Michael Verity: Welcome to Portland Industry Insider. This is our monthly sit down with a key player in the Portland acting industry. Our goal here is to learn more about how actors can be successful in this market and if we’re lucky, maybe get a little bit of inside information. Our guest for this episode is a long time player in the Portland acting industry as a casting director; we’ll also find out some more about her. The owner of FreeSpirit Casting: Lori Lewis.
Lori Lewis: Thank you
MV: It’s nice to see you.
LL: It’s nice to be here.
MV: Thank you for being here. We don’t know each other very well; we just met 20 seconds ago.
LL: (Laughs) 2 or 3 weeks ago?
MV: 2 weeks ago! We met at the…
LL: Power Breakfast!
MV: The Portland Power Breakfast with Bruce Ferstein, right? Is that how you pronounce it?
LL: Yeah, I think so and the guy who is the Portland film…
MV: Josh!
LL: Hi Josh! Sorry I don’t know your name!
MV: Yeah, we’re going to have you here the next time! So anyway, I don’t know you too well, so I figured the best way to start is to get a little bio of who Lori Lewis is.
LL: I will give you the nutshell version because I do have quite a history that I have brought to casting. I actually started out in the industry as an actor. I come from California originally, I moved up to Oregon in 1995 to Medford and then I moved up to Portland in 2001. Left an ex-husband in Medford, came up here, wanted to just get restarted again. I was kind of burnt out on acting so I didn’t really want to do that.
I was really into the music scene and, actually, it was a bunch of musicians that I’d met in Medford who got me to move up to Portland. I was a partial owner of a small bar in Medford, a band played there, I got up and sang with them and they said “Well, you’re leaving your husband, come up to Portland. Don’t go back to California.”
MV: Fresh start.
LL: So I did. I came up here and I didn’t want to do acting really, but I thought: “ya know, I’ll do extras work because I can still be around the industry and just see what’s going on up here.”
I signed up with an extras company here and they said: “We always welcome volunteers because it’s a casting company and we need help.” I had no work going on so I volunteered and came in and I worked in the office for a couple of days, helped them out doing stuff and then the next thing you know I got hired and I went on the road with them to cast extras for The Ring.
Then they kept me on to do extras for The Hunted when it came on the second time. Because it had been a hiatus in the filming when Benicio Del Toro broke his arm, or something like that.”
MV: Right.
LL: So anyway I did that with them. When that died out, since I was just brought on with them to help with the movies, I decided let’s see what other casting companies are in town.Extras was fun and interesting but I’m really more interested in principles. I ended up volunteering for some of the principle casting directors in town and getting hired by one of them, Lana Veenker.
I worked with her from 2003 to 2009, for 6 years. Luckily, I was trained by her and I got to end up running all the sessions. I ended up taking over, pretty much running the place, which gave me a lot of information. But we had a difference of opinions on how things should go. So we split, went our own ways, and in 2013 I launched my own company after my non-compete ended.
I decided that I wanted to go about casting thinking: “what is it that I always thought was missing from a casting director as I went in as an actor? What didn’t I get? What did I feel like?” I wanted to create a casting company that really embraced actors and approached them with what: if I was auditioning for me how would it be?
MV: Right.
LL: And that’s kind of how I do it. I just want it to be fun, relaxed, people come in, we laugh a lot in my room. I try to keep it low stress because I do remember very much what it’s like to walk in that room, really want that job, all the butterflies are playing, you really want it so bad, and then you can really shoot yourself in the foot. So I really have tried to make it so it’s a much more comfortable place for the actors.
MV: Relaxed and a little bit easier on them?
LL: Yep!
MV: Are you a director in the room, of sorts?
LL: Well absolutely. One of the wonderful things I always hear from actors when they leave and it really warms my heart is: “Thank you for giving me direction” because they go into so many casting sessions and they’re asked to give a different take - “give me something different” - but they’re not given any direction on what to do. And it’s very frustrating for an actor. You want me to change it up but what do you want me to change it up to? Because we actors have all kinds of different things in our head. “Where do you want me to go down this channel?”
