A casting director is often in the background and, unfortunately, forgotten. And, to be fair, only a handful of names are even synonymous with hardcore cinephiles. But Bernard Telsey and his company have been a force on Broadway musicals such as “Rent,” “Legally Blonde,” “Wicked,” and “The Color Purple.” The New York area-based casting director has been an integral part of television programs such as “Only Murders in the Building,” “Masters of Sex,” “The Big C,” “Fosse/Verdon,” “This Is Us,” and “The Gilded Age.” And on the big screen, he’s had a hand in the ensembles for “Rachel Getting Married,” “Margin Call,” “Into the Woods,” “The Greatest Showman,” and, now, Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” and “Wicked For Good.” He’s been a force in the business for almost 40 years. And now, like his peers on nine other projects, and alongside his creative partner Tiffany Little Canfield, he’s made the shortlist for the inaugural Casting Academy Award.
READ MORE: Ariana Grande And Cynthia Erivo Surprise As “Wicked For Good” Shows It’s Still A Major Oscar Player
When asked about what the new Oscar category meant to him, Telsey admits he gets emotional thinking about it.
“I’ve been in this profession a long time, doing theater, film, and TV, and have worked for some giants of their time, who would have many Oscars by now, many Tony Awards, or many Emmy awards by now,” Telsey says. “So, just to think that there’s now a category and that someone is one of five or more people being nominated and one person or a pair will win, is just so emotional and amazing because it just gives that gold stamp of approval for the profession. None of us were doing it for the awards because they never existed.”
He continues, “Just the fact that I think people are now going to like, ‘Oh, I want to do what they do. I want to go into that profession.’ ‘Oh, that’s a paying job. That’s a profession that I could be in, rather than just when I decided not to direct or act anymore.’ That’s so exciting, and I feel like we’re all holding the torch for the Marion Dougherty and the Juliet Taylors and the Meg Simons, and there are just so many movies that I grew up watching. I paid attention to who was casting it. And when I think of Juliet Taylor, that’s someone who would probably have eight Oscars by now. You think about all the movies that she did, and the list goes on and on. So, I feel like we’re doing it for the people who started the profession.”
During our interview last month, Tesley reflected on the year-long process it took not only to cast Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the two-part “Wicked” adaptation, but finding the perfect Fiyero as well. An actor who turned out to be a very busy Jonathan Bailey. He discussed meeting him for a random general, how scheduling is an integral part of his job (and crucial in the busy Bailey’s case), and much, much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Most casting directors work on multiple projects over the course of a year. Do you feel that the setup of the award is correct in that right now it’s by project, it’s not for the body of work? Do you think it would make more sense to do a body of work, sort of what the Grammys do with producers and songwriters?
Yeah, I mean, but so do costume designers and editors. I mean, I’m hanging out with them now, and they’re like, doing multiple [projects]. And none of it is good or bad.
True.
You know what I mean? And a casting director is only on a movie for – it could be anywhere from 10 to 20 weeks. Or maybe it was longer than 20 weeks because, I mean, obviously, we were on “Wicked” for a very, very long time, so you can’t do much else. But, I mean, look at actors. I mean, come on. Julianne Moore had four movies in one year, I remember. You know what I mean? And sometimes when they come out is not when you are working on them. And the Grammys, you have Song of the Year, or you have Album of the Year. I mean, I think the honorary Oscars are for that, the body of work. I think I like that.
In terms of “Wicked for Good” and “Wicked,” looking back at both films now, what, in hindsight, is the best casting choice that you, Jon, and the team made?
Cynthia and Ariana? I know it might sound obvious, or you have all the people who are like, “Oh, of course they were going to play the part,” but that’s not true. It was the act of casting, right? Actually doing the job and having a process. And that process could be seeing a hundred plus women to seeing Ariana a few times to seeing Cynthia in a room. But the fact that those two women did the homework, came into a room and had a process with the casting and with Jon Chu and with Marc Platt, the producer. That’s why it all came together the way it came. Not to say you can’t make offers to people, and they’re just wonderful, but I think those two women earned it, and those two women were brought in, yes, by the casting office of Bernie and Tiffany. But it was the process, I think. And the same thing with Jon Bailey. With this particular project, there was such a process. I mean, we saw hundreds and hundreds of women and men for those three roles because of the legacy of the roles. Everybody knows the Broadway show, the West End, it’s been on tour, it’s been around for 25 years. It’s still unbelievably popular. So there were all of these requirements of singing, and yet, how do we tell this story in 2024 and 25 differently than twenty-odd years ago? There was so much at stake, and to find three people who really came in and made it theirs? It’s so wonderful to be part of, to watch how that happened, and to see the results. So, I think you don’t always feel that way, but I could watch this movie a half a dozen times, and you just go, “I don’t know who else could have played this part.” And yet, it’s my job to always say, “There’s always someone who could play the part.” There are so many wonderful actors who came in and auditioned for these roles, but those were the three people who needed to play those parts and had to play those parts.
