June 19, 2025 • 26 mins
Have you ever wanted to know the origins of New Girl? Did you know Coach used to be a fat Jewish guy? Well wonder no more, Hannah is joined by Seth Yanklewitz, the casting director for New Girl. He auditioned everyone and he's here to breakdown how he put the loft mates together to create our favorite series of all time!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, roomies, we are calling a loft meeting today. We
(00:21):
are joined by the genius, my dear friend, the man
who helped change my entire life, and the one who
helped put the cast of New Girl together. Mister Seth
a Ankle, it's please welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hi, how are you? What's good? Thank you? I should
have shaved for you. I'm embarrassed now, No, I should
have gotten cleaned up.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I like this scruff.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you. Hi. Well, hello, it's been a while since
we've seen each other face to face.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I know, but I think about you all the time
and I.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Talk about you all the time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So we were just texting before we dive into all
the New Girls story and how this cast came together
and everything. You told me that the other day that
you share a story about me with other people. So
what's the story.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So every time I teach like young actors or graduating
classes of colleges, or if I give a talk at
like the SAG Foundation, you know, a major question that
everyone talks about is like how do you remember actors?
Or when actors come in, like do you remember them?
And I always say our story, which is you know, Jewel,
(01:39):
my old casting partner Jule Bestrop and I were doing
a pilot for twentieth for NBC called never Mind Nirvana,
which was the third time the show was trying to
get made, and I think you were represented by Gersh
at the time. Yeah, okay, And we auditioned you, and
(02:01):
instantaneously I was like, holy cow, I'm obsessed. And as
I fall in love with actors, you were one. And
we tested you for the show in like the old
testing where it was like five people sitting in a
lobby signing their contracts, staring at each other. Yeah, with
like a lot of dialogue to do in a room,
(02:22):
over and over and over. And unfortunately it didn't go
your way. But two years later I got a pilot
called New Girl, and there was a character by the
name of Ceci, which was written as a high fashion
supermodel and like you know, high fashion, high fashion, and
(02:44):
and I auditioned like a bunch of girls that were
considered high fashion. And the truth is nobody could do
the part. Nobody, And it was it was only like
it wasn't like a huge amount of girls, because it's
not like we could pull so many in. And I
auditioned a bunch of the Victoria's Secret Models because at
that point they had like the biggest audiences.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I know, Can I just interject because it was really funny?
Is that? You know? I was down in Chile shooting
this YouTube bred show with Brian Singer called h Plus
with a little known actress called Katrina balf who was
a Victoria's Secrets model, and we both were down there
(03:26):
and she was like because I was like, oh my gosh,
I just auditioned for this show. Oh it would be
so perfect. I love it so much. I connect to
it so much, and she had just auditioned for it.
Katrina did yeah, and I was like, well, you're obviously
getting it. You're like a real life supermodel girl. I
was like, oh, it's all over for me. So yeah,
she was one of the people, one of the supermodels
(03:48):
that would that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah sos As the auditioning when like and as the
cast came together slowly, I realized like none of those
girls would been able to stand up comedically to what
we were building. And I remembered I was like, oh
my god, there's this girl, And in my brain it
goes like, oh my god, there was this actress during
(04:12):
this pilot I was doing, I have to find her.
She's she was, she's Canadian, like I had to like
get all the pieces together and and I called Gersh
and again they were like, oh, she's like in another
country filming, and I was like, what do we do?
And I was like, I'm moving fast. And as that
(04:32):
was happening, I was talking to like Liz Meriwether and
Catherine Pope and Dave and I was like, guys, is
there any way we could make this character like a
commercial model, like someone a little more attainable rather than like,
you know, high fashion. I was like, cause, if so,
I have like the most amazing girl, I'm telling you
(04:54):
she's going to get the job. And they were like
it doesn't yes, of course, like it doesn't matter, like
we'll do what because we need to find her. And
I guess you did a self tape right, which I
thought was amazing. And I was like, we need to
test her and they were like, she's literally flying in
on this day, like she will not be and like you,
(05:15):
if I remember you, like flew in and came right
to the studio or something.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
In went straight from lax to box into that weird
little building that looks like this Swiss Shelle.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, and yeah, that was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
In my bathroom. I was trying to get the sand
out of my hair because the last scene I shot
I was, you know, like it's supposed to be set
in India. We were in the deserts in Chile and
Katrina balf Is driving away with my baby and I'm
screaming and crying and I literally went from that set.
