Apple TV’s ‘Stick’: Rachel Tenner on Authentic Casting and Surprising Choices

Emmy-winning casting director Rachel Tenner’s latest project is Apple TV’s ‘Stick,’ the sports comedy starring Owen Wilson as a former golf prodigy searching for a second chance.

The show follows an over-the-hill ex-golfer who, after his wife leaves him, sees hope in coaching a troubled teen prodigy named Santiago “Santi” Wheeler, staking his future on the youth’s success.

She talked to us from Los Angeles.

Key Insights

The strongest auditions don’t simply match what’s written on the page—they help casting directors discover new possibilities for the character.

Expanding casting searches globally creates opportunities to find authentic performers who might otherwise never enter the conversation.

When evaluating actors, specific choices, vulnerability, and authenticity often matter far more than technical skills that can be learned later.

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Owen was attached to the show before casting began. What about Marc Maron?

I’m a huge, huge fan of [Marc Maron]. Every time I get to see him in something where he’s doing something outside of how we normally know him, doing stand-up or his podcast, I love him. I think he’s so much fun to watch.

I think all his choices are always so interesting, and I love the way he approaches his characters. He was a very obvious person for that part from the beginning, when we were just creatively discussing it.

I’m interested in the casting of Mariana Treviño as Elena. I’d seen her in the Tom Hanks movie A Man Called Otto, but otherwise she was new to me. Her chemistry with Marc was impressive.

The key for that role was we needed to find Santi first. By the time we landed on Peter, we knew what we wanted to do for the mom, and we wanted to make sure it was someone who spoke Spanish, and the way they interacted with each other was authentic.

So that opened up the opportunity to go a little bit more global for that role. Mariana is so exciting to me. She’s a huge star in Mexico, so it’s a big get to have her in this.

Did she do a chemistry read with Marc?

She actually flew in and did a chemistry read with Peter, so we got to see her in person, and she’s so charming and so adorable and funny, with so much heart. [She’s] really such a special person that we knew [she] would match with Marc.

Digital outreach is so much more available than it was, even four, five, six years ago. Has the ability to go global made your life easier?

Oh yeah, I love it. I’ve completely embraced the opportunity to be able to open up things. There’s obvious limitations with budgets and visas and things like that, so everything can’t be bringing in people from all over the world, but it’s fun when you have the opportunity to be able to do that kind of outreach.

I really welcome that opportunity to get to expand that way.

It must open you up to all kinds of talent that you would not have otherwise considered.

Absolutely. There’s just so much you can access, so much stuff now, it’s amazing. Rick Messina is my associate, my right-hand man. We always talk about how we act sometimes, maybe we shouldn’t be setting up this many people, but at the end of the day, you can’t help it.

Sometimes at midnight when I’m watching everything, I want to punch myself in the face, because I did this, but it does have its own reward. (Laughs)

I had definitely never seen Peter before. How did you find him? Were you looking for guys who could play golf? Or, did you figure, “Let’s get an actor first, and if we have to, we’ll teach them how to play golf?”

It was the latter. If they knew how to play golf, that was a bonus, but we were trying to do it with enough time that they would have training and be able to do what was necessary to at least make it look legit. I think over time, he’s actually really gotten into golf, but obviously this was a big search.

I think it was a very interesting process, because when we read it, we were thinking real, hard-core comedy. As we started doing the scenes, we were seeing what was working and what was not, and then really also settling on the tone, because the tone was a little mysterious as you started getting into it.

It started feeling they weren’t matching up 100%, so we kept shifting the idea of who this guy was.

What set Peter apart?

What I really loved about Peter is he had this Patrick Dempsey in the 1980s feel about him. There was just something very nostalgic about him, his humor, and the way he approached everything.

That made him feel a little different than other people. We just loved the way he approached this character and his choices and his humor, but then also his heart, and his vulnerability, and he just seemed very lovable.

Do you find that actors who audition for you can help shape what this project is going to be if they’re making interesting choices? That they can actually make a difference in the creation of the show and the execution of it?

Oh, that’s interesting. I think actors, in general, they’re always bringing themselves into something, so I think they’re always helping shape a character, because they’re coming in with their own choices and all the quirks and things that make up their own person.

I think the process helped me understand what was successful with this character, and I think it helped me hone in specifically about how to get what I need from people. It helped me get specific that way, and it helped me see what works and what really brings out the parts of this character that I wanted to see more than others.

So it wasn’t just Peter, but other people coming in, showing you different things, that allowed you to understand, “Oh, this is not what we had envisioned. I have to reconsider exactly how we’re judging who this guy is.”

I think so. Honestly, I think it’s great because when you’re sending them to your showrunner, you can say, “Neil did it this way, this is one version. Peter did it this way. This is a different version.” I think it’s important for everyone to get to see the different versions of it, because they’re all successful in their own way.

They all make sense in the world, it’s just, what’s the version where we ultimately land? Because you read it and you have something in your head, you talk to everybody, and then when you start seeing it, it finds a new home in your brain.

What was the process then with Lilli? Because that character is very specific. Androgynous, gender queer, but who falls in love with a guy and all the internal conflict that goes it.

That was a very specific process. It was very important to everyone to make sure that it was authentic, and we were dealing with people who identify in certain ways and felt comfortable with the storyline and the narrative. I loved [Lilli] from Your Honor, and I remember my friend [casting director] Lauren Grey sending me a video and saying, “This woman, isn’t she great?”

Watching her read this, and then talking to her more about how she identifies, and the journey, and the story, and going through all of that with her was very meaningful and exciting. I thought we had a good opportunity to do some good representation there.

I feel there are a lot more opportunities for actors who fall into that category than there ever used to be.

Absolutely. This is the biggest generalization you’ll ever hear, but there is so much more openness for people to be anything and identify any way. There’s just room for everybody in these shows now, and it’s just great.

You’ve finished season 2. Were there any specific challenges for season 2 that you didn’t have in season 1? Or was it easier because it’s an established show?

It makes it easier, definitely, for people to have seen it and know what they’re participating in. If they love it, then they were game, and if they weren’t a fan, then we didn’t have to worry about it.

There are a couple really meaningful roles that we had to get settled for season 2, but I’m not going to say anything about it.

Oh, come on!

I don’t see anything on the internet about it. So I’m gonna wait. I’m not gonna be that person. (Laughs)