ELLEN LEWIS - Casting Director

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of the Team Deakins Episode, casting director Ellen Lewis (KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, GOODFELLAS) joins us to talk about all things casting—of which we knew very little before speaking with her. A disciple of veteran casting director Juliet Taylor, Ellen shares with us how they were first introduced and what she learned working with her for eight years. Ellen reveals how closely casting works with talent agents to find the right actor for a role and how some casting directors even directly negotiate an actor’s contract. We worked with Ellen on KUNDUN, and she recounts her global odyssey to cast the 14th Dalai Lama across four separate stages of his life. We later discuss setting actors at ease, both on set and in the audition room, and how we do what we can to lift the pressure under which actors must work. Ellen also admits to us just how far she’s willing to travel to go to set.

This episode is sponsored by Fiilex

Instagram: @fiilexled

Recommended Viewing: KUNDUN

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to season two of the Team Deacons podcast, a collection of
0:08.8	informal conversations between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:13.0	We never know where the conversation will take us,
0:16.0	so listen in and see where it goes.
0:19.0	This episode is sponsored by Philex, a California-based lighting company with close to 40 years of in-house lighting and expertise.
0:30.0	Philex is known for their LED color franels ranging from the smallest
0:35.4	philex Q3 to the largest philex Q10 and they set the gold standard in the
0:41.5	motion picture industry with precise color science, brightness, and
0:46.2	beam shaping. Philex recently launched a new LED color ellipsoidal called the phylex g3 which can make razor sharp cuts.
1:00.0	Today we're speaking with a casting director.
1:02.8	Her credit list is lengthy and includes killers of the flower moon, the Queen's
1:07.5	Gambit, Ready Player 1, and the Devil Wears Prada.
1:11.5	We're pleased to welcome Ellen Lewis. Thank you for doing this.
1:15.6	Hi, thank you so much for asking me. It's an honor to be talking to you both today and I'm really excited that you've asked a
1:27.2	casting director to join your amazing conversations that you've been
1:31.3	happening with so many different crafts.
1:35.0	So...
1:37.0	We're looking forward to it.
1:39.0	How did you get to where you are today?
1:42.0	When you were a kid did you kind of cast everything that was going
1:46.8	around you? Or did you go somewhere different first and then fine casting?
1:52.0	Yes, I definitely was not casting everything in any way.
	...

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