So I always do give them direction, I always give them ideas, give them information. But I try not to give it where it’s this really explicit direction. I try to lead them to it so they come about it organically.
I found if I tell people well, “say this” then they’re going to say exactly that. And they’re not going to say words natural to them. So I try to convey to them what the idea is that we’re trying to get across and what your character is trying to be about, and lets see if we can have you come up with what’s going to then make that work.
MV: So when I sent you very vague questions in preparation for this interview, it was perfect for you!
LL: Exactly! It was. I looked at them this morning and I thought about them and went “Hmm … this is great” because really what I found that works best in almost every job is when they’re totally natural, they’re believable and I cannot see them acting, that’s what wins the day.
MV: And that’s what it is all about: believability. I’m not an actor myself but I’m surrounded by them in my family and the conversation always comes back to: “Are you telling the story?” And: “Is the audience engaged with you … “
LL: Connected.
MV: “ … because you’re telling the story.”
LL: Exactly.
MV: I don’t think that people outside the industry who watch movies, the regular consumer of media, realize that the reason why they’re drifting and thinking about groceries is because that actor is not continuing to tell you that story.
LL: Right. You haven’t pulled that person in. You haven’t reached out and touched them. I used to do stage a lot; I wasn’t on film and television when I was acting. So it’s really fun to learn what it’s about doing casting for film and television because its very different from stage.
I would always know when I was on stage if I had the audience with me or not because you can literally hear them breathing with the cast. They literally will be right there breathing and exhaling and everything right there with you. You don’t want to be paying attention to that really much but if you’re not feeling that rhythm between the audience then you know you’re not connecting.
MV: Are there shows that you’re watching right now that you look at the actors and you’re like “Oh my God, they are just brilliant.” Is there anything that we could send an actor to and say “Go look at that one.”
LL: Yeah, there’s one that comes to my mind and it’s kind of gory and it’s the movie Logan. The young girl actor in that hardly speaks until the very end of the movie. She can but she doesn’t and the acting that she does … I mean I was riveted to her. I watched that film and I could block out - because I don’t like gory films - but I could block out everything else because watching her and what she was doing in the nuances was so engaging that when she did finally speak it was like you kind of thought she could all along but it was just brilliant. It was the absolute. I tell actors when they come into my room go watch Logan, watch that little girl, she’s amazing.
MV: Peeky Blinders comes to mind for me and Mrs. Maisel come to mind for me.
LL: I haven’t seen Mrs. Maisel. I actually just got (Amazon) Prime and I was told to watch Mrs. Maisel. I also want to watch Jack Ryan because I just love that actor, John Krasinski.
MV: Is that the guy from The Office?
LL: Yeah, John Krasinski. Yeah, a comedic actor drama. Actors see themselves as drama or comedy. I would tell every actor that sees themselves as just a dramatic actor, go take comedy classes, go take improv classes.
MV: Sure.
LL: Because I have seen comedic actors that can do everything. They can do drama too. In fact they bring to drama that underlying comedy, because if you make everything too “bumm bumm bumm” its just not going to play believable either. So you have to have that real life, that even in our worst, horrific situations there’s always something that you can find some kind of silver lining, something maybe a little humorous about it.
MV: Right.
LL: So comedy is essential to me to being a good actor.
MV: I go out and take pictures of landscapes because it’s not people. I have zero interest in becoming a landscape photographer, but I do it because it’s not what I do for a living. And it just changes the way your brain thinks.
LL: Your perspective.
MV: Right, and you get to come back and do what you do fresh.
LL: I know that improv is scary. But most of the time in your audition situation you’re doing a degree of improv. So lets face it: you’re coming in and you’ve got lines. I don’t have somebody come in and read, especially for commercial work. With films its different, you have them work with a reader, at least for the initial audition, but I usually have them come in and work with another actor. So all of a sudden you’re thrown with this other actor and that’s a little bit scary so the more you can have that improv ability, just where you feel comfortable that you can handle it. You don’t have to go out and become an improv actor, you don’t have to go and be in an improv group, but you should have that basic layer of being able to do some improv.
