The Acting Podcast

Ep 63: SOMETHING WILD: Risa & Billy talk Casting over the past 40 years

Previous Episode Next Episode

Find this episode on:

iTunes/Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio

Show Notes: Season 1!

Show Notes: Season 2!

Show Notes: Season 3!

SOMETHING WILD: Risa & Billy talk Casting over the past 40 years

‍I love talking to Billy about what we care about in our work. We came up together; we partnered for many years as Casting Directors and Producers; we worked alongside each other as directors in the Theatre in NY. We became who we are together. We value the same principles and practices in our long and winding and often wild careers. In this episode of The Acting Podcast, Billy and I reminisce about the good old days and how they were extraordinary. It was a deeply creative time, with its own unique challenges of being in the trenches of preproduction and production. We loved being in the room with actors and directors, writers and producers. We talk about how hard it is now without that intimate partnership, but how we have to find a way to bring collaboration back to the process, no matter what that process has become.

Billy and I also meet regularly on Zoom to talk through the chapters of a book we are crafting together about our Casting adventures in the 80s and 90s. It’s been incredibly revealing and enlightening, emotional and wildly fun. Stay tuned.

So have a listen; we really want to hear from you as to how this impacts you. Also listen to the Casting Director Roundtable episode prior to this one. Billy was a part of that but lost Internet and had to step out, so you get to hear from him one-on-one here.

P.S. The close partnerships you form in your career will sustain you for a lifetime.

More On Risa

“I just grew up at a time where I couldn’t name one female director…or not a single woman would get on stage to accept a producer award at the Oscars…representation matters because if you don’t see it, you don’t know that you can do it. Being a woman on the other side of the camera was not something that I ever saw.”
-Ellyn Jameson

“Then the desperation went away and I had an ease in audition rooms that I’d never had before because I had a life outside of wanting someone to pick me.”
-Dominic Burgess

“It happened entirely because I was following the path that was put in front of me without a tremendous amount of judgment around it. And I’m a judgy motherfucker…if I can do this, anyone can.”
-Johnathan McClain
‍
“Walk into every room, and everything you ever write, and everything you create, and just make it you, just authentically you. And most of the time, the people who’ll respond to it will love it because you’re being yourself and there’s only one of you in the world. And it feels amazing when you put yourself forward and people reward you for it.”
-Caroline Lindy

Guests & Resources:

Learn more about Billy below!

Billy Hopkins is a casting director of film, television, and theatre. His first job was as a casting intern at the off-Broadway Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he met Risa Bramon Garcia. They were hired by Susan Seidelman to cast their first film, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN. They went on to cast many of the most notable films of the 80s and 90s, including Adrian Lyne’s FATAL ATTRACTION, and several films for Oliver Stone, including BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY and JFK, as well as John Hughes CHRISTMAS VACATION. Their first television credit was ROSEANNE. Billy has gone on to cast over 200 films. He received an Emmy for his work on Ava DuVernay’s limited television series, WHEN THEY SEE US. He lives in NYC and continues casting to this day.

Check out Billy’s IMDb HERE.

And here is Risa’s Bio and IMDb as a reminder.