People sleep on Philadelphia. A mini-New York, it has a lot of film and TV action going on at any given time. Commercials, too. Although it may not be a filmmaking hub like New York, LA or Atlanta, it’s still a pretty busy spot. With that comes the need for local casting talent, and on the top of that pyramid is the team of Diane Heery and Jason Loftus.
Partners for over 20 years now, they’re the go-to casting directors for the City of Brotherly Love and projects like Mare of Easttown, Servant, Knock at the Cabin and Concrete Cowboy, but that’s hardly the extent of their abilities. There are few better at finding the unfindable and bringing realism to a filmmaker’s vision. They spoke to us from their office in Philly.
Insights: Lessons from Diane Heery and Jason Loftus
- Look for acting opportunities in cities like Philadelphia, not just LA or NY.
- Improve your self-taping abilities for initial auditions.
- Be authentic and flexible during auditions; avoid gimmicks.
How did you get started in casting?
Diane Heery: Well, we both got our start as actors first. I was doing fairly well, and then unfortunately, hit that wall for women once I had aged out of being the housewife, mom, whatever. Back 100 years ago, there was no work for women between the age of 35 and grandmother.
A friend of mine was in casting, and he called me when he said, “can you give me a hand? I need help in the office today.” I went, helped him out, and then it was two days a week, then it was five days a week. Then I realized, “huh, I like this.” It just kind of happened. Jay?
Jason Loftus: Same kind of thing. I was an actor, and the opportunity presented itself to come in and help with auditions and things like that. It kind of just grew from there.
It immediately appealed to me because it’s work every day, when so many acting gigs are few and far between. I just really liked the aspect of helping someone get a job.
You both mentioned gradually realizing that you loved this, but was there a light bulb moment when you realized you were meant for it?
DH: I realized it was time to go on withdrawal from my union cards, because the union doesn’t want a casting person who is also an actor, and they want you to be on honorary withdrawal anyway. It was just like, “oh, it’s time.” I knew this was my path.
JL: For me, it was working on Rocky Balboa with Sylvester Stallone. It was very important to him to have authentic Philadelphia types. We had to start going to bars in Philly and just talking to people.
That was the moment I knew. I just liked this better. You’re part of the entire creative look and feel of a project, and you have a bigger impact on what people see in the storytelling.
Since you brought up Philadelphia, let’s talk about that. First and foremost, the decision to open up a casting office there.
DH: I started in a casting office in Philadelphia, so I was already familiar with the area, and I grew up here, so it was just a perfect storm of things.
We knew 20 years ago there was enough growth in Pennsylvania and South Jersey, which is basically Philadelphia. Between that and commercials, we could make a living. I mean, it’s not easy, but there’s a place for us. It was a fit.
JL: What people don’t realize about this area is it is a commercial production hub. A lot of commercials come to shoot in Philadelphia to double as New York because it’s cheaper and easier. We’re regional casting directors mainly, but we cover New York as well because of our proximity,
DH: Also, Philadelphia is an incredible hub for talent. We’re 90 miles out of New York and 90 miles out of Baltimore. A lot of actors who are technically New York actors live here because it’s cheaper.
JL: Everybody in our business has to be somewhat mobile, willing to go and work where we need to. I mean, we’ve cast projects in Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, Washington and New York. We’ve been all over. Our reputation for being able to find real people helps make projects feel authentic to an area.
I would think that the technological advances, for instance, how we’re talking now, have opened things up a lot for you over the last five years, too.
JL: It has, but something we have to figure out as an industry is that sometimes actors need our input.
We’re finding, at least on our coast, that most people prefer to stay first round self tape. My best-case scenario is somehow trying to work this out to explain more of what’s happening in these scripts. Say, “hey, here’s what’s going on in the scene and what’s happening next that you don’t have in your pages.” Those kinds of conversations inform someone’s performance.
DH: I think that the people who are hurt the most by self taping are first-timers or someone who’s never actually been in the room.
JL: A lot of times, we are people’s first contact with this business. We see people for roles that don’t have a lot of experience, and they don’t know what they don’t know yet. Sometimes it’s good just to be able to sit someone in front of you and say, “I can see you have talent, but we have to hone this down for what we’re doing.”
With a lot of film and TV, we cast everything from weekly players to people who are under contract for the whole project, as well as people who have one word. Unfortunately, those people get one page and they have no idea what’s going on in the project. I will go to my grave saying that that is harder for actors to do than getting seven pages of a script and being able to work on a scene because they just don’t make sense.
We have a very good friend who is a casting director in New Orleans and Atlanta, and she refuses to do self tapes. But in a lot of the projects we’ve been doing since COVID, with the speed at which we have to present this stuff, it’s just not possible.
DH: A lot of actors see the convenience of the self tape, which is wonderful, but I think so many of them need to understand that sometimes they need that in-person touch. Even if it’s a Zoom tweaking, we can talk it through.