MV: The courage to do it.
LL: That’s a good way to look at it: the courage to get up there and be not afraid to fall flat on your face.
MV: What are the changes that you’ve see over the years that you’ve been in the business?
LL: Wow, there are so many more opportunities right now for actors to actually find work. Whether it’s low paying or great paying job or not. When I first came to Portland there was three main casting companies in town: Danny Stultz, Megan Ratsau and Lana Veenker. Megan passed away and Danny is kind of faded out of the game and Lana, of course, is now Cast Iron.
So it used to be three and now there are more casting companies in town. I’m one of three or four now and so there are the casting companies you can go through to get work. But there are so many independent web series that cast directly, there are podcasts, there are independent films going around here all the time.
When I first came here there were not that many. There were some but not that many and so there’s so many opportunities for actors to get out there and be seen . People say “oh don’t go work for free” and I believe you shouldn’t work for free but if you’re brand new and you’re green in this business and you have the opportunity to go work an independent film that maybe can pay you $100 a day or maybe, in their circumstances with their budget can just do meals or maybe do a defered payment plan. That’s going to give you some training. If you feel good about that company and that group of people, I say go for it. Because you’re going to learn, you’re going to be on-set, you’re going to be able to learn. If nothing comes of it at least you then got an education for your time invested.
MV: Right. There’s a big difference between a huge company wanting people to work in exchange for exposure …
LL: Exposure, yes.
MV: You can’t have exposure for dinner, let’s put it that way.
LL: Yes, exactly.
MV: So it’s a big difference between, and I’m not going to name a brand, a big company that says “oh yeah you come and do this and get all this exposure.” There’s a big difference between that and a small company that truly doesn’t have a huge budget but is out there trying to make something.
LL: Exactly. One of my big things when people come to hire me for casting … they’re like: “what are your rates?” And I’m like “well let’s figure out what your budget is.” I have cast a lot of jobs for literally a couple of bottles of wine.
MV: Will work for wine! Ladies and gentlemen you should know that about Lori: she will work for wine.
LL: I said two bottles … It was a short film that I cast, it was a really great short film and they didn’t have a big budget but they had money to pay the actors and that was my biggest thing. I’m not so concerned about you paying me when its a small budget thing. I really want to know you have money for the actors and once they told me they had money for the actors, I’m like: “fine you pay me with a couple bottles of wine let’s cast for you.” Because I loved the script and I wanted to see it made and they were paying their actors. For commercial projects, there’s absolutely no way I cast a commercial project if they’re not paying their actors.
MV: Of course!
LL: Anybody that’s doing a commercial should have money to pay for their actors.
MV: Sure, sure.
LL: But if its a small indie short film, a trailer to try to get their funding going, things like that. Well those are things that if I were still on the acting side, I would probably want to jump in on and do because down the road, if they do get the funding maybe, I might be that actress still in consideration to actually be in the film for real.
It doesn’t always happen that way. But it’s a good chance for you to learn and there’s that possibility. I did an independent film when I first got up here for free that I think they ended up turning it into a cartoon feature and I got to see it once and I was like “I am glad I did it.” I didn’t get paid for it. I learned, I learned an awful lot.
MV: Does it make sense for actors … I’m going to use this expression: “on the scene.” Because there’s a lot of … not just in Portland, its all over the place … young actors feel like “well you know, I’ve got to be at every single premier and every single event and I’ve got to have a picture of me with all these people on Instagram on my story.” Do you feel that’s valuable? Do you feel it’s invaluable? Is there a balance there?
