Everyone's a Casting Director – The First-Ever Academy Award for Achievement in Casting with Host Frances McDormand
The Kitchen Sisters Present
The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Who discovered Diane Keaton and put her in Annie Hall? Who found Dustin Hoffman and made sure he played Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy? Who saw Jason Schwartzman and made sure Wes Anderson knew about him for Rushmore? Casting Directors, that’s who.
When the 98th Oscar ceremony airs on March 15, the first Academy Award for Achievement in Casting will be given in nearly 100 years of Academy history. Five films, laden with stars and fascinating new discoveries, are nominated — Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and Sinners.
The Kitchen Sisters and four-time Academy Award winner Frances McDormand take us behind the scenes and into the lives and work of this first-ever batch of nominees and into the mysterious and fascinating world of film casting.
Everyone's a Casting Director was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee. Hosted by Frances McDormand.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Radio Topia. Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters present. |
| 0:04.0 | From PRX. We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and Nikki Silva. |
| 0:09.0 | Before we start today's show, we want to shout out to another member of the Radiotopia family, |
| 0:15.0 | our longtime friends and colleagues, Radio Diaries. |
| 0:19.0 | For almost 30 years, they've been helping people document their |
| 0:22.2 | own lives and histories. Now they're back with a new series called Orson Welles and the Blind |
| 0:28.0 | Soldier about a small town crime that sparked the desegregation of the U.S. military. |
| 0:34.8 | In 1946, a black World War II veteran named Isaac Woodard was blinded by a white |
| 0:41.0 | police officer. Nobody knew who the officer was or where the attack happened, but when famed |
| 0:46.8 | director Orson Wells found out about the attack, he pledged to not only broadcast it, but |
| 0:53.1 | solve it. On the radio, week by week. |
| 0:57.3 | Wash your hands, Officer X, wash them well, scrub and scour. |
| 1:00.3 | You won't blot out the blood of a blinded war veteran. |
| 1:03.0 | You're going to be uncovered. |
| 1:05.1 | We will blast out your name. |
| 1:07.0 | And I will find means to remove from you all refuge, Officer X. You can't get rid of me. |
| 1:15.0 | This series is a riveting true crime investigation told by descendants, activists, and the last |
| 1:20.8 | known witness to the attack. Listen to Orson Wells and the Blind Soldier, out now, wherever you get |
| 1:26.8 | your podcasts, or at Radiotopia.fm. |
| 1:30.5 | Thank you, Radio Diaries, for your many years of incredible storytelling. |
| 1:36.0 | Today on the show, a little limelight for casting directors. |
| 1:42.0 | So, Leo, this is your first time in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. |
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