“I’m drawn to idiosyncratic actors who feel like real people,” says casting director Susie Farris, talking about her fondness for spotting quirky but relatable talents. It’s a skill that proved useful when she assembled the cast for “Jury Duty.” The Freevee show was nominated for four Emmys, including one for Farris and one for comedy series, by putting a hilariously fresh spin on the mockumentary genre: San Diego solar contractor Ronald Gladden thinks he’s participating in a documentary about a real trial. In fact, he’s surrounded by actors pretending to be fellow jurors. Group dynamics soon go haywire when the “jurors” are sequestered for three weeks before arriving at their verdict inside the entirely fake courtroom.
Except for James Marsden, who plays an exaggerated version of himself, the cast members are unrecognizable to the general public.
Farris, who is from New York and watched a lot of theater when she was young, spoke to The Envelope about sifting through some 5,500 self-tape auditions to find the extraordinary collection of unknown faces responsible for the full wacky “Jury Duty” experience.
How did you get involved in this project?
I’d worked with producer Dave Bernad on “Superstore” and “Tour de Pharmacy,” so he called me about “Jury Duty.” I said, “Why don’t you send me the script and I’ll give you my thoughts.” And he said, “There is no script.”
So how did you and your two-person team solicit auditions for this show?
First, we put out breakdowns that said “male [or female], 18 plus, juror in a trial,” and we probably said “improv skills a plus.”
Initially, the actor feared the series would prank him. Then he worried it would be cruel to central figure Ronald Gladden. Finally, he was afraid he’d be the one to blow the big reveal.
That’s it?
That’s it. We put that out on these services that most agents subscribe to, and then they submitted their actors.
Did you have any particular actors in mind?
I’ve been casting comedies for many years, and some of my favorite actors have played guest stars in episodic shows that I cast, but they haven’t made it big. “Jury Duty” was exciting because I could give them a shot at playing a bigger part.
Like who?
Susan Berger, the older woman in the jury box who keeps falling asleep. She’s been a go-to for me because she’s funny and seems like a real person.
You did not cast the “civilian,” Ronald Gladden, right?
Thankfully, that wasn’t my job. I had my hands full with the jurors and everybody else you see in the show. Ronald Gladden was taken care of by the producers.
How did the callbacks work?
It took place in one day at a location where this company does focus groups. We had six different focus groups coming in every hour, with about 15 people in each group. Half of them were regular people pulled in by the focus group company, and half were actors. They all came in wearing their COVID masks, got their tests and sat in the waiting area. We stood behind a two-way mirror and watched the people interact there for half an hour before they came into the focus room, which we also watched from behind a mirror. [Producer] Nick Hatton showed everybody a trailer for a movie that was coming out and asked what they thought about it, just to get the dialogue going.
Such a strange way to audition!
It was incredible, because you got to see which actors could think on their feet. The night before, Jake [Szymanski], the director, called each actor and gave character prompts like, “You’ll be tightly wound the whole time.” We had high hopes for some actors, but they couldn’t really be spontaneous or funny in the moment. For others, this was their moment to shine.
In Screen Gab No. 90, we explain the merits of ‘Jury Duty’ for the uninitiated, gab with ‘Run the World’ star Tosin Morohunfola and more.
Actor David Brown definitely shines in the show as nerdy jurist Todd, now somewhat famous for his ridiculous “chair pants.” Did you know David from before?
No, “Todd” was a new actor to me. We all loved his tape, and then David won his role at the focus group. We found so many unique actors there, like Pramode Kumar, the lovely Indian gentleman [who plays Ravi]. He didn’t speak much in the show, but his presence helped round out the cast, making it feel like a real Los Angeles jury with every age and type and color and shape and size and all that.
Stepping outside the jury box, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola is pretty great as bailiff Nikki, and “Judge Alan” excels in a low-key way. What’s his story?
Alan Barinholtz had been living in Chicago, where he practiced law for many years. Somehow his name came up, and they asked me to track him down. His sons are comedy actors Ike and Jon Barinholtz. Alan happened to be at Ike’s house here, so we asked him to audition. When I first saw Alan’s self-tape, I wanted to cry. Now Alan’s moved to L.A., and he’s got an agent.
It must have been gratifying to arrive at your final choices after going through this marathon casting process of 10 weeks.
I felt really good about the people we chose, but I had no idea about how they would pull this off or what the show would look like. All I knew is that we had a great group of people.
So they go make the show and a few months later, you see “Jury Duty” for the first time. What was your reaction?
I watched it with my husband, and we were laughing out loud. If Ronald went left, everyone had to go left, even if they thought he was going to go right. The show was so surprising and also really funny. You don’t always get to say that about things that you work on. I felt enormously proud.
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