LL: That’s a good one. I see other casting directors who do the same thing.They’ve got all these pictures of themselves with people and I think back and I’m like: “well jeez I met Catherine Hardwicke and this and that and worked with her when we were doing Twilight and I didn’t bother to get a picture with her because it’s not my style. I’m not somebody who goes and gets pictures with all the people I’ve met along the way. I mean I’ve met Tom Sellick. I’ve met all these people along many years and I don’t have … I think I have one picture that was taken of me once with …I’m going to forget his name. He used to be on Streets of San Francisco: Richard Hatch. I didn’t even plan it.
If you’re into creating the image like that then go for it. I don’t think it’s necessary. I actually find that the people I work with were kind of beyond the “ooh, posing”,, the “oh I’m rubbing elbows with this person.“
The people I work with, the people I cast for generally are not into any big ego things. They’re really just into let’s get the job done, be prepared, do your work. I think if you’re going investing money on schmoozing versus investing money on classes or headshots you’re putting your money in the wrong place.
MV: Right. I have teenagers who are actors and we’ve always been focus on the work, focus on the craft and that’s where the bookings come from.
LL: Exactly. I can tell you when an actor comes in, I can tell whether they’re studying or they’re not. I really can. Because ones that are studying, they come in and they connect with you, they’re watching, they’re listening. Because they were taught in their class you need to be listening. You need to be paying attention. And then the others that will come in and you’re trying to give them direction in the room and they’re just chatterbox, chatterbox, chatterbox. I’m like: “uh, wait a minute. How are you hearing my directions when you’re talking constantly?”
MV: Right!
LL: So it’s really important, training is very key.
MV: What is the biggest misconception that an actor has about a casting director? What’s that biggest piece of misinformation that you can dispel permanently for all times?
LL: That we know exactly what it is we want. Because we don’t.
We don’t. Clients give us a list. They go: “this is what we’re looking for.” Like I have a potential job coming in and they’ve told me it’s going to be for Latina women. They need to be bilingual and they’ve got an idea of what they’re looking for and they’ve given me some descriptions but that’s pretty much it. It’s just general, generic what they’ve given me. That’s all.
So how am I going to know exactly what to tell the talent to come in doing. I try to give it out to the talent generic so that you come in showing as your best self. And with commercials most of the time you want them to come in really just being a version of you. Don’t create a character unless we know its cartoon or unless we know its over the top spoof or something. Generally for commercial work just come in and be natural.
And the same thing goes for whatever character you’re doing for a film. This leads to the biggest mistake: here’s an actor, and here’s their character, and somehow they think that they’re separate. No. What the actor has to do is when they’re ready to act and be that character you put that character on like a second skin and it has to be totally meld with you. And you have to bring to that character parts of who you are because if you don’t bring parts of who you are to that character it will never ring true because you’re not connecting with the character. You’re keeping yourself separate from the character. I can see that happening so I always tell actors: “You’re creating something out here that isn’t you, it isn’t blended. Stop trying to be something outside of yourself, bring yourself to the role.”
MV: That’s kind of the centerpiece of what we do as a photography studio. I say, especially to kids, and maybe I use names if they don’t even know who they are …
LL: Depending on their age.
MV: I say “Listen. The world has a Brad Pitt, the world has an Angelina Jolie, we already have a Jack Nicholson. If a photographer says to you: ‘You look like so and so’ or ‘You remind me of so and so’ then you’re probably with the wrong photographer because what that photographer should be seeing is you. Because we’re got an Angelina Jolie but we don’t have a “You.” And you’re the only “You” we have, so you be you. Stick to that road of “you be you” and the roles will come if you make yourself a better actor.
LL: And as you get roles-
MV: And they love being lectured so…
LL: Yes, and as you get roles what happens is you get roles and you do them …because I can remember back in an acting class when I was down in California and I was supposed to play a drug dealer. I had never done drugs. I was Little Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes. I had … not a drug dealer, I was someone who was hooked … a junkie. See I don’t even know what the right names are! So I had never done drugs, I didn’t know what it was like so I tried to do this in this acting class and the teacher told me, he goes “you have no idea what this is.” I said “No.” And he said: “there are going to be times when you get roles and you have no idea, you have no connection to it, so that’s when you have to do your research.” No, you don’t go out and do drugs to learn about what it is”
MV: Don’t do this at home kids.
