Sara Kay & Jenny Lewis

0:00Welcome to the podcast. I'm Joanna Colbert and you're listening to the casting session. I decided to create this podcast out of a desire to help actors feel more confident in their auditions. This podcast is an inside look at filmmaking through the perspective of casting. In these interviews, I'm going to provide you with in-depth and lightning fun conversations with the industry's top casting directors, actors, directors, and producers. We're going to cover a range of topics like the audition process and the role casting plays in the collaboration with directors. And the overall craft of casting, basically, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look into this casting process and without further ado, I bring you the casting session. Welcome to the casting session podcast. I am so thrilled to introduce you to my guests today, Sarah Kay and Jenny Lewis, casting directors in Toronto, Canada, who have been together for 18 years.

1:12That alone could be an episode. They have four CSA awards, an Ardeos award, an Emmy nomination. Their shows include The Boys, Twisted Metal, Letter Kenny, what we do in the shadows, Blackberry, and heated rivalry, which is having quite a moment. So we're thrilled to have you on the show. I cannot wait to have this conversation. So let's please start with 18 years together. How did you meet and how did you start your careers? We met because we were both assistants for other casting directors in Toronto. So Jenny would always host this assistance party every year. We were always on the phone. You never got to meet anyone in person. I got to know it. So I started an assistance party. And I was like running it out of people's condo party rooms. Like a bowl of chat. Yeah, bowl of chat. And it just got to be too much work. And so I decided to cancel it. And then Sarah stepped in and was like, don't cancel it.

2:17And then we made it huge. That became like this massive party. And unfortunately, it's died. And obviously we stopped doing it. But we sort of became friends like that when we were working for other people. And then Jenny started out on her own before me. And then I just sort of blatched onto her. And then after a few months, we were like, well, this seems like a good. Let's just do it. Let's just be partners. And it really just happened that like lazily. And it's been almost actually 20 years. I think that admiration isn't correct. And then it's lost. But yeah, we both worked for big casting directors. That's sort of where we got our start. And the rest is history. Could you help our audience understand two things. One is partnerships versus being on your own. And what is it about partnerships that, you know, you think makes the process or fun and interesting. What have you? I think casting is actually a very insular job in many ways. Yes, when you back in the day when we got to go to sessions, you were around people. But you're not in the production office, at least not in Canada.

3:20You're sitting maybe in your own home doing work. And we certainly worked for other people along the way who were, you know, maybe a little crazy. And we feel like it, that aloneness breeds it because we're contract workers. So you're always worried, did I upset somebody? Where's my next employment coming from? There's so much stress. And so I think part of when we came together, it was like, let's be there for each other as a partnership to have somebody we can trust to talk to somebody to bounce ideas off of. We both had children and we couldn't have done that if we were on our own. I don't see how people manage that because someone asked to hold the work. People are not very tolerant of you disappearing in Canada. We actually get a whole year of maternity leave, although neither of us took that long. But your jobs aren't going to wait around for you, so having each other. And then I think we realized over time that we have very different kind of material we like.

4:20We respond to projects in a different way. So I think it actually expanded our breadth of what we bring to the table when we're working on a job. Because our approaches are sort of the same, but not exactly. We're very different people. And so I think that makes us more interesting because we're not exactly the same. We're not carbon copies at all. So what would be an example of an actor comes in and you're discussing whether they should go to the next round to the director. You have a creative conversation, the process of whether the actor is going to come back or not. We don't always agree. I mean, that's the truth. We don't like there's no like fighting, but we don't always agree. And sometimes we sort of think, will this person do we think even though like objectively, we may not think or one of us does not think that person is a slam dunk, but we want our team to see them that sort of where we'll put them to the next level. And if we don't agree and we're sort of them, we just send the person anyways. Because we obviously, we want both of our voices to be heard and we don't want to be missing the boat.

