What Makes A Great Cast?
Pop Culture Happy Hour
NPR
4.5 • 11.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you're deciding whether to see a movie, one of the questions you might ask is pretty simple. |
| 0:09.6 | Who's in it? That's because we all know that one of the things that separates a good movie from a great movie or even a good movie from a bad movie is casting. |
| 0:18.7 | This year for the first time, there's an Oscar being awarded for casting that got us thinking, what makes a great movie is casting. This year for the first time there's an Oscar being awarded for casting |
| 0:22.5 | that got us thinking, what makes a great cast anyway? How can talent, skill, charisma, chemistry, |
| 0:28.9 | and everything else an actor brings to the table make a movie memorable? I'm Stephen Thompson. |
| 0:34.4 | And I'm Linda Holmes. Today we're talking about what makes a great cast on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. |
| 0:44.0 | Joining us today are our co-hosts Glenn Weldon. |
| 0:47.4 | Hello, Glenn. |
| 0:48.4 | God, I hope I get it. |
| 0:49.4 | How many people does he need? |
| 0:52.9 | Oh, Glenn. |
| 0:53.9 | And Aisha Harris. |
| 0:55.0 | Hello, Aisha. |
| 0:56.1 | Ready for my close-up, Linda. |
| 0:57.8 | Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. |
| 0:59.6 | So, as we mentioned up top, there is finally a casting Oscar this year. |
| 1:03.8 | It is about time. |
| 1:04.8 | There have been casting Emmys for quite a while, so the Oscars are playing catch-up. |
| 1:10.0 | If you haven't seen the list, the nominated |
| 1:11.8 | casting directors are Nina Gold for Hamnet, Jennifer Van Ditty for Marty Supreme, Cassandra |
| 1:18.4 | Kula Kundis for one battle after another, Gabrielle Dominguez for The Secret Agent, and Francine |
| 1:24.7 | Maisler for sinners. And maybe we will touch on some of those, but what we're really talking about today is |
... |
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