LL: Don’t go do drugs, but you can watch videos, especially now today. Talking about what’s the biggest change for actors: you can get on the internet and it is a resource for you to learn anything you might possibly need to learn about any role that you’re going to be auditioning for.
MV: Sure, sure.
LL: And so that to me is key: studying and knowing who you are and what you’re portraying and then again, melding it into you, taking some of your own experiences into it. No maybe you’re not a rocket scientist who developed and created this thing and whatever the thing is yet some point in your life you created something and you know what that feeling was like.
MV: Right.
LL: So remember that feeling and then you can take that feeling that comes which is emotion that comes along with the logic of creating the character, you can’t have them separated you have to have them blended.
MV: What are you excited for … this is your opportunity to give out that inside information. What are you excited for? Tell me about the health of the Portland industry, what are you excited for for the spring? Spring 2020?
LL: I only have my gut to go on … and my gut, when I used to work for my former boss … was always very right.
I remember when Leverage was thinking of coming to town. That it wasn’t decided but it was thinking. She was like: “no it’s not coming.” I go “yes it’s coming” and it did. And she’s like: “how do you know this?” I’m like: “my gut, all I can do is go with is my gut.”
I think it’s been pretty dead here the last couple years. It was really busy in 2017; we’ve had a few shows coming back but its not as busy as it was. Commercial-wise it’s been really slowed up in 2018 and 2019. 2020 feels to me like it’s going to be another explosion year. I only have this based on my gut and a little bit of context I’ve been getting from some people on stuff that I really can’t say …
MV: Of course not.
LL: I have a feeling that we’re going to see some things coming back to Portland in 2020 and I just have a feeling that’s going to be pretty busy.
MV: When we get to the end of the year, you sit down with me again?
LL: Of sure!
MV: And then you can say: “by the way my gut proved right”
LL: This company that’s contacted me it’s from this major network that does commercials for the network and, for me, that’s like: “wow I got a major network contacting me because I still consider myself, even though I’ve been a casting director in this town since 2003, as my own business, I’ve only been in business seriously since 2016.” I launched in 2013 but really couldn’t do it full-time until 2016 and so I feel like a little baby casting director in town. It’s very encouraging to me that I’ve got a major network that’s doing commercial casting contacting me. I can only imagine what’s going to be going to some of the bigger casting companies in town.
MV: Right.
LL: Because they’ve been in it longer, I mean Simon (Max Hill) is super busy and Cast Iron has got their things going but even those people have told me they’re slower than they used to be so I just have a feeling that its going to get busy in 2020. We’ll see.
MV: I hope you have the most amazing 2020 and that you will come back and visit me again.
LL: I absolutely will.
MV: We’ll come around and get together and see what’s new in the industry.
LL: Absolutely. Before we go though something I really do want to make sure you share with all the actors.. We kind of talked about it before but we didn’t get it in here. Three things they really need to pay attention to is keep their headshots up to date …
MV: Did you hear the lady? The casting director says …
BOTH: Keep your headshots up to date!
LL: That means women if you’re going to go do a fancy new haircut, you gotta get a new headshot.
MV: And I know somebody who does headshots.
LL: Hey there ya go! Exactly, kids should get them done every year or so. Adults should get them done every couple years when they make any changes. Come to your auditions prepared, don’t come in over-prepared and when you’re not actually working in a play or working out on a set some place you should be in a class.
MV: Right. Let’s leave it at that.
LL: Yeah.
MV: Thanks so much.
LL: You’re welcome.
Lori Lewis is a long time casting director in Portland, OR and the owner of FreeSpirit Casting.
Michael Verity is the founder and owner of Michael Verity Photography. His specialities are headshots for actors, portfolios for models and fashion editorial for kids an adults.
