You know all of the fine – It’s very easy to come up with a whole list of names – What are the financial ramification? How much money do we have for the film? How much money do we have for all of these people? And I think because I understood it from an acting point of view it made it easier for me to make the leap into the production part of it. So I read the script and interpret it and then I sit down with the director and talk about what it is.

I read a script from an actors point of view because that’s my training I went to the High School of Performing Arts, I studied acting after performing arts with people like Bill Hickey and Uta Hagen at a HP studios. Jane Jenkins: I come to everything that I do from an actors point of view. Jenkins credits acting background for giving her the skills needed to be a successful casting director. And it’s just been truly the right – I was in the right place at the right time.Įric: Ms. And I’ve done I don’t know 16/17 movies for Ron as well. You know Ron called the studio and said I need a casting director and Fred Roos who was Francis Coppola’s producer. So I mean and I’ve worked and the same the same is true for Ron Howard. And it’s the 18th movie that I’ve done with Rob Reiner. And so I cast Rob’s very first movie after Spinal Tap, a film called The Sure Thing. And we just finished a film that he hasn’t started shooting yet but we just finished a film called Shock and Awe. And I was just it was the perfect culmination for me of my love of acting and my love of the movies and literally the minute I said casting one door after another opened and early on in my career I hooked up with a wonderful woman named Jennifer Shull and she had worked for Francis Coppola and then we all went over to Zoetrope and worked for Francis for a couple of years until the studio fell apart but because we had been Frances’s casting people Rob Reiner called and said I need a casting director. The company that produced the Waltons and he said, “you know, I’m going to do a movie and you can cast it for me.” And I went, “I don’t know how to actually.” He said, “go to the screen actors guild and get the rulebook.” And I did. Way back when before all of you were born it was an old boyfriend of mine and I asked him if he could help me get a job at Lorimar the country. There are rules and regulations and an actor by the name of Ralph Waite who was on a very successful TV show called The Waltons. And literally a lightbulb went off in my head and I went, “casting! What a great job that could be could really incorporate my acting and my production and all of that.” And then all I needed to do was find a job because I didn’t know how to actually, cast anything. And so I did a lot of research for him and then I watched them casting it and I kept saying no these people are wrong they’re not gypsies because I knew a great deal about more than I ever needed to know about gypsies. And after we finished shooting the film he asked me if I would come and work for him on a film called King of the Gypsies. He was a really fabulous Academy Award-winning writer and he wrote and directed, A Star Is Born. He – a lot of fabulous fabulous movies- and he wrote Dog Day Afternoon. Frank Pierson was a terrific writer who wrote a movie called Cool Hand Luke. And I sort of watched the whole casting process and then I went to work for a man named Frank Pierson. I worked as an assistant to a number of people and one of the – two of the people that I worked for were John Peters and Barbra Streisand when they were making a movie called A Star Is Born, a remake of the original.

Jane Jenkins: I was not a successful actress. Plus another 50 or so movies for John Hughes Ron Howard and Rob Reiner.Įric: But none of this would have happened if her career went as initially planned in front of the camera. Makes you wonder is there a movie she didn’t cast with her partner Janet Hirshenson The Princess Bride. Jane Jenkins: Her credits over four decades. I go thank you very much and I cancel 10 appointments.– Who is this character? Where do they fit in the script? And you bring a life into the room. When an actor comes in and has really thought about. Eric: Hi I’m Eric Conner senior instructor at New York Film Academy, and in this episode, we bring you one of Hollywood’s greatest and most proficient casting directors, Jane Jenkins.

Jane jenkins casting director