5:24But I think those creative conversations, and sometimes we don't always work together because we get really busy, you know, in Toronto, you have to work on a lot of things in order to make your life like pay the rent and all the things. And so sometimes we're just doing our own thing. So we're not actually consulting with each other because it's not time to turn to each other and be like, I am so on the fence on this person. And then sometimes having that somebody who's not even on the project, just watching it from a step back and being like, what is it you're looking for? Because I'm getting nothing or this person's brilliant or yeah, you get sometimes like a real side opinion, which is good. Right. And then that's sort of a perfect segue to the second part of the question, which is for our audience who may not understand what it is to work with the US casting directors. So take us through that process a little bit. Yeah, we get brought on. So it is different in local casting. If we're working on a Canadian project, obviously, for the only people on the show, if we're working on say a US series, we get hired on after the US casting team is brought on. So either the studio is hired, the casting department studio is hired, an external casting team, and then we get brought on.

6:28So generally the US casting team is sort of the lead casting director, I guess you could say. And then we come on and we usually are seeing at the same time the same roles. So they're seeing the leads, we're seeing the leads, unless the leads are already attached by the time we come on board. And then we all work together, hopefully. We work together the two teams to be able to kind of make everything come to light. And it works a lot of the time really well with the teams in the US. And there are times where it does not work well because that US team wants full control over who's being seen and who's being sent. And because we are the lowly local casting directors, we do not always have a say in that situation, which is fine. I mean, it is what it is, but we are very creatively involved with our teams when we're working on stuff here. So we really do try to always have that voice because we think we can add something. We know the talent in our own town better than anyone, obviously. Right. And so for our audience, so you work with US casting directors,

7:29teams, as you say, and often it's collaborative, but not always because that's just life. And some people want all the control, but let's now sort of drill down into the Canadian work. First of all, do you see that there's a lot more work in Canada? And then when you are just doing, for example, letter Kenny and heated rivalry, were those 100% Canadian casting processes? Yeah, that's just us. And even if there are Americans who get cast in the show, that would be us. And typically those Americans are known quantities. It's not like we're searching for just regular actors on their way up in America, where you would want that knowledge base that a US based casting director would have, just like we have here in Canada. And so we wouldn't presume to do that. But if it's just about making offers to people that everybody knows, I feel like any of us can do that anywhere. And so that might play in. But otherwise,

8:31it is just completely us casting the show, all parts at all levels, sometimes in weird locations and dealing directly with the creative team. Okay. And so did you meet Jacob Tierney through letter Kenny, or just knows and you knew him in general? We go back. I can now not or maybe Jacob remembers how I actually cast Jacob's first feature film ever. And we were both much younger than. And Sarah knew him socially. I see I saw him in every party in the late 90s. Yeah. Did you come clear Doritos and chips assistance parties? No, I don't think Jacob would ever have been like, you know, I'm not hanging out with those people. Yeah. When we started on letter Kenny, I don't even remember. I mean, Jacob was obviously involved, but we were dealing with the producer mostly in the beginning. And so I don't even remember talking to Jacob that much at that time. I mean, he was there in the background, obviously up front for the other side of things. But for us,

9:36it was mostly just the producer at the very beginning. But yeah, so there's a long history of working with Jacob. I remember I worked on neon Bible, which we put him in. So definitely remember him as a kid actor. Yeah, I was going to say that was a long time ago. I don't feel I don't think we ever hired Jacob. We never hired him as an actor because we didn't why try to try it a couple of times. But I he was just either wasn't right or he I think he turned us down. Yeah. Okay. So now please tell us about the process of heated rivalry casting because I want to say congratulations on the amazing job that you did on that show. And I'm highlighting it in particular, of course, because of what's been going on with its popularity. But on this show, wanting to express that I think what you've done is an act of beautiful rebellion.

