Casting ‘Bull Run’: Michelle Lewitt on Spotting Breakout Talent and Building a Standout Indie Ensemble

It takes a special kind of casting director to focus so much on the indie world, but Michelle Lewitt is definitely the type. While she’s worked on bigger films like Transformers and Angels & Demons, her focus in more recent years has been on the smaller movies the industry desperately needs to remain relevant. Her latest project is no exception.

Bull Run is a dark comedy about the finance world, starring The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes star Tom Blyth, as well as Jay Mohr, Troy Garity, Chris Diamantopoulos and a bevy of unknown up-and-comers, directed by Alfredo Barrios Jr. It’s a sharp, funny look at Wall Street, in select theaters and VOD on November 14. She spoke with us from southern Utah.

Casting Director Michelle Lewitt | Photo: Violeta Meyners

Key Insights

Michelle Lewitt trusted her intuition early, casting Tom Blyth long before his breakout and recognizing his movie-star potential from a single self-tape.

Bull Run attracted notable names for small roles because of its sharp script and director Alfredo Barrios Jr.’s compelling vision.

The production allowed Lewitt to cast widely from self-tapes, uncovering standout unknown actors whose performances elevated the film.

I really enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t what I was expecting.

Honestly, when I get asked the question, “What’s one of your most favorite projects you’ve ever worked on,” Bull Run is actually in there. So the fact that it’s finally coming out and people are going to get to see it, I’m super excited about it, because I cast that a long time ago.

How did you get on the project?

I have worked with [producers] Howard and Karen Baldwin on other projects, and they threw my name in the ring when they were considering casting directors for Alfredo Barrios Jr. to interview. So they sent me the script. I thought it was really cool.

Alfredo and I met, and it was just instant chemistry, creative alignment, taste alignment. It was one of the best director meetings I’ve ever had, so that was it. It was just fantastic alignment.

Was this something where the financing was there, or did you have to attach actors to get the money?

No, the financing was there. But every project, even with financing, they want some sort of cast that has either an upward trajectory or some visibility. We explored all kinds of names when we were casting it, and I’ll just jump into how we came to Tom Blyth. A lot of guys were reading for this role. Guys who were known from shows like Stranger Things or Outer Banks, stuff like that. So we were exploring guys who were not complete unknowns.

Tom hadn’t done the Hunger Games movie yet, right?

Oh no, no, not even close. His people said how busy he was, but this is a cool script, can he just put himself on tape? Alfredo and I watched it, and we’re like, this guy is a movie star.

You could just see it, and everyone loved him. I think from that audition, we set up a meeting for Tom and Alfredo to have a Zoom chat, and Tom is a not only a brilliant actor, he’s a lovely and intelligent human being. Alfredo is also, so it was just fireworks from the beginning.

I’ve always wondered about this. When you cast a guy like that, and then, a short while later, his career explodes, do you pop champagne? Do you give yourself a high five? I mean, you’ve done this a few times, so how do you react?

I give myself a high five, and I say, “I knew it.” Some of these talented actors just have it, and it’s a matter of, who’s gonna trust that enough and put them in a project before they get that thing? That’s the really fun part of my job, and probably why I keep doing it after 26 years, is because it’s really amazing to see that specialness, and then at some point you get that confirmation of, yep, your intuition was correct.

Of course someone was going to find him in the studio system, and he just got the male lead in the movie People We Meet on Vacation, and it’s gonna do really well. He’s just going to be the guy. He’s like the next Hugh Grant, but with a bit more range, and he likes people.

There are a couple things about the movie that fascinated me. One is Jay Mohr and Troy Garity, and to a lesser extent Chris Diamantopoulos, show up in what are essentially glorified cameos. What happened there?

It’s a great question. This script was so well written, and Alfredo’s vision was so interesting, we were getting a lot of interest from people just to be involved. We also wanted to put really interesting, unexpected choices in the characters as well. I was just pulling from lists, like, who are some actors that maybe we wouldn’t expect in this role that would just be really fun?

And you know, Jay Mohr falls into that category. Troy Garity falls into that category. Now with Chris, he’s just a brilliant actor, and for that role of the boss from hell, he’s got to have some charm and charisma also. Chris’ body of work and his ability to be a chameleon and just be so nuanced and layered and bring so much more to the characters than are on the page, just in everything he does, that’s sort of why we put him there.

The other thing was the discovery of Helena Mattsson, who I’d never seen before, but she’s terrific, and she has great chemistry with Tom.

Helena is a talented actor who had self taped for me several times. She’s just got such a screen presence. Even though that role wasn’t gigantic, we wanted someone very memorable in it, and she liked the character, was willing to read for it. And again, Alfredo’s just got great taste.

What about the rest of the cast? Brandon Engman, Sam Daly, Ashwin Gore and Alyshia Ochse, you must have had a fair amount of freedom to fill out the cast with unknowns — actors you had wanted to hire.

I was allowed to have a very wide net, and I requested a lot of self tapes. Hundreds, because I knew that we could go where there wasn’t necessarily name value, and I could just get really talented actors. It was so fun. Very specifically, Brandon and Ashwin, their self tapes were mind-blowingly good. I didn’t know them before, but Ashwin gave one of the best self tapes I’ve ever seen.

So to sit there and sift through hundreds of self tapes and then just be blown away by talent, it was just a gift of a project to get to work on. So all of those roles are just, “Here’s an amazing actor. Do you want to cast them?” And it’s like, “Yeah, we do.” That’s literally how it went. It is the most fun a casting director can have.

Key Takeaways

Early casting instincts can pay off in major ways when a director and casting director align creatively and trust emerging talent.

High-quality scripts and strong creative leadership can draw established actors even to cameo-level roles.

Freedom from name-value requirements lets casting directors focus purely on performance, leading to inspired discoveries.

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