They raced me to catch the flight. So like, my
eyes are puffy, like from all this crying. I've got
(05:49):
sand in my hair. I think it was like an
assari And so I literally just ran straight in to
the bathroom to change. And I remember feeling a little
star struck because standing in the bathroom room with was
Christina Milian. It was so beautiful, so beautiful, and I
(06:24):
was like and then I was like, but it was
with Zoe and Lys and Catherine, and I was like,
this feels crazy. And so I came in the room
and I remember sitting down and trying to take everything
in and we did a little bit of small talk
while they were getting things set up, and I remember
(06:44):
I made Zoe laugh. I just remember that moment of
like her genuinely, and we just became instant friends because
we just got each other in this moment and we
were so opposite, but we got each other.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I remember that, and it was I think like
pretty much yours. From that moment on, we just had
to like go through the paces. But I always tell
the story like, obviously we remember actors, like, we don't
just bring you in one time, and so you know
that's that's my my Hannah, like is proof is proof
(07:24):
to you actors that we remember you no matter what
and we do want you to get jobs. So yeah,
you are often often used in my storytelling.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Sure I will put an asterisk on that though. I
think great casting directors do that, and you, to me
are just that example because I tell that story all
the time because I went in for the pilot season
and it was for Outsourced and it was for never
Mind Nirvana, and word kind of spread, right they were like,
there's this new girl. Yeah, because there's all these like
Indian specific roles always totally, but new Girl was not
(07:57):
an Indian specific role. And the fact that you remembered
me and didn't just think of me as just like
she's the Indian actress that's newly oh yeah, but just
as like she's a good actress and brought me in
for it. I tell that story all the time and
I'm like, Seth remembered and he saw my potential. He
just didn't see who I was on the surface. He
(08:20):
could see me in this mainstream American cast right, and
could see that they could make it fit and work
and not be about my ethnicity, not me about that.
It was just like funny and it changed my life.
And because of that, and this is why I always
say representation truly does matter. Like Liz doing that and
(08:41):
trusting you and kind of kicking that door open has
had a real domino effect on who we see on
our TV screen stars. It was powerful.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I mean Liz and Catherine and Jake and Brett and Dave,
like they really you know, the same thing happened with
the coach role. You know, the coach in the pilot
was originally written as a heavy set Jewish guy.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
No way, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And I said to them, oh yeah. And I said
to them like, guys, if we want to get on
the air, this is Fox, we need diversity in this cast.
And they were like, well, which role do you think
And I was like, to me, it makes the most
sense for coach to be diverse, and they all thought
about it and obviously like it wasn't just me, like
they had to come up with it and figure out
(09:27):
how to write to it. And so they were like, Okay,
start seeing diversity. And the funny thing is when people
came in, all of the diverse guys, they were like
reading the part as like a heavy set Jewish guy
and so like it wasn't working at all. And I
kept going like, why are these funny people not funny?
(09:48):
Like why is this not working? And I went to
Liz and I was like, could you just like rewrite
the like character description for me, so like they don't
think it's like a chubby Jewish guy or a heavy
set Jewish guy. And then and I brought people back
and like and so that's how then I got to Lamarne,
basically because because the funny thing about Lamorne was I
(10:10):
was watching TV and he was in a string of
Vegas tourism commercials playing a limo driver who was yeah,
he was doing he would play like himself and then
he would play like the person in the back of
the limo, but he was really the driver. It was
(10:31):
so weird, and I was like who is this guy?
And I like hunted him down and he was with
Naomi Odenkirk and she was like, yeah, he's like we
just started representing him or something. And I was like,
I need him to come into an audition for this
new show for me. He's amazing. And that's how he
he That's how I got to Lamarne.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This is also one of your superpowers, like I feel
like you're always looking. I feel like you're always looking.
You can spot the potential. And here's the other thing too.
I always tell about the story about how I got
the sec character is that you tell the truth right.
You don't sugarcoat things. You actually tell the truth. Because
when I did that test that chemistry read with Zoe
(11:09):
right off the plane, and then I was coming in
to do studio and network, which you're in a room
full of people and also just like never really done that,
so it was very overwhelming. I remember getting a call
from my agent. It was like Seth just called, you're
going in. He's asking can you please just like brush
your hair and put on like a dress, can you
look cuter? Can you figure it out? And it was
(11:29):
thank goodness. Yeah, because I think a lot of people
are just kind of be like, well, let's see what
she does, and it's like, no, you need guidance, you
need information. We're actors, we need direction, direction, and you
gave that gift. It's very different from any other experience
I've ever had, and I always somehow just managed to
like follow the map back to you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Well, you know, I I Look, I've been lucky enough
where I've worked as an independent casting director and a
student exec or a network exec. And so I'm on
both sides of the conversation. And look, it is my
job and it is our job to get you guys' jobs.
(12:12):
I only want to get actors' jobs. So why not
help to the best of my ability to get an
actor a job, and if it means like saying, gently
brush your hair, wear. But the other thing was, you
know again, you had just come off a plane and
CC was meant to be a model, and so like
we had to judge her up right, but we had.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
To are fresh into that studio network world. Yeah, I
didn't know, And you really gave this opportunity to a
lot of us and have continued to do so that
don't have that experience, that don't know kind of how
you're supposed to show up or what you know, what
the rules kind of are the unwritten rules so many
it's helpful though, and making sure that. I always say,
(12:58):
it's kind of like as an actor or you know
what you want to do right, hopefully you have that
sense and within yourself. That's what he was a great actor.