JL: We just worked on a project where the director preferred non-actors, which presents a lot of issues in the audition process because they just don’t know what to do.
Having non-actors self tape, you’re just asking for disaster. Those are the people we still try to Zoom with or get them in. If we could get to a happy medium on that, it would be beneficial to everyone.
Working with so many first-time actors and inexperienced people, is part of your job private detective?
JL: (Laughs) That’s a really good way of putting it. We’ve been in business together for over 20 years, and we have developed a pretty extensive network, in all different kinds of worlds.
If you’re looking for a certain thing, we know where to start. If it’s something brand new, we have to be exactly, like you say, private detectives and figure things out.
DH: One project we did, we needed people of Japanese descent. I knew exactly where to go. That’s part of our strength, is we find out something, and just put it in the back pocket.
During World War Two, when they were putting the Japanese in internment camps, there was one in South Jersey. I just got on the phone to that organization, and she was like, “oh my god, the folks will love to do it.” She brought in everybody from the town who was interested, like 60 people. We auditioned them, signed them all up and the next day, I walked into the production office and slapped this whole pile of pictures down on the desk. It just felt good because you knew you were going to deliver. Nobody knew they existed, but we did.
JL: We did a movie that had Ukrainian gangs. Philadelphia is packed with people of Russian descent, Russian immigrants and Ukrainian immigrants. You just have to go down the rabbit hole of these things and find out how to get in.
There’s always one person who is the conduit, and when you find them, everything lights up. Our job is to go and find these people who have access to these communities. We have a big Chinatown in the Philadelphia area, and we know the people to call that we trust. That’s just what you learn as you do this.
I’m sensing a theme here. A big Japanese community, a big Ukrainian community, a big Chinatown. I’m hearing a lot of selling of Philadelphia being a place to come.
DH: (laughs) You know, that’s our home base, but we’ve done it in other cities as well. So much of it is growing this database of resources, even when we’re not on projects, so they’re ready to go when we do need them.
JL: These are the real police officers who are pretty good actors that we’ve met, the real firemen who are pretty good actors. We just had another TV show for Apple that had all of that. Ridley Scott directed the first episode, and he wanted flat-out realism, so you had to find people who could handle these scenes.
You just have to make sure that they can handle the environment because they’re completely new to it. Philadelphia is so diverse, and it isn’t one thing.
Is there an added level of satisfaction when you find somebody like that, these guys who are professionals in other lives and turn out to be pretty good actors, or is that all part of the job at this point?
DH: Oh no, it tickles the hell out of me. When you find somebody, he looks great, he’s listening, he’s exactly the thing and then also he just gets in front of the camera and he nails it, it’s incredible.
I was visiting somebody in the hospital and a male nurse walks into the room, and he looks just like a very famous Eagles football player. I mean, a double. I gave him my card and about a month later, we got a phone call. We’re making a commercial with that player, and we need a double for him. It’s like, son of a gun, this nurse now has a SAG card and he’s worked so many other things since.
JL: It’s an extra feather in your cap. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but we actually have a good amount of those people who never would have thought about being in this world, and now they’re working SAG members.
Seeing so many people that you do, do you find that there are common mistakes that people make when they come into audition?
JL: Auditioning is a weird thing. I get it. It’s not at all like being on-set. Actors complain about that all the time. It’s a very sterile environment, but the best thing you can do is to try to center yourself. Don’t try to impress the director or bring in a gift or something.
We did a show that was about Delaware County in Philadelphia, which is a very unique place, and a bunch of the actors came in with stuff that said Delco on them, trying to give them to the director and the producer. None of that matters to them. All that matters to them is what you do when you get in there.
DH:</b< There was a casting office I remember going to when I was an actor. They had a sign on the wall that said, “please don’t be nervous.” If we didn’t think you weren’t good enough, you wouldn’t be here. Especially for a callback, that means you’re close to getting the job. We think you’re good enough.
If you were to give any piece of advice or wisdom to actors coming in to see you, would it be that?
DH: It would be that. Stay centered. Lose the nerves. You’re there for a reason. Have confidence in yourself, because obviously, we saw something in you, and that’s why you’re getting called in.
JL: Another piece to that is, so much of it now is the director doesn’t want to feel like you’re acting. A lot of times what they’ll do, they’ll have you improv a little bit with them in the scene, just seeing how you are off that. Many times, actors are not hearing everything that’s being said to them because of nerves.
DH: They get too locked into one thing and can’t switch out of it.
JL: What I’ve seen really good actors do is they’ll ask a question, just to give themselves a little bit more time to process what has been said to them.
You just get better at it. Auditioning is a skill. Some people get it right away, and some immensely talented people just really struggle with the process. It’s our job to recognize that and help the actor, maybe prep the director that the actor needs a little bit more than what we’re giving them. It’s a process, and it’s why people hire us.
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