There's no Oscar for casting, but Cindy Tolan's work on 'West Side Story' proves there's no doubt the job is critical to the success of a movie.
Three of America's funniest ladies are at the right place at the right time, and however many laughs they may get, the trio is guaranteed to make history.
Tolan is a casting director, the first point of contact for a performer looking for a job and a key asset for any filmmaker who is looking to find the perfect ensemble for a movie. "What's very important is that you want to build one cohesive whole without losing each individual actor's voice," Tolan said.
She cast a wide net, auditioning 30,000 people to find performers who could sing, dance, and act on screen."They had to be quadruple threats," Tolan said."We created a flier that went viral," she said. When a New Jersey teen named Rachel Zegler sent in an audition tape of"I Feel Pretty" recorded in her bathroom, Tolan told Spielberg that he had to hear and see her.On Broadway, Ariana DeBose was so busy playing"Disco Donna" Summer that she didn't even want to audition for the movie musical. Tolan asked four times and finally convinced her to try out."I would not be here if she had not dragged me in the room," DeBose said in her acceptance speech.
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