I was like, But then you're put in these situations,
situations even like with zoom auditions now where it's so
alien and strange. It's like someone saying, you know that
thing you do really really well. We can see the
potential in you. You've never juggled before, right, cool? Can
(13:19):
you do that while you're juggling?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And you go like, what if I'm a bad juggler
and now I don't get a job because I juggle badly?
And that's where I'm like, that's the gift. You go like,
let me play you a side and I'm gonna teach
you how to juggle. I can see that, you know
what a great act what I see? Yeah, anyway, you're
just one of the best. I truly, I have such
a special place in my heart for you. You know that
(13:42):
because I tell you that, I'm like you truly did
something not only just for me, but you did it
for the community and you continue to do it. We'll
get to Deli Boys in a minute, but let's talk
about finding because everybody asks me that, how do they
find Max? How did they find Jake?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So Jake had done uh, Liz Merriweather's movie that had
just come out, but no one really knew who he was,
and so he came in and auditioned, you know, and
then quickly we were like, oh my god, he's amazing.
I think we put him right to a cam read
with Zoe. I don't think. I don't think like I
(14:25):
pre read him, if I recall, and if I did
pre read him, it was just because we had never
met him. And but I think he went right to
like a cam read with Zoe, and then we immediately
tested him. So Jake was number two to to be cast, uh.
And then Max is a different story. Like I had
(14:47):
known Max really, I mean obviously I saw him on
Ugly Betty. I knew who his wife was at the time,
she was in casting as well. But I used to
see Max like around town, and he was such an
amazing person and so like energetic and positive and funny,
and I had never really auditioned him. I don't know why,
(15:08):
but I had this like spidey sense that like he
could have this character in him. And you know, Liz
and Dave and Brett were there. They were very tough
just because they, more than most writers or showrunners, were
very knowledgeable of comedic actors, and Liz was very knowledgeable
(15:32):
of all the UCB people, you know, and so they
were very not hard on me, but like they basically
preapproved my producer sessions, and Jake has in two and
and and I slipped Max into the third producer session
(15:53):
because they just didn't know who he was. It wasn't
that they didn't want him, they just didn't know him.
And so I like literally slipped him in it like secret,
and he came in and his first like one of
like the best first auditions ever I know. And Jake
Hasden was in New York, so he wasn't in the session.
(16:15):
So we had to send tapes to Jake to watch overnight,
and we got I think we got like Liz got
a voicemail if I'm corrector Catherine, which they played the
next day at the top of our session where Jake
was like whoever this Max kid is like is unbelievable,
Like Jake immediately and Liz too and Breton Dave like
(16:39):
they were all on board, but like Jake left a
message to somebody I can't remember who, saying like, holy
crap that guy. And that's how the Max thing started.
And yeah, and you know, people maybe they do know now,
but like back then, his wife worked at Fox, and
she removed herself from the uh covering the job because
(17:02):
she was my exec at the network, but she took
herself off the project because once Max, like once I
said we wanted to test him, the network took her
off and she covered it from afar, but really she
didn't cover it much anymore until after he got the
job from twentieth But we kept it very secret because
(17:26):
we didn't want anyone's sort of feelings to be you know,
changed or what have you. So it was all done
like super kosher between Twentieth Casting and me and uh, yeah,
and that's sort of like, you know, look, did I
know Max had the like the full Schmidt in him
(17:48):
that he created? Maybe not, but I had a spidy
sense that he had something different than what was on paper,
I mean Schmidt on paper was way like, for lack
of a better word, doucheier than he eventually played it.
Max played it with such a heart, you know that like,
And I think that's why he became such a fan
(18:10):
fave because had he just been like, you know, a
polo collar up wearing like Khaki Khaki guy, he the
character wouldn't have been so beloved. But he just brought
such a I mean, he it was all him, It
was all him. He did that. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I will say, like I feel like with Max because
like I think about the chemistry with Max, and I go,
I think so much of it came from just his
kindness that you talk about that everybody knows because Max,
I guess it, auditioned for like seven pilots or something
at that he had really tried many times. Many times
were for me. This was kind of like my first
(19:07):
real big kick at the can and so showing up
on set to shoot the pilot, I mean, I was
doing everything for the first time, and we were supposed
to have this kind of dynamic and he was so
kind and helpful, and he knew that no matter what
choice I was going to make in the scene, he
was just going to yes. It and elevate it, and
(19:28):
which came across as this like chemistry, but it was
really him just being an incredible friend and caretaking someone
that was like brand new and heavily seasoned. Yeah, And
it was always that I had so much trust in
him and no matter what scene we did, that heart
is Max's heart, and he's not going to let you fail.
He's not going to let the scene fail. He's always
(19:49):
going to make it funny. He's he just had that
naturally in him as a person. And it came across
and because I did need that handholding in the beginning,
because I was trying to juggle. I'll act, and he
just took away the juggling. He's like, what if I
do all the juggling. Yeah, I'll help you all the stuff.
You don't have to think about it, just do what
you do. And he was so loving as a friend.
