Have a Seat, The Casting Director Will See You Shortly – The Legends of Juliet Taylor & Ellen Lewis

On Sunday the first Oscar for Achievement in Casting will be given in the 98-year history of the Academy Awards. Today, The Kitchen Sisters and host Frances McDormand bring you the story of two legendary casting directors: Juliet Taylor and Ellen Lewis.

Listen to Part 1 of this saga: Everyone’s a Casting Director: The First-Ever Academy Award for Casting in the 98-Year History of the Academy Awards

“Casting is the first thing that is done on a movie. Everybody's sort of in a great mood, nothing's gone wrong yet, and everybody's feeling very positive. And it's the first time the director's heard the words read and it can really influence the way the movie goes.” —Juliet Taylor

During her career, Juliet cast 103 films including Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, Manhattan, Terms of Endearment, Big, Schindler's List, Midnight Cowboy, Network and so many more. 

“It's an old-fashioned trade. You are learning from the person that you are working for. That's like your graduate school.” —Ellen Lewis

Ellen has cast some dozen films for Martin Scorsese including Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence, Cape Fear, Kundun, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman, The Departed, Killers of the Flower Moon. Also Forrest Gump, The Devil Wears Prada, A League of Their Own, lots of Jim Jarmusch movies, and the television series The Queen's Gambit, Godless, Boardwalk Empire and so much more.

“More than 90% of directing a picture is the right casting.” —Martin Scorsese

Have a Seat, The Casting Director Will See You Shortly: The Legends of Juliet Taylor & Ellen Lewis was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton, Brandi Howell and Hannah Kaye. Mixed by Jim McKee.