Leslee Dennis was born in Queens and grew up in New York. She spent several years as a Long Island housewife before a divorce, a move to Los Angeles, and a second marriage to an actor who got her involved in show business. What began as a fascination with actors and their craft blossomed into a career in casting, including: over a dozen films for Showtime, four Academy Award nominated films and one winner, Leiberman in Love directed by Christine Lahti. Some of the actors she has worked with include: Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Kathleen Turner, Treat Williams and Peter Weller. Dennis cast the series Charmed, Nash Bridges, Michael Hayes, and Buddy Farrow.
Well, I always had a curiosity about acting but I never had the need or the guts to try it myself. I did do some dancing in community theatre and thought that was a lot of fun. But I had this need to know more about acting. Every time I saw a really fine performance I’d say, “How did they do that?” I would just marvel at the performances.
I had a friend who was an actor and was very involved with Lee Strasberg at the Actors’ Studio. So whenever Lee would talk, I was able to go and listen. I was getting the answers to my questions about acting from a master. I felt blessed to be in that place at that time. I still didn’t know what I was going to do with it but I just loved it.
My exposure to Lee gave me a need to work with actors and help them get to those deep performance levels. Somewhere in my head, I decided I wanted to try casting. I just couldn’t get a job. Most of the business seemed practically half my age and it was very hard to convince these younger casting directors that I could work for them. It was very closed.
Around that time I ran into a casting director, Kathleen Letterie, and she told me that a friend of hers was looking for an assistant. That person was [the late] Marsha Kleinman and she was willing to give me a chance. I was lucky to apprentice with the best. I would never dare come to work each week without having gone to a play or two, without having watched everything on TV and without going to a movie. Every day I came in and told her about the actors I had seen. I don’t think that kind of training really exists as much these days and younger casting directors often suffer for it.
Casting is my form of creative expression. I have an incredible passion for it. It’s very serious to me. I work very hard to make sure that it feels, in my heart, that a person is the right person for a role. I need to be able to hear an actor saying the role. Marsha would ask me if I ‘believed’ the actor in the role. That has to do with an actor’s quality, an actor’s essence and it’s nothing we can change. Some things you can change, some you can’t. Marsha taught me that.
She also taught me that good taste in actors and good taste in casting are two different things. You can have wonderful taste in actors but if you put them in the wrong roles, they’re not going to shine. That’s bad casting. But if an actor has talent, it’s just a matter of finding the right part for them. Often, you have to really convince the producers or directors of that concept because they think they can fit a name actor into any role. And they can’t—unless we’re talking about Meryl Streep or someone like Jessica Lange. The thing I love about Lange is that she’s not afraid to go to those deep, dark places and summon them out to play ugly, crazy, or whatever it is that she has to be. She just goes to the edge, says, “I’ll take a chance” and then jumps. So many people get to that point and then freeze.
Sometimes in auditions, when actors go to those places, particularly for television, they can be accused of being too over the top.
If you’re really true and simple, and you don’t think about it as a performance, it’ll happen. I find it much more powerful if something is just underneath the surface. You know it’s there, just boiling underneath. If you have a full inner life going on, that’s the most powerful thing you can bring. Lange, for example, is a smoldering actor. She doesn’t have to say a word but you can see everything.
I’ll never forget when Strasberg told an actor to try a scene just sitting in a chair. He couldn’t do it. Lee said, “See, it’s easy for you to do a lot physically and create a lot of business but the hardest thing for you to do is just sit there, experiencing what’s going on and do nothing.”
People can submit. I look at all of my mail. I may not look at it every single day but I do eventually look at everything. If an invitation to a show looks interesting and I don’t have time to go, I’ll send one of my assistants. I’ll tell them that if they see anybody they like, they should bring them in to meet me. I do generals when I have the time but working on episodic television is very fast paced. Most of the time, I’m too busy casting to do generals. But I always love to be able to meet new people. Particularly when I have a challenge for a specific role. I like it when I can find new people and give them a chance and a start.
The thing I hate the most is when I see someone in a pre-read and I say, “That’s perfect, I’m going to bring you back for the director,” and they go home and proceed to work on it and change the whole thing. They come in the next day and ruin their audition and embarrass me. If you’re getting a callback, just trust that we want to see what you did before. Don’t change it unless you’re asked to. You won’t get the job, you will only embarrass yourself and you’ll embarrass the casting director, who probably won’t call you in again.
I also don’t like it when an actor does not know how to leave the room. Some actors like to get chatty and that’s fine when we’re alone and if time allows. I want them to feel comfortable when they come into the room, because I’m not going to get anything from an uncomfortable actor. But in a producer session, I’ve seen actors start talking just to talk and schmooze. They’ll stay in the room as if they’re waiting for some kind of sign or feedback from us on how they did. We don’t have time. I try to space my auditions so people aren’t in a crowd out there. So when an actor just talks and talks, it can throw off the whole schedule and it upsets me tremendously to keep actors waiting.
Showing up on time for your appointments is also really important. I try to space my auditions so they run like clockwork. Sometimes I’ve had jam-ups but not regularly. I try to get actors their appointments at least two days in advance so they have enough time to get the script and to prepare. So it upsets me when they wait until the last minute to pass or to change the appointment. Sometimes it’s the fault of the agent but it’s really annoying. What I do like is when you come in, you’re prepared, you’re pleasant, you make a choice, you make a commitment to your choice, you do it and you’re out of there.
I think it depends on the situation; I wouldn’t want to generalize. However, if actors get off to a rocky start, I always encourage them to stop and do it again. If you don’t stop yourself and adjust, you’re never going to get your legs back. You’re going to be self-conscious and it just gets worse. By the time you’ve finished, people aren’t going to be willing to sit through it again so you have to stop yourself early in the audition. Seize the room. Take control. It’s your time. You have our attention.
Pictures are very important. They’re your calling card. If I don’t know who you are, your picture is going to make the difference between my calling you in, your picture going into my files or my not seeing you at all. What’s very hard is if you don’t look like your picture, I think I’m bringing one person in and someone else walks into the room. It becomes a waste of both of our time. So you must invest in a picture that shows you in the most honest way. Otherwise it’s misrepresentation and you only succeed in irritating the casting director.
One of the most important things that an actor needs to know is that we’re not the enemy. When an actor comes in and does well, I could get up and kiss them. And often I do. I can’t be happier than when someone does well. It makes my job easier and it means that there are fewer people I need to see. And my hiring you makes me look like I know what I’m doing. So just remember that we’re on your side. Sometimes it may not seem that way but remember—you don’t know what kind of a day we’ve been having before you came in. Someone may have just yelled at us. Actors also really need to take responsibility for their own auditions. They have to try not to take things personally, although I understand why they do. The business is the business and there’s no way you can change what is. What you can do is go in and do the best that you can. Then let it go. After that, it’s up to the universe.
Leslee Dennis
310.430.0170
13273 Ventura Blvd. Suite #104. Studio City, CA 91604