(20:10):
And I've never forgotten that either. Yeah, he was so
kind until I got my feet on the ground. And
we talk about that a lot. La Moren and I
talk about like the kindness of the other actors because
a lot of us were brand new.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah. Look, I mean, you guys were thrown into a
solid group, like it was a solid, working, knowledgeable comedic family.
And you know, and again I say, Liz Brett and
Dave were so powerful in terms of their knowledge of
actors and comedy and script and so like, it was
(20:46):
high bar. It was a high bar. I just remembered
as we were talking, Max and Jake were supposed to
test for a Sony show and I and like, that
test was on a third Thursday. No, that test was
on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
This is the same pilot season.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Same pilot season for they were it was a it
was a Sony show and that test was either on
it was either on like a Wednesday or a Thursday.
My test was either on like a Thursday or Friday. Like,
my test was the next day. And had they closed
that test deal, I would have been in second position.
So I called my casting partner Jewel, and I'm like,
(21:26):
if I moved my test up and we close first,
do I then get to own them in first position?
She's like yeah. So I called Liz Paulson at twentieth
Then I was like, we have to move our test,
and we moved our tests so that.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I got out.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah. I just remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I feel like maybe I feel like the industry's changed,
it's not really like that anymore. I remember it was
so quick. It was so quick, you had so many pilots.
You were going up for all these pilots and then yeah,
whoever gotcha gotcha? Yeah, and then that was so that's
how I wow the strategy.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, that was the first time I was like, ooh,
I'm conniving, Like I was like, oh, where did that
come from? Because actually, I know totally Like could you
imagine if they were in a veil? I mean, you
know that we all know, like we'll tell the story
of Lamarn and why he wasn't coach in the end,
but like, you know, it was just like, yeah, it
would have been a whole different show.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So so fascinating. I get so many so I have
to get into it because so many people have asked
us about the the like the guest stars we had
on this show, yeah, I mean are some of the
most powerful actors, musicians, celebrities, yeah, in the world. Yeah,
And everybody's like, why did they want to be on
(22:41):
New Girl? What was the you know, like for them
to want to be on the show, So how was
it incoming calls? Did you guys chase you Chase Parker, Posey,
How did that work to get so many of those
incredible people on our show?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So first I'll say, you know, after the pilot, I
be came an executive at Fox on the network side,
so I then didn't cast the series. Anya col Off
and Michael Nicolo came in to cast the series, but
I oversaw the show as the network exect, so I
(23:15):
obviously had such like ownership over the show. And you know,
so we did. We got a lot of incoming calls,
a lot by the incoming calls. Yeah, totally. I mean,
certainly in the second half of the first season when
everyone saw Who, because everybody waits to see, like what
is the show going to do? What's it going to
be like? And I think in that show got immediate
(23:37):
critical acclaim like it did, right so I think right
away people wanted to be on it, and it just
it grew and it never didn't grow. And then you know, look,
Zoe was an indie film queen, like she came with
mad cred, like a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I did you get Zoe?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So so we got hired for the job, you know,
and we did a list. Twentieth asked us to do
a list for the lead, and we came up with
a list and we all agreed on Zoe and Sharon
Klein did Sharon Klein and went and got her like
you know, she got to the manager and sent the
(24:23):
script and the manager fell in love and gave it
to Zoe. And it was one week. We delivered a
list like on a Monday, and Zoe attached, like literally,
by the end of the week, Zoe was attached like
or they were making the deal. It happened very fast. Wow.
But Sharon Klein and Liz Paulson, you know, but Sharon
went and got Zoey for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I remember when I got the Chicks and Dicks script.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
The only person attached was Zoe, And I just remember
it was such a weird feeling in my body because
I was like wow, because it wasn't you know, at
that time, it wasn't like film stars, especially ones that
are so cool and respected, right and authentically individual, we're
(25:07):
doing television.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
They just weren't.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It was a really shocking moment where you know, like
this show is going to be Yeah, it's a given,
it's going to be huge. It was so special and.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The first day the first day Zoe read with an actor,
we all, like all the producers, all the studio. When
we watched the tape, we were like, oh my god,
she's amazing, like because we just offered it to her,
like right, but to then hear the words allowed, You're like,
oh my god, this was this is these are her words.
This is written out of like out of her soul,
(25:42):
do you know what I mean? And so that's when
everyone like we literally were cheering almost like I.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Can imagine because if you do these offers, it's like,
you know, it was a very big offer only world like,
if you were doing these offers, even if it's like
the greatest actress, I'm sure you do hold your breath
a little bit until you get to see what they
do with the role. And Zoe is Jess is Zoe,
I mean Joyces felt she was talking and that's just
how great she is as an actor, but also how
(26:09):
perfectly cast she was. Okay, we're gonna pause this conversation
with the incredible Seth, the guiding light of this cast
of New Girl and the man behind so many wonderful ensembles.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
That you know and love on your.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
TV and pick it up next week for Part two
that was the mess Around. In iHeartMedia production, our executive
producer is Joel Monique.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Our senior producer is Abu Zafar Bei Wang provided engineering
and editing services.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Additional production from Daniel Goodman, Wendy Heisler, and Kyle Shevron.
