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Jeannie Bacharach Talks Casting Apple TV+’s ‘Presumed Innocent’


August 7, 2024

Did you see Apple TV’s Presumed Innocent? You may have noticed that star Jake Gyllenhaal’s wife in the movie was played by Ruth Negga, a Black woman. That character was white in the original novel on which the show is based, the 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford and in David E. Kelley’s original pilot script that got the show green-lit.

To help make the family feel more modern, Casting Director Jeannie Bacharach decided that the couple should be interracial, and thus, Negga won the role. That is the essence of what a good casting director does. Think outside the box and help create the best possible cast for the project. 

Bacharach is an exceptional casting director. The two-time Emmy winner has been on a pretty epic run lately, and that was even before Presumed Innocent and her other big summer series, The Bear, for which she won her second Emmy (she won the first for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and for which she has been nominated again this year.

Bacharach is also behind such shows as Preacher, Nashville, The Man in the High Castle, Station Eleven, The Dropout and Snowfall, and that’s just since 2016. She spoke to us from her home in Los Angeles. 

How did you get into casting?

I was an actor. I fell in love with acting young and pursued it to a certain point, but realized pretty early on thankfully, that I was having too much trouble waiting for someone else to decide for me and the up-and-down nature of it.

I was lucky enough to get introduced to two people who ended up becoming my mentors: Alexa Fogel and Daniel Swee, who’s the head of casting at Lincoln Center. Casting hadn’t ever occurred to me, but I ended up talking with them about it and I did an internship to learn how the business side of acting worked, because I knew nothing about that.

Initially, my internship in casting was to understand the full picture of the business as an actor, but I fell in love with the casting side. It was still creative, the ability to work with actors and talk with actors. And I think, to have an understanding of the actor’s process, but to feel a little bit more in a position of control and power, while still getting to be creative and collaborative.

That’s something that comes up now and again, the idea that, if you’re acting, you’re only responsible for a single role, but if you’re casting, you’re responsible for all of them.

That’s a good point. I never thought of it that way, but absolutely. Do you mind if I use that? (Laughs)

It’s yours, by all means. Can we talk about this incredible run you’ve been on? For the last eight years or so, it seems like every show you cast is a big hit or a creative triumph. Often both.

I say this over and over again. It’s impossible to know what’s gonna catch on with people. Station 11, for instance, was one of the most special projects I ever worked on and very few people saw it. I think the subject matter and the timing were just too hard for people, but a lot of it is just the luck of what captures people’s attention at any given time. Not to downplay my part in it, but I think moving into cable and streaming, meshed better for me, in terms of my tastes, and the type of actors I responded to. That’s not in any way to diss network TV.

I’m so grateful that I came up through that and learned that way, but I do think some of the success I’ve had came hand in hand with moving into these platforms. I think storytelling has changed in a way that has allowed casting to blossom in a way that, again, didn’t exist before. With this larger collaborative of artists working together, and the streaming platforms and studios trusting the artists involved a little bit more, there’s less interference. I think the product stays purer along the lines of what the creators had in mind.

The talent you helped assemble for Presumed Innocent is pretty incredible. It’s almost a Murderer’s Row, with Jake Gyllenhaal supported by Ruth Negga, [husband and wife] Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel, Renate Reinsve, O-T Fagbenle and Jake’s brother-in-law, Peter Sarsgaard. I mean … how the hell did you pull that off?

Jake is a talent magnet. So is David Kelley, [executive producer] J.J. Abrams, Apple TV, so we started from such a great place. Bill and Liz were David’s ideas. David had just worked with Bill. Casting Liz to play his wife was great.

I’m such a huge fan of Ruth’s, and that was a lot of conversation, but they went along. Then with Renata, David wanted to stay away from the sort of sex goddess that Greta Scacchi played in the movie. He wanted to make it feel real, that this obsession was not just physical, not just sexual. I’ve always liked Renata, and she was someone I brought up very early on. When she read with Jake, the chemistry was just immediately apparent.

There’s also the two teens, who are both spectacular. How did you find Chase Infiniti and Kingston Rumi Southwick?

The classic audition process. You get asked all the time as casting directors, how often does it happen that someone walks in the room, or you watch the tape, and you just see it? It truly was one of those. Chase just jumped off her tape.

Those times are so rare, but when someone on a self tape can stand out, there just was something magnetic about her and so watchable. Then, we had her read with Jake and she handled herself so well. She’s so focused, so real. It’s very authentic. There’s a real truth to her work and something just so undeniably magnetic about her.

With Kingston, we were looking for somebody who had baseball experience, but, again, he taped for us twice, and then got to read on Zoom with Jake. Jake was great about being part of the casting process that way.

I was blown away by both of them with their poise, that they were just so present and so down to work and so about the work. They both have authenticity and gravitas.

That leads perfectly to my last question, which is, what piece of advice or wisdom would you give to someone coming in to audition for you?

I think preparation is key. You’ve got to do your homework. Only one person can get the job and we’re going to be seeing so many people. So many people are going to do wonderful, extraordinary work, but just aren’t the one. All you can do is come in and do your best work and lay that foundation.

Each audition is a brick that you’re laying towards the ultimate job and, potentially, a career. You want to leave a great impression and feel like you’ve done your best work. There’s nothing worse than coming in, not being fully prepared, not having done the work and you leave there and you’re kicking yourself afterward. It’s such a silly cliche, but it’s not about winning the role. It’s about winning the room.

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