The cast of Being Heumann on how they were cast: a chemistry read that turned into drinks, a tape filmed in bed, a dorm mate on the phone, and months of callbacks.
8 Things Actors Should Know About Landing a Role Through a Long Audition
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to
spend the 6:14 watching it.
Chemistry with your scene partner can decide the role
Playing real, iconic people meant the producers wanted the actors to carry their energy, so the process included meetings and a vibe check with the director. It clicked for the actor playing Kitty when she met the actor reading Judy: they hit it off and went for drinks that night, unsure either would be cast. They were cast as the pair.
A dorm mate with a phone is enough for a first tape
A college freshman heard about the casting call from a dance class aide and found a character who was blind, autistic, loved to sing and was code-named Charlie, his own name. He thought it might be a scam, then had his dorm mate record the tape. A couple of weeks later he had an audition, and by late April he had the part.
One actor did her first tape while still fully bed bound, sitting up in bed, and her tapes stretched over four or five months. She auditioned mostly to do something that made life feel normal again. She got well enough over the same months to be on set.
In undergrad, a dean of theater refused to sign one actor's paperwork and told her Hollywood and Broadway do not hire people with disabilities. She moved to English, earned two master's degrees and a doctorate, and kept doing community theater on the side. She was cast in this film anyway.
The same actor had just had six callbacks for an NBC project that got very close and was then canceled. When another friend sent this one, she did not want to try again. Her friend told her to do it anyway, and she decided the worst outcome was no worse than the last one.
Several of the cast describe a process of about four months, with each new email arriving just after they had decided they would not hear back. Two of them say actors should be paid for that many callbacks. Expect long processes on projects like this and keep treating each round as live.
A hard-to-read director does not mean it went badly
One actor did a short Zoom with the director from his New York studio and could not tell how it went, because she can be hard to read. He had just read the script and was excited by how different it was. He was offered the part within about a week.
The actor playing Steve had worked with the same director on CODA. When that campaign ended she texted him that she was thinking of him for a new film with two deaf characters. He said yes, did his homework and research on the character, and was in.
It was a long process for sure because I mean these are iconic people and so they wanted to make sure that they were getting it right cuz you know when you're playing a real person, you really have to have the energy of um of those people and so for Kitty, she's such a bold figure and so we went through uh the process of going, you know, meeting the producers and Sean of course and getting that vibe check but then Ruth, meeting Ruth was when it really clicked because we just hit it off in our chemistry, right? And then that night we were actually the two to get drinks out of all the people auditioning and then we were like, I don't know if we're going to get this role but it was great to meet you and this was a great experience and then to figure out that we were the two cast for Kitty and Judy was really exciting, special. Yeah. - Oh my god. Um I think I was leaving my dance class. It was like spring semester of my freshman year last year and um I have a dance aid and she was telling me like, hey, I saw this casting call thing about this new movie and I'm like, cool, cool because I was rushing to the cafeteria so I didn't want to miss it. So I um looked it up later and I'm like, all right. So I was browsing the characters and I saw there was um a character who was like blind, off the mystic, loves to sing and the code name for him was Charlie and I'm like, is this a scam? I'm like, this is too real to me. I was like so confused. I'm like, same name as me so I just said, okay, screw it so I had my um dorm mate record like a um a video for me and we sent it in and I went to class and I found out a couple weeks later I got an audition and then I got to meet Sean a little later during spring break and meeting her was incredible and then yeah, on my way to class I think it was like um late April they called me and like, hey, you got it. So yeah, it was really fun and I just kept class that day for sure.
So yeah, so um then from there I got to go to Toronto, meet everybody so it has really been the journey of a lifetime but - I was - exiting a point in my life where I was much much much sicker than I am right now and it was it came at a time where I really didn't think I was going to even find a way to be a part of the industry at all. Um and it was mostly it my decision to audition uh came more from me wanting to do to engage in my hobbies and engage in things that made life feel normal again. I had only just gotten to a point where I could sometimes do that and I did my first tape while I was still fully bed bound. So I'm like sitting up in bed and it took I think I did my tapes over like the course of like five months. It was like four or five months and just coincidentally I was getting better at the same time um to a point you know that allowed me to even be here. - So I have a lot of community theater background um but I come from I guess uh trying to be a theatrical actor when I was in undergrad. Um the university denied my request and they didn't sign the paperwork um and the dean of theater basically was like you know you're really great and you're so talented but you know they don't hire people in Hollywood with disabilities and they don't have people on Broadway and he said that it would be much easier for me to cast somebody that could just sit in a chair and be done with it than to deal with like all of your issues. So he was like you know just go find something easier to do. Um and so because of that I ended up uh getting my degrees and my schooling in English instead. So I went and got two master's degrees and my doctorate but I loved to do community theater on the side and I had a situation where a friend had asked me to audition for another project for NBC and I got like six callbacks and got super super close and then it was canceled and then the show was canceled. So when my other friend called me about this project, I was like, there's no way. Like, I'm not I'm not auditioning for that.
I'm so over it. And she was like, do it anyway. She's like, I know you don't feel like it, but just do it anyway. And I was like, okay, fine. Like, cuz I was just like, what's what's the worst that could happen? And so um yeah, um like raining it was a four month period where it just kind of, you know, was again and again and again. And every time they would email you back, you'd be like, wait, this is still happening? Like, this is - It would be right after the threshold of like, oh, I'm not going to hear anything back like for sure at this point. - I don't remember um the original like um email or anything, but I do remember doing I was in New York and I did a Zoom call with with Sean, which was really great and short. And you know, Sean is very like sometimes hard to read. So I was like, uh I don't know if I got that, you know. Like, I think it went well, but you know.
Um [laughter] uh but yeah, it was honestly it was kind of quick after that. Um within I think the week I I got offered. But um but yeah, I do uh yeah, I I I just remember that Zoom from my studio and just being I had just read the script and everything and I was like, this is cool. This is so different and I'd be excited to do this, you know. And I do think just for the record, I do think that actors should get paid for that many amount of callbacks. I do think that we should - would be really nice. [laughter] That would be - That's ridiculous to have - That was months or it was months months and months of auditioning. - Uh-huh. - Yeah. - It really was. - So how I was cast in Being Human is I was working with Sean Hater, who was my director for the movie Coda. And when we finished that campaign, um which was a pleasure, Sean sent me a text to saying, I'm thinking about you for a new movie I 'm doing that has two deaf characters.
And of course, if Sean asks me to work with her again, of course I'll say yes. And so I replied yes, I was interested. And so we went back and forth into uh my character Steve. So I did a bit of homework and research and was ready to participate in the movie. So that's how I became involved. - [music]
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