Well, I wanted to ask about that because I’m not insinuating Universal would send this note – maybe another studio would’ve – but did anyone even ask, “Can we find a bigger star than Jonathan Bailey?” Sure, he’d been on “Bridgerton”…
Well, nobody knew who he was. That wasn’t even his year of “Bridgerton.”
Oh, it hadn’t come out yet?
I mean, the first season did, but he was the secondary character in the first season. He wasn’t the love interest. And he hadn’t done “Fellow Travelers.” That had not been out yet. But you’re right, another studio that we worked with would say that, but Universal, Marc Platt, and Jon Chu from day one said, “Bernie, Tiffany, I want the best three people. And I literally don’t care if you’re known or we saw every girl who was a freshman, junior, sophomore, or senior at musical theater school, film school, or pop stars that had no albums out yet.” We saw everyone, and they wanted the best people. That’s why we had over a year to look for people, and people who were in the running were unknowns. And like I said, nobody knew who Jon Bailey was, but agents and casting people, and a few people, if you said he’s the other brother on “Bridgerton,” and a West End Olivier winner for “Company.” I mean, God knows the gentleman has amazing credits, and Cynthia was a Tony Award winner, but they weren’t household film names. Ariana had not done much other acting at the age that she’s in now. So, that’s where we had the best partners at Universal. Marc and Jon were just, “We have to find Elphaba and Glinda. They have to be the stars, not the two performers playing the parts.”
Isn’t one of the talents of being a good casting director, being able to look at a project and say, “I found a star who you might not have thought of who was going to be fantastic in this role”? I don’t know why it’s randomly thinking, because it’s probably because it’s a musical, but when they cast John Travolta in “Hairspray,” it took that movie’s notoriety to another level in a way that general audiences might not have been paying attention to it.
No, no. That is our job. You’re saying it was easy for us to pitch Jon Bailey to Jon Chu and Mark Platt to say, “When this movie comes out, he is going to have season two of ‘Bridgerton’ where it’s all about him. He just shot blah, blah, blah.’ ‘You didn’t see him in ‘Company,’ but Tiffany and I did. He was amazing.’ All of those things. Or I know Cynthia, ‘You all saw ‘The Color Purple’ at some time during its Tony run, but I saw her at a benefit that she did last month in New York, blah, blah.’ And again, it’s not about taking credit. That is our job to see what an actor does almost every week of their life. So that you could talk about them. But you’re absolutely right. Our job is to talk about how exciting it would be to have Ariana be seen as another character and not think of her as Ariana. I mean, you watch that first movie in the second movie on so many levels that you’re not even thinking it’s Ariana Grande. That becomes the extra plus after the good performance, if that makes any sense.
No, it does.
And also, that’s the whole combo of what it is that we all do. There’s the audition, and then there’s the storytelling about that artist.
Just in terms of the profession itself, I feel like even most educated moviegoers don’t understand how much scouting talent is part of your job.
Every night of the week. I mean, if I’m not going to the theater four or five nights a week, then I’m watching a movie, or I’m catching up on television shows because all I ever do is feel like I’m behind. I’m probably a shopping addict. You know what I mean? And that’s what casting is like. Right. There are so many different styles. “Oh, you want this style? Let me show you this. You want this shape? Let me show you this. You want this color? Let me show you this.” There are so many amazing actors out there, and our job is to see them and know them so we can talk about them when they come into an audition or when they don’t come into an audition. But yeah, I go to the Telluride Film Festival every year, and only one year. I had a film there. I feel like, “Oh, if I see it in September, I’m getting ahead of it,” so I could come back and pitch it to whoever I’m working with before it opens in December. You’re always feeling like you’re racing. Because again, if I don’t move fast enough, they’re going to be unavailable. And if they’re that good in that film that nobody knows yet, or they’re that good in that off-Broadway play, then you’re going to start writing about them. “I got to do it before Greg writes about them.” You know what I mean? And it’s like, that’s what you’re feeling all the time. I just remember the day we met. Jon Bailey’s manager had me do a general with him. He knew I had seen him in “Company,” and he was like, “I know you’re going to be starting to work on ‘Wicked’ soon.” It was way before we started to work on it, and it was like I was obsessed. You meet him. And so it was like, “Oh my God, we have to see him for Fiyero.” And then of course, well, he’s not available. And we had to spend eight months trying, begging for him to become unavailable. It was the only gift of COVID because COVID changed everyone’s schedule. “Wicked” changed. “Fellow Travelers” changed, and “Brigerton” changed. And we would literally call his manager about every week. All of a sudden, there was a window where he could actually shoot all three things at the same time. Crazy, crazy poor guy was flying from Canada to London to wherever. But it all worked out. And again, that’s the job of every casting director: figuring out the schedules.