Our theme song was written and composed by Ronald juke
Box Jackson, Catch You Next Time.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Bye,
Okay, roomies, we are calling a loft meeting today. We
(00:21):
are joined by the genius, my dear friend, the man
who helped change my entire life, and the one who
helped put the cast of New Girl together. Mister Seth
a Ankle, it's please welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hi, how are you? What's good? Thank you? I should
have shaved for you. I'm embarrassed now, No, I should
have gotten cleaned up.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I like this scruff.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you. Hi. Well, hello, it's been a while since
we've seen each other face to face.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I know, but I think about you all the time
and I.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Talk about you all the time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So we were just texting before we dive into all
the New Girls story and how this cast came together
and everything. You told me that the other day that
you share a story about me with other people. So
what's the story.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So every time I teach like young actors or graduating
classes of colleges, or if I give a talk at
like the SAG Foundation, you know, a major question that
everyone talks about is like how do you remember actors?
Or when actors come in, like do you remember them?
And I always say our story, which is you know, Jewel,
(01:39):
my old casting partner Jule Bestrop and I were doing
a pilot for twentieth for NBC called never Mind Nirvana,
which was the third time the show was trying to
get made, and I think you were represented by Gersh
at the time. Yeah, okay, And we auditioned you, and
(02:01):
instantaneously I was like, holy cow, I'm obsessed. And as
I fall in love with actors, you were one. And
we tested you for the show in like the old
testing where it was like five people sitting in a
lobby signing their contracts, staring at each other. Yeah, with
like a lot of dialogue to do in a room,
(02:22):
over and over and over. And unfortunately it didn't go
your way. But two years later I got a pilot
called New Girl, and there was a character by the
name of Ceci, which was written as a high fashion
supermodel and like you know, high fashion, high fashion, and
(02:44):
and I auditioned like a bunch of girls that were
considered high fashion. And the truth is nobody could do
the part. Nobody, And it was it was only like
it wasn't like a huge amount of girls, because it's
not like we could pull so many in. And I
auditioned a bunch of the Victoria's Secret Models because at
that point they had like the biggest audiences.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I know, Can I just interject because it was really funny?
Is that? You know? I was down in Chile shooting
this YouTube bred show with Brian Singer called h Plus
with a little known actress called Katrina balf who was
a Victoria's Secrets model, and we both were down there
(03:26):
and she was like because I was like, oh my gosh,
I just auditioned for this show. Oh it would be
so perfect. I love it so much. I connect to
it so much, and she had just auditioned for it.
Katrina did yeah, and I was like, well, you're obviously
getting it. You're like a real life supermodel girl. I
was like, oh, it's all over for me. So yeah,
she was one of the people, one of the supermodels
(03:48):
that would that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah sos As the auditioning when like and as the
cast came together slowly, I realized like none of those
girls would been able to stand up comedically to what
we were building. And I remembered I was like, oh
my god, there's this girl, And in my brain it
goes like, oh my god, there was this actress during
(04:12):
this pilot I was doing, I have to find her.
She's she was, she's Canadian, like I had to like
get all the pieces together and and I called Gersh
and again they were like, oh, she's like in another
country filming, and I was like, what do we do?
And I was like, I'm moving fast. And as that
(04:32):
was happening, I was talking to like Liz Meriwether and
Catherine Pope and Dave and I was like, guys, is
there any way we could make this character like a
commercial model, like someone a little more attainable rather than like,
you know, high fashion. I was like, cause, if so,
I have like the most amazing girl, I'm telling you
(04:54):
she's going to get the job. And they were like
it doesn't yes, of course, like it doesn't matter, like
we'll do what because we need to find her. And
I guess you did a self tape right, which I
thought was amazing. And I was like, we need to
test her and they were like, she's literally flying in
on this day, like she will not be and like you,
(05:15):
if I remember you, like flew in and came right
to the studio or something.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
In went straight from lax to box into that weird
little building that looks like this Swiss Shelle.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, and yeah, that was.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
In my bathroom. I was trying to get the sand
out of my hair because the last scene I shot
I was, you know, like it's supposed to be set
in India. We were in the deserts in Chile and
Katrina balf Is driving away with my baby and I'm
screaming and crying and I literally went from that set.
