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Photo credit: Betty Fox, courtesy of Jessica Fox-Thigpen.
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Artios-Nominated Casting Director Jessica Fox-Thigpen Discusses Her Work on ‘The Great Lillian Hall’


November 25, 2024

It’s pretty impressive when the first major film you cast earns you an Artios Award nomination. That happens to describe Jessica Fox-Thigpen, whose work on the MAX movie The Great Lillian Hall earned the Atlanta-based casting director her first Casting Society nod.

Fox-Thigpen has been working on and off in the business for nearly 40 years and, in that time, has worked in just about every facet of it. Whether it’s casting film, TV or commercials, she’s done it all and has been working in indie film for the last decade.

The Great Lillian Hall, which stars Jessica Lange and tells the story of an aging actress who struggles with dementia while rehearsing a production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, serves as Fox-Thigpen’s biggest project to date. If you don’t believe that she nailed it — she did — you can certainly trust her contemporaries in the CSA, who put her up for an Artios, their highest award. She spoke to us from her home office in the Big Peach.

Insights: Lessons from Jessica Fox-Thigpen

  • Cultivate relationships within the industry, as networking can lead to unexpected opportunities.
  • Diversify your experience across different mediums, such as film, TV and commercials, to increase marketability.
  • Highlight specialized skills, like theater experience, when auditioning for roles that require a specific background.

How did you get into casting?

I was a pup. I was 19, working for Carlson/Dowd casting in Los Angeles. While I was there, their last feature film as a pair was Hoosiers, so I was the lowly assistant on that one. Then Ken and Mick split, I went with Mick Dowd and he became my mentor. It was all commercials. We did a lot of commercial casting out there.

What’s the story about how you landed there?

Oh, it’s an interesting one. I was on a flight back to Los Angeles after visiting Atlanta, and the person I was traveling with at the time was auditioning for a film. We were just reviewing the lines.

The flight was fairly empty, and this head popped up in the seat in front of us, and he was like, “Excuse me. Are you reading Top Gun? My brother wrote it.” His brother ended up not being credited at all, but I guess he was the writer.

Anyway, we started talking, and he ended up being Mick’s husband. In LA, we had dinner, and they said, “Hey, we’re looking for an assistant. Do you want a job?”

How long were you with Mick before you headed back to Atlanta and were off on your own?

Well, I had a detour. I ended up managing a live performer for about 17 years and moved back to Atlanta in 2008. I had gotten divorced, I was raising our son and taking time off. I got into it around 2015.

What brought you back?

My husband now runs a production company, and he was working on some true crime shows. I just kept hearing “ugh” and aggravation in the other room, so I came in to see what he needed. He said, “I’m just trying to figure out this casting, and it’s frustrating.” And I said, “Well, why are you doing all this? You should have a casting director doing this.”

He mentioned to his partners that maybe I could help consult and figure out how to get our process streamlined a little bit. Instead, they just asked if I would just take over the casting. That’s how it started.

I noticed that you do a lot of true crime, and I’m curious, how different is that from scripted casting?

Not as much as you would think, because even though the show, the format, may have reality, where they’re having real people interview the cops, the victims, that kind of thing, the portion that I’m casting is the recreations, which were, up until recently, scripted. The only difference is there’s more often a need to cast people that resemble the real people I see.

You [also] have that in television shows and feature films where there’s a biopic or something like that, and you need to match real people. It’s it’s not that different.

How did The Great Lillian Hall come to you? It’s the biggest project you’ve done to date, right?

It was the biggest challenge, the most fulfilling, the most fun, you could put all the “most” on it.

It was a project that Crazy Legs Productions was producing, and I cast all of their things, whether it’s television or film. I was also a co-producer on this particular project, and I was very, very thankful that the team there trusted me to handle the casting for this film as well. 

Was Jessica Lange attached when you came on board?

No, at the point when we received the film, nobody was officially attached, though Glenn Close was having some discussions.

Jessica was the perfect fit for this. She and our director, Michael Cristofer, go way back. So it was just a nice, symbiotic casting. Everybody wanted to work with Michael and everybody wanted to work with Jessica. 

The movie is complicated, with the whole play-within-the-film structure. I’m curious about what went into the casting of it.

For the roles that were in The Cherry Orchard, we had them audition with pretty lengthy Chekhov sides. Michael wanted to make sure that they could handle accurately and authentically portraying a Broadway Chekhov actor. I searched for people who had theater experience and that worked out well.

We had a beautiful ensemble. And I will say, Michael knows what he’s looking for. He was probably one of the most gracious directors with the actors that we’ve had.

What was it like when you saw that you had been nominated for an Artios Award?

I was shocked – thrilled – but I was shocked because I hadn’t submitted anything for it before. It was nice. I didn’t see that I was nominated [when the CSA announced them].

One of the producers of the film had been texting me in all caps, “CALL ME! CALL ME.” I thought there was something very wrong, so I called her. She said, “Do you not know why I’m calling?” I said, “No, what’s going on?” Then she told me. That’s how I found out. 

Have you been getting any calls since the nomination came out? Has it raised your profile at all?

I don’t know yet what will become of this. If everything stays as it is today, things are great, but, yeah, nothing yet.

An Artios Award nomination looks pretty good on the resume.

I would hope so!

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