10:38In this time, where it is so rare to see unknown actors not only be perfectly suited and chosen for the roles, but then what every actor's dream is is to be known and seen and catapulted to a next level from something so beautiful, so authentic and so perfectly cast. And so what you've done is not only great for inspiring actors, but you've also shown the world what it is to have a casting process that is so exciting and optimistic. Well, that means a lot. Thank you, Joanne. That means a lot like that means a lot coming from you. It means a lot because we don't this does not happen often when you are a casting director in little Toronto, Canada. So I will let you any did the casting so she can talk with the process, but I think that it is

11:39huge for everyone here. You know, I think we keep talking about this with each other. Was there something different? We did. I think there's a couple of things at play. I think the benefit of working something Canadian that has the mandate of being Canadian in terms of the funding and the Canadian content requirements when you're tapping into government funds here in Canada necessitates that you actually can't have people from all over the world. There isn't a budget for it and you have to find Canadians. And I think craves relationship with Jacob, I'm going to assume had the confidence that it really allowed us to just hire the best actors and not have to play a name game or not. And of course, if that had happened, if we just miraculously had had all the right things in those people, then it wouldn't have not been someone with name value, but we didn't have to go there. We got to just scour literally all over

12:41the world. We scoured. And I think that it's just no stone unturned. You ask for too many tapes and you watch every single one of them. And having been in casting for over 20 years, I'd like to think that we have honed our skills to really be able to creatively connect with our team and help them bring that vision to life to really understand in our gut what it is they're looking for. And so when you see it, you just kind of know it. We always talk about actors having it quality. And they just do. People have it. You can't explain it. They just have, I think I'd like to think now that we have it as casting directors. You do it for a really long time. And sometimes you just feel like you're doing the job and anyone could do the job. You know, it's nurse number one, especially here in Canada where we're often filling those really necessary, but not like hugely complicated roles. And so I think there is an equality in the casting as well. And I think that comes from years of honing your skills to really

13:47understand what your team is going to respond to. So when you watch the tapes, you know. But I do remember you being like watching, I think it was Hudson's tape and like screaming down the hall like come see this. Yeah, see this. And I was like, okay, what's going on? So I'm like, walking in the hall and she's like, watch this. And it was Hudson's, I think, original audition. And it was, it was like magic. Yeah. And Jenny was like, I just feel it, something I feel it. And that doesn't, I mean, it happens here, but it doesn't happen a lot. And I think it was like one of those magical moments where it was like, you just know it. Whether or not it was going to end up being him, that's not up to us as you know very well. But we felt it in that moment. It's such an incredible thing. And you know, when we were making casting by and now talking about the Academy Award, how to codify what we do. You just can't, this thing that you're saying, this it, this magic, this thing you can't explain has been the best part

14:50of our jobs, but also the most challenging because we literally cannot explain what we do. Yeah. When you're trying to state your case to the governors of the Academy and to say, well, it's just this magical thing we can't explain. Just trust us. Just trust us. Yeah. And I do think look at we all know that people often will get apart because they will drive a box office. Does that always mean they're the right person? And is there anything deeply creative in that part of the process? No, there isn't. And I think there's a lot of casting that's paperwork and anybody could do it. But I think it's the people who make that creative connection. That's where casting lives. And how did we come to that? Like, how did we become those people? I feel like you learn as you go. There's an instinct deep down like when I was a child and going to theater, I would come back and give reports on, you know, I apparently said things like they have a face for radio that

15:54dates my age. I was saying that in eight. I was judging the performances and dissecting. Yes. And I didn't even I wasn't aware of that's how I approached it. But I think that's and when you talk to other casting directors, you realize that we've all spent time mentally recasting a show, seeing somebody in the background of a scene and then making sure we follow that person's acting career. Even before we were in the business, it's is part of like a lifelong interest. And then I also think that the trust with Jacob, yeah, that's huge. Of saying like, you've kind of feel this has been a moment for you as a casting director. Let's talk about that trust with directors. I mean, I always say we're the first people hired. So we are not distracted by any other department heads coming in and needing the time and energy