They raced me to catch the flight. So like, my
eyes are puffy, like from all this crying. I've got
(05:49):
sand in my hair. I think it was like an
assari And so I literally just ran straight in to
the bathroom to change. And I remember feeling a little
star struck because standing in the bathroom room with was
Christina Milian. It was so beautiful, so beautiful, and I
(06:24):
was like and then I was like, but it was
with Zoe and Lys and Catherine, and I was like,
this feels crazy. And so I came in the room
and I remember sitting down and trying to take everything
in and we did a little bit of small talk
while they were getting things set up, and I remember
(06:44):
I made Zoe laugh. I just remember that moment of
like her genuinely, and we just became instant friends because
we just got each other in this moment and we
were so opposite, but we got each other.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I remember that, and it was I think like
pretty much yours. From that moment on, we just had
to like go through the paces. But I always tell
the story like, obviously we remember actors, like, we don't
just bring you in one time, and so you know
that's that's my my Hannah, like is proof is proof
(07:24):
to you actors that we remember you no matter what
and we do want you to get jobs. So yeah,
you are often often used in my storytelling.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Sure I will put an asterisk on that though. I
think great casting directors do that, and you, to me
are just that example because I tell that story all
the time because I went in for the pilot season
and it was for Outsourced and it was for never
Mind Nirvana, and word kind of spread, right they were like,
there's this new girl. Yeah, because there's all these like
Indian specific roles always totally, but new Girl was not
(07:57):
an Indian specific role. And the fact that you remembered
me and didn't just think of me as just like
she's the Indian actress that's newly oh yeah, but just
as like she's a good actress and brought me in
for it. I tell that story all the time and
I'm like, Seth remembered and he saw my potential. He
just didn't see who I was on the surface. He
(08:20):
could see me in this mainstream American cast right, and
could see that they could make it fit and work
and not be about my ethnicity, not me about that.
It was just like funny and it changed my life.
And because of that, and this is why I always
say representation truly does matter. Like Liz doing that and
(08:41):
trusting you and kind of kicking that door open has
had a real domino effect on who we see on
our TV screen stars. It was powerful.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I mean Liz and Catherine and Jake and Brett and Dave,
like they really you know, the same thing happened with
the coach role. You know, the coach in the pilot
was originally written as a heavy set Jewish guy.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
No way, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And I said to them, oh yeah. And I said
to them like, guys, if we want to get on
the air, this is Fox, we need diversity in this cast.
And they were like, well, which role do you think
And I was like, to me, it makes the most
sense for coach to be diverse, and they all thought
about it and obviously like it wasn't just me, like
they had to come up with it and figure out
(09:27):
how to write to it. And so they were like, Okay,
start seeing diversity. And the funny thing is when people
came in, all of the diverse guys, they were like
reading the part as like a heavy set Jewish guy
and so like it wasn't working at all. And I
kept going like, why are these funny people not funny?
(09:48):
Like why is this not working? And I went to
Liz and I was like, could you just like rewrite
the like character description for me, so like they don't
think it's like a chubby Jewish guy or a heavy
set Jewish guy. And then and I brought people back
and like and so that's how then I got to Lamarne,
basically because because the funny thing about Lamorne was I
(10:10):
was watching TV and he was in a string of
Vegas tourism commercials playing a limo driver who was yeah,
he was doing he would play like himself and then
he would play like the person in the back of
the limo, but he was really the driver. It was
(10:31):
so weird, and I was like who is this guy?
And I like hunted him down and he was with
Naomi Odenkirk and she was like, yeah, he's like we
just started representing him or something. And I was like,
I need him to come into an audition for this
new show for me. He's amazing. And that's how he
he That's how I got to Lamarne.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This is also one of your superpowers, like I feel
like you're always looking. I feel like you're always looking.
You can spot the potential. And here's the other thing too.
I always tell about the story about how I got
the sec character is that you tell the truth right.
You don't sugarcoat things. You actually tell the truth. Because
when I did that test that chemistry read with Zoe
(11:09):
right off the plane, and then I was coming in
to do studio and network, which you're in a room
full of people and also just like never really done that,
so it was very overwhelming. I remember getting a call
from my agent. It was like Seth just called, you're
going in. He's asking can you please just like brush
your hair and put on like a dress, can you
look cuter? Can you figure it out? And it was
(11:29):
thank goodness. Yeah, because I think a lot of people
are just kind of be like, well, let's see what
she does, and it's like, no, you need guidance, you
need information. We're actors, we need direction, direction, and you
gave that gift. It's very different from any other experience
I've ever had, and I always somehow just managed to
like follow the map back to you.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Well, you know, I I Look, I've been lucky enough
where I've worked as an independent casting director and a
student exec or a network exec. And so I'm on
both sides of the conversation. And look, it is my
job and it is our job to get you guys' jobs.
(12:12):
I only want to get actors' jobs. So why not
help to the best of my ability to get an
actor a job, and if it means like saying, gently
brush your hair, wear. But the other thing was, you
know again, you had just come off a plane and
CC was meant to be a model, and so like
we had to judge her up right, but we had.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
To are fresh into that studio network world. Yeah, I
didn't know, And you really gave this opportunity to a
lot of us and have continued to do so that
don't have that experience, that don't know kind of how
you're supposed to show up or what you know, what
the rules kind of are the unwritten rules so many
it's helpful though, and making sure that. I always say,
(12:58):
it's kind of like as an actor or you know
what you want to do right, hopefully you have that
sense and within yourself. That's what he was a great actor.
I was like, But then you're put in these situations,
situations even like with zoom auditions now where it's so
alien and strange. It's like someone saying, you know that
thing you do really really well. We can see the
potential in you. You've never juggled before, right, cool? Can
(13:19):
you do that while you're juggling?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And you go like, what if I'm a bad juggler
and now I don't get a job because I juggle badly?
