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Photo by Brad Reed Photography, courtesy of Carmen Cuba.
Casting , Interview , The Daily Roundup

Carmen Cuba Pulls Back the Curtain on Casting ‘Full Circle’


January 29, 2024

You’d be hard-pressed to find a work of Steven Soderbergh from the last 25 years that has not been cast by Carmen Cuba. The casting director and auteur are frequent collaborators and titles they’ve worked on together range from Magic Mike to Logan Lucky to Let Them All Talk. But it was their latest collaboration that was on the table when Cuba virtually sat down with Casting Networks. The casting director took time out to pull back the curtain on casting Full Circle, the star-studded Max mini-series penned by Ed Solomon.

Our questions for Cuba began with a breakdown of the three major character groups found in the thriller series about a kidnapping near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Major players in the story are either law enforcement personnel, members of a wealthy New York family or Guyanese immigrants.

The casting director shared that the first character cast in Full Circle falls into the law enforcement group. Zazie Beetz plays a U.S. Postal Inspector in the series, a role that functions similarly to a police officer. “She came on very early while the scripts were still being fleshed out,” Cuba told us. “And so, it was really excellent that she saw the vision early on and had this idea for her character.”

As for the wealthy New York family found in Full Circle, the casting director secured some serious star power for its members. Dennis Quaid plays the family’s patriarch, with Claire Danes portraying his daughter and Timothy Olyphant as his son-in-law. Regarding the latter, Cuba told us she had wanted to cast Olyphant for years, but the timing had never been right before Full Circle.

Then the casting director pulled back the curtain on casting the Guyanese immigrant characters found in the series. “We were trying to make sure we got the cultural piece right, which is always a priority for all of us,” she asserted. “But in this case, it was such a specific demographic, language and accent.” The casting director noted that over 200 people were seen for the three young roles in that category. She noted that securing visas for international actors factored into the process and mentioned UK thespian Sheyi Cole as one example.

“Two pieces of the Guyanese cast that I think were really pivotal were CCH [Pounder] and Phaldut [Sharma], both of them being from Guyana,” the casting director added. The two respectively play a criminal matriarch and her right-hand man, both of whom are also connected to the kidnapping that’s at the center of the series’ storyline.

Before the interview wrapped, Cuba also provided a window into casting the supporting roles in Full Circle, along with sharing what made this collaboration with Soderbergh and Solomon unique. You can catch all these insights and more in this on-camera installment of Pulls Back the Curtain.

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This video interview has been edited and condensed.

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