to have and who just kind of stood out?

Nayor: That’s a great question. I was gonna say that Jennifer Carpenter in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, when we were casting that, we knew that Emily could be a newcomer because we had Laura Linney and we were surrounding that character. And when we saw [Emily] audition, she had been on Broadway. She’d worked with Laura Linney, I think in The Crucible. And Laura said it was incredible. When she auditioned, I remember the sound department was thinking, ‘What are we going to do about the voice?’ Because the voice has to sound truly possessed. And after they saw her audition and what she did and how she transformed her body and her voice, they were like, ‘We’re fine.’

Do casting directors and film directors collaborate in the process?

TMS: You worked with some fantastic directors in your life. You’ve had [Steven] Spielberg, you’ve had Sam Raimi. Directors are kind of different in how they approach how their films are created. So, you know, when you work with specific directors, is there specific ways that you have to approach the casting for maybe their reasons, or are you just still able to kind of be like, this is my decision. This is who I want.

Nayor: No, I don’t think we ever say this is our decision because it’s such a collaborative effort. And I’m fortunate enough to work with iconic filmmakers, even early in their career, like Sam. It was his first film after the Evil Dead series. But generally the search is the same, to bring great choices. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t fight for someone if I felt [that] the director might be heading in a particular direction and I wanna be sure they have complete education on a person’s work because sometimes they may have only seen one piece of their work at an audition. And if I can help them maybe make a more informed choice, that’s my job. I do fight passionately for newcomers, especially, but I think you have to honor your filmmakers and their process. They can be different. The essential presentation of actors is the same. And then it’s really a question of who do they respond to? Who do they fall in love with? And usually we have a tendency to fall in love with the same people as we move forward.

TMS: And I do love that you are so determined on newcomers because I think that is something that’s so important. And one thing I’ve always really kind of been fascinated by with casting directors is you find these people that end up being these amazing stars, they have amazing work. And it’s kind of like, how did you find them? How did that magic even manage to happen?

Nayor: Well, I think it’s a great synchronicity with agents and managers because I put Gwyneth Paltrow in her first film, but it was a manager, Joanne Horwitz, who knew I was casting a project called Shout. And she said, you have to see this new girl. She’s just been in theatre and she’d be great. She’ll put herself on tape. I saw the tape and I was just blown away. I think it’s that collaboration with the reps that is so essential because I’m always on the treasure hunt for new talent, as are they. They know when I’m looking for something specific and they will share their clients with me. And we can see thousands of people for one role. So to help narrow it down, it helps to go to the agents and agencies and managers that I trust have amazing taste as well, whose taste I really respect.

Advice for people who may be interested in getting into casting?

TMS: You said you started with a theatrical background. Is there any advice you give to people that are interested in it, but maybe don’t have that kind of background and just think, ‘Hey, casting sounds like it would be a really fun job and really good for me.’

Nayor: The cool thing is, it’s not like you have to go to graduate school or there isn’t an obvious route. It’s a pretty open profession. And when you have instincts that are good, I think interning is great. If you can afford to intern, even if it’s for a month or a month or two, just to be able to get a flavor of it. And then the casting director gets to know that person’s taste and that person’s work ethic. And there’s a great chance that if there is then a specific assistant or associate opportunity, they’re right there and have a better chance of filling that position and growing within the profession. I think it’s great to have a knowledge of actors, knowledge of film and television projects, because sometimes people they don’t know some historic films and historic performances and incredibly iconic actors throughout the years that are great to reference and whose work it’s really educational to see. To have an awareness of modern work is great, but also to have a sense of film history is really helpful, too.

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