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Casting , Interview , The Daily Roundup

Neely Eisenstein Talks Transitioning into Casting from Sales, ‘You Gotta Believe’


September 3, 2024

Most casting directors sort of end up in casting. They just … fall into it somehow. Not many of them, though, had a successful career in sales for years before it happened.

That’s just one of the things that make Neely Eisenstein unique. Her previous career gave her a fearlessness that translates well to working in Hollywood, and she has made the most of it, having built a flourishing career working primarily in independent film. 

Titles like Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Ava, Plus One and the especially delightful 2024 sleeper hit Snack Shack are all hers, as is You Gotta Believe, the inspirational true story about a Texas Little League team that started winning games after the assistant coach, and father of two players, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They kept winning games in the Little League World Series.

The movie, which opened in theaters on August 30, stars Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear and a terrific cast of kids who help raise the film above some standard sports movie tropes. Eisenstein spoke to us from Los Angeles.

How did you get into casting?

 

It’s a little bit silly. I grew up doing musical theater in St. Louis, Missouri. I danced, I sang horribly. I sort of grew up in that world, so I was always theater and entertainment-driven. I went to college to dance, but quickly quit because I was 18, and it was my freshman year of college.

Long story short, I ended up in another career for about six or seven years, then I moved to Los Angeles. I met my now husband, who was in the industry, and I read a lot of books because I traveled for my previous job, and he started sending me scripts to read. He’d say, “It’s like a mini book, I think you’d like it.”

I’d get on the plane, I’d read 20, 25 pages and I’d call him as soon as I landed. I’d say, “Do you know who’d be so good for this?” And he started laughing and said, “This is a job. You should do this.” I thought you couldn’t just switch your career, but he said, “Yeah, you can.”

How long did it take to make the change?

Two years later, he convinced me to quit my steady income job to intern at a casting office in Los Angeles, and I just loved it. I started working my way up and, I don’t know, there’s something about the process that’s very cool. That’s how I ended up in casting. 

Children hanging out in a room adorned with posters. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

You were very intentionally vague about what the other career was.

I was selling toys to Walmart. Working for a toy company and doing private label work for Walmart and traveling to Hong Kong six times a year. I considered moving there, and I loved it, but I was in my early 20s, so you could get on a plane and just explore the world. It was a great first career. 

Working for a toy company and what you’re doing now is not unrelated.

 

(Laughs) What’s great is, and you didn’t ask this question, but the best advice a former boss ever said to me was that I had to pick up the phone and cold call Walmart buyers and say, “I have this product for you.”

I was a salesman, and I was terrified. He said to me, “What’s the worst they can do? They can’t eat you.” And I thought, “Oh, that’s true.”

When I got to the first casting office, and I’d pick up the phone, and this was 12, 14 years ago, I’d pick up the phone and there would be an agent or a manager on the other line who was very angry or very frustrated or for whatever reason, speaking to me not so kindly, but I had no fear of what they were gonna say on the phone, because what’s the worst they could do? They can’t eat you.

I got very lucky because that sort of mentality, that advice stuck with me, and because I’d had so many years in the sales industry, I think being an intern and being an assistant and being an associate was easier for me because I just didn’t have those fears. 

When did you go off on your own?

After five or six years. I was working consistently, bouncing between casting offices, and I was on a lot of projects, and then I got my first solo project by happenstance. I met a producer watching a football game in Vancouver, and she and I bonded over being girls not from LA who liked sports and wanted to hang out more. We started talking, and she was producing a movie, and she said, “Would you want to cast it?” That’s how I got my first job on my own. 

Happy children playing little league baseball and celebrating. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.

What did you learn, working for so many different casting directors?

I learned so many different things at each office. I worked for a couple of casting directors who were on the younger side and had recently gone out on their own. They were really hungry and audacious, but it was in that independent space. They were hustling.

Some of the other casting directors I worked for who had been around a lot longer and had established careers, had different philosophies and I think I took a little bit of both of those worlds and combined them.

Can you give me one example of each?

Sure. The younger casting directors were all about new talent. They saw everybody. We had status lists that were 10, to 15 pages long. I remember thinking, “This is intense, but wow.”

They would sit there with the actors and work with them, they would give them multiple takes. They understood that when you walked into that room, it was terrifying. It was nice to see those casting directors give these young actors multiple chances to get it right, knowing that, on set, you’re gonna have multiple chances. Then there were the more established casting directors who had very well-cultivated lists.

They understood that their director, who they’d been working with for a few years now, or maybe a decade, had very specific intentions, and they worked very closely with the director. They were like a partner. It was cool to see how they were collaborating with the team. I learned a lot about collaboration from that generation and understood that everybody in the production had a job and everybody had to work hard together to make the job work. 

Talking about new talent provides a perfect segue to talk about You Gotta Believe. This is not your first experience casting kids, but I’m specifically curious about creating a team and casting accordingly.

 

Ty Roberts, the director, and I sat and watched these videos over and over and over again, and did the Zooms and pieced it together like a puzzle. It was like a Tetris game of who’s gonna fit where and who makes the most sense.

We had a list of, I don’t know, six kids that we liked for three roles, and we thought, “Okay, what combination is gonna make the most sense?” We understood that, Well, this one has the gravitas to play one role, whereas this one is maybe a little more subdued in their performance, and that makes them perfect for this role.

It was a process and a great collaboration with Ty. I have to give him a lot of credit. I brought him the talent, but we sussed out who made the most sense for each role together. 

What piece of advice or wisdom would you give to an actor coming in to audition for you?

 

They can’t eat you. I’m serious. You walk into any room, in any job, in any place, and just know that they cannot eat you. And hopefully you’re your authentic self.

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