And that's where I'm like, that's the gift. You go like,
let me play you a side and I'm gonna teach
you how to juggle. I can see that, you know
what a great act what I see? Yeah, anyway, you're
just one of the best. I truly, I have such
a special place in my heart for you. You know that
(13:42):
because I tell you that, I'm like you truly did
something not only just for me, but you did it
for the community and you continue to do it. We'll
get to Deli Boys in a minute, but let's talk
about finding because everybody asks me that, how do they
find Max? How did they find Jake?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
So Jake had done uh, Liz Merriweather's movie that had
just come out, but no one really knew who he was,
and so he came in and auditioned, you know, and
then quickly we were like, oh my god, he's amazing.
I think we put him right to a cam read
with Zoe. I don't think. I don't think like I
(14:25):
pre read him, if I recall, and if I did
pre read him, it was just because we had never
met him. And but I think he went right to
like a cam read with Zoe, and then we immediately
tested him. So Jake was number two to to be cast, uh.
And then Max is a different story. Like I had
(14:47):
known Max really, I mean obviously I saw him on
Ugly Betty. I knew who his wife was at the time,
she was in casting as well. But I used to
see Max like around town, and he was such an
amazing person and so like energetic and positive and funny,
and I had never really auditioned him. I don't know why,
(15:08):
but I had this like spidey sense that like he
could have this character in him. And you know, Liz
and Dave and Brett were there. They were very tough
just because they, more than most writers or showrunners, were
very knowledgeable of comedic actors, and Liz was very knowledgeable
(15:32):
of all the UCB people, you know, and so they
were very not hard on me, but like they basically
preapproved my producer sessions, and Jake has in two and
and and I slipped Max into the third producer session
(15:53):
because they just didn't know who he was. It wasn't
that they didn't want him, they just didn't know him.
And so I like literally slipped him in it like secret,
and he came in and his first like one of
like the best first auditions ever I know. And Jake
Hasden was in New York, so he wasn't in the session.
(16:15):
So we had to send tapes to Jake to watch overnight,
and we got I think we got like Liz got
a voicemail if I'm corrector Catherine, which they played the
next day at the top of our session where Jake
was like whoever this Max kid is like is unbelievable,
Like Jake immediately and Liz too and Breton Dave like
(16:39):
they were all on board, but like Jake left a
message to somebody I can't remember who, saying like, holy
crap that guy. And that's how the Max thing started.
And yeah, and you know, people maybe they do know now,
but like back then, his wife worked at Fox, and
she removed herself from the uh covering the job because
(17:02):
she was my exec at the network, but she took
herself off the project because once Max, like once I
said we wanted to test him, the network took her
off and she covered it from afar, but really she
didn't cover it much anymore until after he got the
job from twentieth But we kept it very secret because
(17:26):
we didn't want anyone's sort of feelings to be you know,
changed or what have you. So it was all done
like super kosher between Twentieth Casting and me and uh, yeah,
and that's sort of like, you know, look, did I
know Max had the like the full Schmidt in him
(17:48):
that he created? Maybe not, but I had a spidy
sense that he had something different than what was on paper,
I mean Schmidt on paper was way like, for lack
of a better word, doucheier than he eventually played it.
Max played it with such a heart, you know that like,
And I think that's why he became such a fan
(18:10):
fave because had he just been like, you know, a
polo collar up wearing like Khaki Khaki guy, he the
character wouldn't have been so beloved. But he just brought
such a I mean, he it was all him, It
was all him. He did that. You know.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I will say, like I feel like with Max because
like I think about the chemistry with Max, and I go,
I think so much of it came from just his
kindness that you talk about that everybody knows because Max,
I guess it, auditioned for like seven pilots or something
at that he had really tried many times. Many times
were for me. This was kind of like my first
(19:07):
real big kick at the can and so showing up
on set to shoot the pilot, I mean, I was
doing everything for the first time, and we were supposed
to have this kind of dynamic and he was so
kind and helpful, and he knew that no matter what
choice I was going to make in the scene, he
was just going to yes. It and elevate it, and
(19:28):
which came across as this like chemistry, but it was
really him just being an incredible friend and caretaking someone
that was like brand new and heavily seasoned. Yeah, And
it was always that I had so much trust in
him and no matter what scene we did, that heart
is Max's heart, and he's not going to let you fail.
He's not going to let the scene fail. He's always
(19:49):
going to make it funny. He's he just had that
naturally in him as a person. And it came across
and because I did need that handholding in the beginning,
because I was trying to juggle. I'll act, and he
just took away the juggling. He's like, what if I
do all the juggling. Yeah, I'll help you all the stuff.
You don't have to think about it, just do what
you do. And he was so loving as a friend.
(20:10):
And I've never forgotten that either. Yeah, he was so
kind until I got my feet on the ground. And
we talk about that a lot. La Moren and I
talk about like the kindness of the other actors because
a lot of us were brand new.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah. Look, I mean, you guys were thrown into a
solid group, like it was a solid, working, knowledgeable comedic family.
