Jeanie Bacharach on Casting Netflix’s ‘Beef’ Season 2, Korean Talent, & Creative Risk-Taking

Jeanie Bacharach is a three-time Emmy-winning casting director whose credits include The Bear, Black Mirror, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

She joins Season 2 of Beef following the show’s breakout Emmy-winning first season. The season follows a pair of couples, one played by Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, the other by Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny. The show also stars Oscar-winning Youn Yuh-jung, Song Kang-ho, Seoyeon Jang, William Fichtner, and Mikaela Hoover.

All episodes are streaming on Netflix. Bacharach spoke to us from her LA office.

Key Insights

Jeanie Bacharach says successful casting always starts with finding the humanity and relatability within even the darkest characters.

The massive success of ‘Beef’ Season 1 helped attract top-tier talent like Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and acclaimed Korean actors to Season 2.

Bacharach believes the best creative collaborations happen when directors, studios, and casting teams stay open to unexpected actors and bold casting choices.

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Knowing the subject matter and how difficult it is, how does that affect your work?

It always just comes back to character, and can I relate to these characters? Can I see the humanity in these characters? What are they saying about the world we’re living in, or the world we once lived in? If I’m going to do a good job casting the show, I have to have a way into these characters and understand them, even if they do awful things.

Sonny’s just such a beautiful writer, and as terrible as these characters might be to each other, I think the thing that makes people uncomfortable watching the show is [that] there’s truth in what they’re doing, and things that we can see in our own lives that make us uncomfortable. I think that relatability and humanity is really key for me.

Coming off the success of the first season, is there something to that success that makes your job easier?

Success is a magnet, but it’s also tremendous pressure, and the expectations are so high, but it certainly makes casting easier. People responded so strongly to the first season, and the way Sonny works is also so collaborative that I think that’s a huge draw for creative talent. Charles and Cailee were already on board when I came on, and the conversation with Oscar had begun. And then Carey’s as well.

Was there a conversation about what kind of Korean actors you were looking for?

Yeah, they’re just dream actors and I can’t take any credit. But when I talked to Sonny about possibly joining for the season, he had told me that there were going to be some Korean characters that were very important to the storytelling. But again, that’s where the success of the first season certainly comes into play, and people wanting to be part of it.

Seoyeon Jang was someone who came through the audition process. The Eunice character is a tricky one, because you have to believe both that Chairwoman Park would choose this person to represent her, to speak for her, to interpret for her, to be the face of her, and yet there needed to be something you weren’t quite sure about. Seoyeon just brought this wonderful sort of mystery. You’re drawn to her, and yet you don’t really quite know who she is.

Any time Bill Fichtner shows up, I’m thrilled. Especially as a character like Troy, who walks a delicate line that almost dips into parody.

That was a fun list of actors to come up with, because Troy is just such a great character. And yes, tonally, it’s tricky. Both he and Mikaela did a lot of exploring and working with Sonny on those characters.

How much leeway do you have in bringing in lesser-seen talent?

Honestly, that’s the wonderful, collaborative experience you hope for. Sonny is so open, and so loves the process that we just developed a trust right away, and that is key to any creative relationship. Most people I’ve worked with are open to it, but you have a studio and a network that are, as well.

Aren’t we seeing more of that from creators? The willingness to see things outside of what they’d envisioned?

Ideally in a collaborative relationship, you can say, “I’m going to try something wild here. It may not work, but are you open to seeing it?” And, at the same time, I have to also be willing to hear, “Interesting thought,” or, “Nice, but it doesn’t work for A, B or C reasons,” or, “Yeah, it’s fun here, but where the character is going, or what the story is that I need to tell, it doesn’t serve it right or it takes you out.”

But that give and take is, again, what you hope for and dream for in a creative environment. So, yes, I think so.

When do you think that started happening?

It maybe started to happen when there was so much being produced that the more known quantities were being taken, and there was so much being made that people had to maybe become more open to newer faces and lesser-known people.

But I’d like to think that people who are making things want to be open to it. It’s also dependent on the studio or the network you’re working with in terms of how supported you’re feeling that way and how much pressure you’re under to deliver something.

Or how much you’re being squeezed in a different area, whereas you just have to get this done in order to do the 50 other things that you have to get to.

Do actors come in with bold choices and make you rethink what you had in mind?

I mean, there’s no greater thrill than having this kind of crazy idea that actually comes to fruition. Or seeing an actor do something that you never really thought they could do, or haven’t gotten to do that maybe they are capable of, but no one’s given them the opportunity to explore.

Or championing someone who’s been kicking around for a long time. The saying, “Right role, right time” is so great. They’ve so earned that moment, and they’re ready for it when it happens, too.