Have you ever wondered how the people who get voted off the island end up on the island in the first place? In a recent interview with Nicole Foster, we explored reality show casting.
Question: You are a student in the Marketing program at Century but you also work as a reality-casting producer. What an interesting job. Can you tell us what you do as a reality-casting producer?
Nicole: It is my role to interview candidates, on camera, who made it through initial screening. I sit down with a person for approximately 20-45 minutes (depending on how in depth the casting is) and encourage them to be as raw as possible. I also try to obtain some quality sound bytes. An interview is considered successful, if I can get a range of emotion from the interviewee during that time. I then select my favorite people, decide how I want to pitch them, and then paint that picture by editing the interview down to 4-5 minutes of my selected content. I then “sell” them to my casting director who selects her favorites to pitch to the network. The executive producers ultimately decide on the final cast. Then I eagerly wait for the show to air to see how “my people” turned out as characters.
Question: I would image a reality-casting producer living in the heart of Los Angeles. How does someone living in Minnesota end up with such a job?
Nicole: Since the age of 15, I have worked in restaurants and have continued working in this industry for about ten years. Just like other Hollywood success stories, I was in the right place at the right time. While living in West Hollywood, CA I managed a restaurant called the Bungalow Club on Santa Monica Blvd. Hell’s Kitchen 2 held their wrap party (final celebration after production of the show is complete) at the Bungalow Club. I started a conversation with the casting director, who interestingly enough went to high school here in MN. She was looking for someone to join the casting team who had some knowledge of food. Her casting team was great at finding characters, but didn’t have a clue about the actual inner workings of a kitchen. Ultimately I was hired to work on Hell’s Kitchen 3 as a casting assistant. I loved my job, was enthusiastic and passionate about my work and moved up very quickly- from casting assistant, to associate, to coordinator, to producer. This was my full time job until I moved back to Minnesota. Now, when reality-casting agencies that I worked for in the past cast here in the Twin Cities, I get a phone call. I consider myself very lucky.
Question: When casting, what do you look for in a candidate?
Nicole (or Nikki?): This can vary from show to show, but I always need people with confidence and assertion in whatever it is they are saying. I look for someone I would want to watch on the show: someone who has energy and speaks with fluidity. I personally love someone who talks with their hands, they appear more animated and that is more watchable then someone who simply sits still. I also seek someone who is opinionated and passionate about their views. If it is a challenge show EXAMPLE?, I look for someone competitive and willing to do what it takes to win. Or someone I think could potentially be overly emotional on the show. Someone that I think America would root for or against. Ultimately the cast is a puzzle, but we, as a casting team, don’t know what pieces we are working with until we have finished combing of the country and the casting is complete.
Question: What is the most challenging part of your job?
Nikki: For me, it has been very hard to not get personally invested in “my people.” Casting and production are very different. I get to know the cast as people; while production sees the cast they are working with as simply characters. It is their job to make an entertaining show regardless of how the cast feels. I understand it completely, but I grow attached to my candidates.
Question: If I were selected as a potential candidate, what could I expect?
Nicole: We interview someone going through the casting process multiple times. We really begin by digging into who they are and what makes them tick. When the top 20 to 40 candidates are selected, we fly them to LA for a final screening. The final screening involves not only an hour-long interview with a room full of executives and cameras, but also a full background check, psychological evaluation, and blood tests. We get to KNOW our cast. It is important to keep a wall between you and your candidates, but this is something I will always struggle with. What is best for them is not best for making an audience tune in. The sound bytes that are caught during the interviews, usually the ones where they think, “I really shouldn’t have said that! I don’t know why I did,” are the ones that will inevitably air. This is why I do not continue with shows through production, it is too hard for me to watch!
Thank you Nikki for a really insightful and interesting interview!
