And the assistants shall lead them

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

For those trying to break into Hollywood, assistants are the gatekeepers, the ones who decide which resume or reel gets passed on to the people who can actually say yes. Just ask Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan.

About six years ago, she was, in essence, a drama-school reject. But after screenwriter Julian Fellowes (‘Gosford Park’) gave a talk at her school, Mulligan wrote to him, and Fellowes and his wife invited her to dinner with a batch of other hopefuls. ‘His wife knew this casting director Maggie Lunn, and she had an assistant called Camilla Evans. Camilla had a friend, Robin Hudson, who was Jina Jay’s assistant,’ is how Mulligan explains the not-exactly-direct connection.
Jay was casting ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Joe Wright’s adaptation of the Jane Austen. Mulligan auditioned for Hudson, who in turn passed the video on to his boss, who wound up casting Mulligan.

There’s also another way these days that stars can bypass the personal-connection part: a new iPhone app called actor genie, which lists all the casting directors, agents and their assistants, as well as a roster of the TV shows and films that are currently casting in Los Angeles and New York. It’s the brainchild of casting director Heidi Levitt, who’s been a casting director on ‘The Rock,’ ‘Nixon’ and ‘Lakeview Terrace.’

Levitt says she was inspired by the number of aspiring actors who come through her casting office ‘with smart phones and iPhones. This is like having a smart yellow pages in your hand. People want transferable information with them.’ That, or Carey Mulligan’s connections.

-- Rachel Abramowitz