Casting director David Rubin shares how Margo’s Got Money Troubles came together through a mix of long-standing industry relationships, unexpected discoveries and actors who brought something unique to the room.
The Emmy-winning casting director (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley), alongside casting partner Matt Lander, assembled the ensemble for Apple TV+ and A24’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles by balancing established collaborators with emerging talent.
Based on Rufi Thorpe’s novel, the series follows Margo Millet (Elle Fanning), a young single mother who turns to OnlyFans to overcome financial hardship.
Rubin spoke with Casting Networks about building the cast, finding chemistry between actors, and why performers should stop trying to guess what casting directors are looking for.
Key Insights
- Bring your own interpretation to the role instead of trying to predict what casting directors want to see.
- Strong casting often comes from relationships, recommendations and unexpected discoveries, not just traditional auditions.
- Chemistry, collaboration and authenticity can matter as much as experience when booking a role.
With such a storied history in this industry, what was it like to reunite with so many familiar creative partners?
David Rubin: I have many relationships rolled into this project, including the folks at Apple TV and David E. Kelley, who is a wonderful producer, writer and extraordinary person. I have a long relationship with Nicole Kidman. I was involved in the first job that Nicole had when she came to America, a film about NASCAR called Days of Thunder.
When you first came on board and began breaking down the script, who was already attached, and what did the puzzle look like at the start?
Elle Fanning was involved from the start. She actually was hip to the novel already and had been in touch with the novelist. David E. Kelley had read the novel and was attached. There was some question whether Michelle Pfeiffer would be joining the cast. She hasn’t done many series, and she had never worked with her husband, David E. Kelley, in a professional way on a series. Yet, when she had read the novel, she was completely entranced by the character of Shyanne [Margo’s self-centered mother].
Nicole Kidman plays a wrestler-turned-attorney in the series. How did that role come about, considering it is a character that doesn’t exist in the book?
It was an added idea, and a very clever one. Nicole was an executive producer on this, and at first it wasn’t clear exactly which role she might play. But it turned out that she perfectly fit into this role, where she got to play a former wrestler and attorney. I think it gave her a big kick to do both.
Once the foundational characters were cast, which roles became your primary focus to fill out the ensemble?
The focus initially was on two key roles. One was Jinx, an ex-wrestler and father of Margo.
Jinx is a highly physical role, but it also requires serious dramatic chops and sharp comedic timing. How did you approach finding an actor who could deliver all three?
That process was unique in that we weren’t sure whether it was even feasible. We wanted to explore the idea of having a professional wrestler play the role. However, that character is so multidimensional and challenging. It had to be someone who could believably, and with nuance, play a character that was part of the comedic side of this series, but also part of the emotional, dramatic side.
At what point did the focus shift entirely toward Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) for the role?
Very early on. From the beginning, without question, Nick Offerman was extremely high on our list, because not only had we seen him do great comedic work, but he had begun to do very memorable dramatic work [he won an Emmy for HBO’s The Last of Us]. We were hopeful that he would respond to the material when it was ultimately offered to him. When he read it, he was inclined to go deep into this character’s pathology and his history. It’s a remarkable performance.
What was the second key role you needed to lock down immediately?
The other one was Margo’s roommate, Susie. Thaddea Graham was a delightful surprise. Our director, Dearbhla Walsh, worked with Thaddea on Bad Sisters and suggested that we explore her.
With that kind of directorial recommendation, it must have been a straightforward booking.
We came very close to not having her available, because at the same time that we were exploring her for this role, she was offered a job at the National Theatre in London. We had to get a bit competitive. We got to know her mostly on Zoom auditions and did everything we could to suggest that this series might be even more fun than a play at the National Theatre.
The series features wrestlers, OnlyFans creators, college students and church groups. How did you approach populating all these various character groups?
This is not a series that takes place with people who all know each other and who share similar interests. Everybody is part of a “pod” of characters, if you will. When it came time to find very conservative roommates for Margo, we had fantastic readings from Annalise Basso and Marisela Zumbado. You would believe them as students at Fullerton College.
How was populating the specific world of OnlyFans, especially Rose and KC, the two girls that Margo looks to collaborate with on the platform?
Capturing those characters was a completely different world from the other pods of characters in this piece. Lindsey Normington (Anora) had already caught our attention [for Rose]. She was an exotic dancer, a pole dancer, but also had developed a real knack for acting and understood the world of this piece. In many ways, she educated us.
Pairing her with rapper Rico Nasty as KC felt like an inspired choice. How did that partnership click?
Rico Nasty is a fantastic musician and very popular, but had never auditioned for an acting part before. We tried combinations of actresses from various worlds for these two roles. It was great to see Lindsey and Rico ad-libbing material together during the callback. It was a bit of a eureka moment when we saw them as a couple.
Speaking of callbacks, how vital is that interactive element when you start putting actors into the same room?
Matt Lander [my casting partner] and I are huge proponents of seeing people in person whenever possible. There’s nothing better than spending time with two or three actors in a room talking about the material, focusing on the tone of a piece. It’s invaluable.
If you could offer one definitive piece of advice to actors coming in to read for you, what would it be?
The one piece of advice I would give is to not spend any time at all being concerned about what we, the casting director, the director or the producer, are looking for in that part. Don’t ever pander to what you think we are looking for, because when you bring something fresh, suddenly, the light in the room changes, the energy in the room shifts, and we start to rethink what we thought we were looking for. It’s not about guessing what we’re up to. It’s about creating a very fresh idea that only you can offer.
As the former (and first casting director) elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, what does it mean to finally see Achievement in Casting at the Oscars?
The one thing that is 100% clear to me is that the casting process is as essential to the filmmaking process as any of the areas that have been in a position to be awarded in the past. To reach a point where it was recognized [equally] with the other essential filmmaking [disciplines] was enormously gratifying, and I would be lying if I didn’t say emotional. It was nice to have it acknowledged.
Why do you think it took so long for casting to become an officially recognized Oscar category?
There are lots of reasons why it’s been neglected over the years, and it has to do with when the casting director’s job emerged in the history of filmmaking, which was not until the mid to late 1950s. Before that, actors were under contract to studios, and it was the executives at the studios who had lists of actors and made decisions about placing them in various roles, about which the actors themselves had very little control.
What eventually shifted the industry landscape away from that old studio system?
When the studio system began to fade in the late 1950s, suddenly, there was an opportunity for filmmakers to hire people who were incredibly well-versed in the acting pool. It didn’t have to be the people that were under contract to 20th Century Fox or Warner Bros. It was really just the knowledge, an understanding and an appreciation of the breadth of possibilities in casting, and that’s when casting directors came to the fore.
What helped other guilds, unions and Oscar voters to finally understand the importance of casting?
The relationship between a casting director and a filmmaker often happens behind closed doors, where none of the other people who are also instrumental in making films see what happens in the casting process. [Therefore], organizations that give awards and acknowledge the work of casting directors had to be educated about what we do, about what the process is.
What kind of advocates did you have within the Academy to help push that education forward?
That was done, ultimately, with the help of directors and producers who are in the room with us, who do know what we do, and they advocated for recognition of Achievement in Casting, because they know what it is. Ultimately, they were helpful in bringing together a lot of other people who needed to learn what it is, and to agree wholeheartedly that this should be one of the major award categories.
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