And you know, and again I say, Liz Brett and
Dave were so powerful in terms of their knowledge of
actors and comedy and script and so like, it was
(20:46):
high bar. It was a high bar. I just remembered
as we were talking, Max and Jake were supposed to
test for a Sony show and I and like, that
test was on a third Thursday. No, that test was
on a Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
This is the same pilot season.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Same pilot season for they were it was a it
was a Sony show and that test was either on
it was either on like a Wednesday or a Thursday.
My test was either on like a Thursday or Friday. Like,
my test was the next day. And had they closed
that test deal, I would have been in second position.
So I called my casting partner Jewel, and I'm like,
(21:26):
if I moved my test up and we close first,
do I then get to own them in first position?
She's like yeah. So I called Liz Paulson at twentieth
Then I was like, we have to move our test,
and we moved our tests so that.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I got out.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah. I just remember that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I feel like maybe I feel like the industry's changed,
it's not really like that anymore. I remember it was
so quick. It was so quick, you had so many pilots.
You were going up for all these pilots and then yeah,
whoever gotcha gotcha? Yeah, and then that was so that's
how I wow the strategy.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, that was the first time I was like, ooh,
I'm conniving, Like I was like, oh, where did that
come from? Because actually, I know totally Like could you
imagine if they were in a veil? I mean, you
know that we all know, like we'll tell the story
of Lamarn and why he wasn't coach in the end,
but like, you know, it was just like, yeah, it
would have been a whole different show.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So so fascinating. I get so many so I have
to get into it because so many people have asked
us about the the like the guest stars we had
on this show, yeah, I mean are some of the
most powerful actors, musicians, celebrities, yeah, in the world. Yeah,
And everybody's like, why did they want to be on
(22:41):
New Girl? What was the you know, like for them
to want to be on the show, So how was
it incoming calls? Did you guys chase you Chase Parker, Posey,
How did that work to get so many of those
incredible people on our show?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
So first I'll say, you know, after the pilot, I
be came an executive at Fox on the network side,
so I then didn't cast the series. Anya col Off
and Michael Nicolo came in to cast the series, but
I oversaw the show as the network exect, so I
(23:15):
obviously had such like ownership over the show. And you know,
so we did. We got a lot of incoming calls,
a lot by the incoming calls. Yeah, totally. I mean,
certainly in the second half of the first season when
everyone saw Who, because everybody waits to see, like what
is the show going to do? What's it going to
be like? And I think in that show got immediate
(23:37):
critical acclaim like it did, right so I think right
away people wanted to be on it, and it just
it grew and it never didn't grow. And then you know, look,
Zoe was an indie film queen, like she came with
mad cred, like a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I did you get Zoe?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So so we got hired for the job, you know,
and we did a list. Twentieth asked us to do
a list for the lead, and we came up with
a list and we all agreed on Zoe and Sharon
Klein did Sharon Klein and went and got her like
you know, she got to the manager and sent the
(24:23):
script and the manager fell in love and gave it
to Zoe. And it was one week. We delivered a
list like on a Monday, and Zoe attached, like literally,
by the end of the week, Zoe was attached like
or they were making the deal. It happened very fast. Wow.
But Sharon Klein and Liz Paulson, you know, but Sharon
went and got Zoey for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
I remember when I got the Chicks and Dicks script.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
The only person attached was Zoe, And I just remember
it was such a weird feeling in my body because
I was like wow, because it wasn't you know, at
that time, it wasn't like film stars, especially ones that
are so cool and respected, right and authentically individual, we're
(25:07):
doing television.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
They just weren't.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It was a really shocking moment where you know, like
this show is going to be Yeah, it's a given,
it's going to be huge. It was so special and.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
The first day the first day Zoe read with an actor,
we all, like all the producers, all the studio. When
we watched the tape, we were like, oh my god,
she's amazing, like because we just offered it to her,
like right, but to then hear the words allowed, You're like,
oh my god, this was this is these are her words.
This is written out of like out of her soul,
(25:42):
do you know what I mean? And so that's when
everyone like we literally were cheering almost like I.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Can imagine because if you do these offers, it's like,
you know, it was a very big offer only world like,
if you were doing these offers, even if it's like
the greatest actress, I'm sure you do hold your breath
a little bit until you get to see what they
do with the role. And Zoe is Jess is Zoe,
I mean Joyces felt she was talking and that's just
how great she is as an actor, but also how
(26:09):
perfectly cast she was. Okay, we're gonna pause this conversation
with the incredible Seth, the guiding light of this cast
of New Girl and the man behind so many wonderful ensembles.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
That you know and love on your.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
TV and pick it up next week for Part two
that was the mess Around. In iHeartMedia production, our executive
producer is Joel Monique.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Our senior producer is Abu Zafar Bei Wang provided engineering
and editing services.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Additional production from Daniel Goodman, Wendy Heisler, and Kyle Shevron.
Our theme song was written and composed by Ronald juke
Box Jackson, Catch You Next Time.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Bye,
Hosts And Creators
Lamorne Morris
Hannah Simone
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