Jeff Greenberg, csa

Since 1985, Jeff Greenberg has been happily ensconced on the Paramount lot where he cast Cheers for the final seven of its eleven seasons and Frasier for the subsequent seven. Like most casting directors, he began as an actor but, unlike most casting directors, Greenberg acted successfully for many years. He gave it up quite unexpectedly when Casting Director Linda Francis, a friend, asked him to fill in assisting her on a film project. Greenberg fell in love with casting and never went back to acting. After assisting Francis for three years and nine features, Greenberg successfully struck out on his own. His work has been made up of stage, including plays at the Mark Taper Forum and the Tiffany, and such feature films as Look Who’s Talking, Father of the Bride 2, A Night at the Roxbury and television, including Nothing Sacred, Wings, My So-Called Life, Newsradio, Early Edition, Dear John, and, of course, Cheers and Frasier. Along the way, he’s picked up five Artios Awards and an Emmy Award in 2010 for his casting work in Modern Family (2009-present).

In a recent pilot you cast, you had to let someone go. Can you talk about the reasons that can happen?

Just about every pilot that gets on the air has at least one cast change. Either someone wasn’t right or they feel the chemistry wasn’t there or sometimes the look is not quite right. It’s just so unfortunate because there’s nothing more horrible for me than having to fire an actor. It’s a nightmare. But it happens, and ultimately, you have to do what best suits the project. The play is the thing. These are hard decisions that are never made lightly.

When we were shooting the pilot for Frasier, the role of Roz was initially played by Lisa Kudrow. She was great and we all loved her but during rehearsals, we found that the show was off-balance. There was all of this conflict in the home scenes but there was very little of it in the radio station scenes. The character that Lisa had created, which is exactly what we wanted her to do, wasn’t going to provide enough conflict and Frasier is funniest when he’s pushed and conflicted. We had to make a change. It was a dark day for us because we love Lisa, personally and professionally, but we had to go with a personality who would more readily go toe to toe with Frasier. That’s a perfect example of a change that had to happen and it wasn’t about good acting, it was about good casting.

So sometimes it has nothing to do with the actor or his talent?

Actually, and I hate to say this, but sometimes it is. Sometimes actors are just not good enough. Their best performance is the audition. Sometimes their work on film is different than it is in the office. And sometimes it’s our mistake; the work just isn’t strong enough.

Elia Kazan talked about rejection and said, “Acting is a career of comebacks.”

Yes, yes—you’re rejected on some level every time you don’t get a part. I think if that’s going to be a problem, acting is probably the wrong career for you. I think you have to find a way to know and realize that you weren’t the best choice for the role and that’s okay. If you can do that, you’re ahead of the game. And it’s a hard thing to do for an actor at any level, at any age.

So what you’re saying is that actors have to have more than talent, they have to have a talent for survival.

It’s true. The perseverance factor is hanging in there and not letting the business get you down. And if you hang in there, while you wait you can keep getting better and better at your craft.

And at auditioning, because these days, it seems the whole performance has to be there from the get-go, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, in television, it’s more about result. They really want to see the performance in the audition room and at the first rehearsal. On the very first day of rehearsal, if it doesn’t work, something’s wrong—either the actor’s wrong or the material’s wrong. And if they’ve heard the material work in the audition and it’s not working now, they have to figure out why. Sometimes it is the material and they’ll fix it or sometimes the actors not working and they give them an adjustment to try to make it work. If it still doesn’t work then they have to make a change. But it’s all about results. Fast. It’s too fast.

Theatre trained actors aren’t used to that. They’re process oriented. And yet, you prefer theatre actors.

Well, they’re so well suited to this four-camera process. Sitcoms are like doing a twenty-two minute play. They’re performed like theatre, in sequence, whereas film is often not. Sitcoms require actors who can make adjustments quickly and then have the chops to recreate the performance time and time again. Sometimes actors without a lot of stage experience have a difficult time completely recreating what they did. Actors need to know that for sitcoms, when something works, retain it. The directors don’t want you to keep experimenting with it, they want you to keep experimenting with the things that aren’t quite working.

Does that mean that, if you get a role, you should recreate what you did at the audition?

Unless they give you an adjustment, they want you to recreate what you did in the audition. And if that gets laughs at the table reading, they want you to recreate it the next day.

So there’s a lot of pressure at the table read.

Yeah. It’s a nervous time for me because a lot of the executives and creators who were not a part of the casting process are seeing the actors for the first time, as well as hearing the material. And they’re always very quick to judge. The beauty of Frasier is that the words are everything. It’s so beautifully crafted that if you’re right for the part and you understand it, you can just say the words and it will be funny. You play the reality. Comedy is, of course, best when it’s rooted in reality.

You once said to me that you think actors shouldn’t feel the need to sell themselves at auditions. They should just be themselves.

Every actor’s asset is that there is no one else quite like them. So rather than make themselves like everyone else, actors need to trust their own special uniqueness. Certainly people have to play a character but the trick is to find a way to tap into something of yourself. That gives it a reality. Use who you are as well as your techniques and skills as an actor to create the character.

There are casting directors who love to chat with actors before a reading and then there are casting directors who want to get down to it with very little conversation. Do you have any preferences?

I really love to chat and get to know someone but sometimes there is simply no time. Often I’m seeing three actors every fifteen minutes for a small role, so there’s no time for schmoozing. The actor must learn to always take the cue from the room you walk into. If they want to chat with you first, they’ll chat with you. They’ll ask you questions about you, about your résumé, about the material, whatever. But, if they say, “Okay, could you begin at the top of page two,” you do that. At the end of your audition, you have to take your cues too. If we say, “Thank you very much,” that is your cue to leave. I have seen someone be so wonderful in an audition and then we say, “Thank you,” and I know they are going to get the part—then they launch into a story about God knows what and you just want them to shut up and let the work stand on its own. I’ve seen so many actors blow it, not from the work, but from not taking the cues from the room.

Do you go to the theatre?

Yes, often. But I’m tired of walking out of things at intermission so I’m very selective about what I see. I read reviews and I talk to people. I really do a little investigation to make sure it’s going to be a good evening of theatre.

And you look at every picture and résumé?

I do. And I meet with people either because I think that they might be right for whatever project I’m working on, or just because there’s something about their résumé or photograph that makes me want to meet them. There are probably around one hundred people in my “to meet” folder at any one time and when I have time, I call them in. I also get an enormous number of referrals from people I know who want me to meet someone they know. I never mind that because they’re just being talent scouts for me.

Jeff Greenberg Casting

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