16:56of our directors. It's like this intimate, if you will, time where creatively it's just you guys. So can we talk a little bit about that relationship? Yeah, I mean, I think it is very important to have that relationship. And I think sometimes you don't always get to have it. I mean, if you have a relationship like Jenny and Jacob have obviously, it's a lot easier to know that like he knew that, you know, she was only going to show in the best people and that he trusted her and all that stuff. It doesn't always start off like that with people who we don't know as well. We have to hope that it becomes this sort of great beginning starting trusting relationship. And that does happen for us a lot, especially with our own Canadian filmmakers. We work on so many indie films and like with those filmmakers, that's really where it's the best because you're just working on their one baby and you're not working on a series where it's like, you know, totally different story. But I think that it is not always the case, but when it is the case, it does help, which in the case of heated rival race, it went a long way. Yeah, yeah. And it just makes our job easier.

17:57Yeah, we're not screaming into our pillow at night. I don't know how frustrating the show is. And I think it's especially hard for everybody. It's partly why we don't always work together on things anymore because even though we are working together behind the scenes all the time, front facing for the team, it's one of us. And so having that one voice consistently, creatively, I think, makes a difference. And I think that's why sometimes when we're working with other casting directors anywhere in the world, I think it's hard for the team to connect creatively with all their places. It's like saying, I'm making this watercolor. Can you paint on my watercolor? Yes. And it's a little like, I like what they're doing, but it's my watercolor. Yeah. And then also your creatives have too many voices. And for them, it's like, oh, well, I'm just going to call the one person, whichever that one person is for them. So then you're

18:57playing a lot of broken telephone sometimes. I do feel for directors on episodics who, it's like coming at them from all these different places. And who is the one person that they're going to call? I think it's hard for them. Yeah. So let's go back to that tape of Hudson coming in. I want to also talk about casting Connor. I read that Connor was working as a waiter, like all actors have another job. And so I think they both were waiters. Connor was in LA. And in particular for the role of Ilya, that's the role we really opened up. So we looked for it in Europe. There were a lot of British and German submissions on that part. We were hoping we might get some people from Russia or Ukraine or we got people living in other countries from those places, but we didn't get as much of that understandably as we had hoped we would get. And with Connor, honestly, I just looked at his face and I was like, okay, we're,

19:59we're good. Yeah. He's going to be. Can you do a Russian accent? And who cares? No, I can't say. We care. Yeah. But you felt the same thing. You looked at his tape and you were like, oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's just that feeling. And that doesn't happen that often, especially when you're dealing with the fact that you know, they had to like, they're going to have to have sex. They're going to have to like, he has to rush an accent. They're going to have to be they have to skate. It was like, when Jacob gave us the whole rundown before we had seen the script in our meeting with him, we were both like, okay, we'll just put it in our three. Yeah. Is that person on Mars? You know, like, what are you talking about? Like, how are we doing all those things? I think we did pretty well. I don't know. Maybe. Well, under me, all the skills that we saw. I think we lived up to most of them. Even I as a casting person, when I saw Connor speak the way he really speaks, I dropped my whatever it was that I was holding. I mean, what? What? We still watch. I mean,

21:03his ability at languages and to learn the language and sound completely seamless. And I know there's been a few shout outs to the dialect coach is actually someone we know very well. She also is a casting director out of Montreal and also trained as a director. I think probably, and I'm guessing here because I haven't talked to either of them really about it, but I think probably working with a dialect coach. So has that set of skills, the casting skills and the directing skills probably really helped him emote the way he, you know what I mean? I'm sure dialect coaches have all myriad of skills, but I have a feeling working with her in particular probably paired with Connor's innate talent. Clearly. Perfect. Yeah. We have seen many Russian people commenting apparently Connor said in something that somebody Russian on set came up to him and started speaking in Russian. He was like, I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't actually speak. We did a set visit and when we went to set and Connor came up to us to introduce himself, he was staying and he has to

22:06actually stay in the accent. And I walked away because Jenny did the casting on it. So there's only so much I knew about it. I walked away and I was like, he's really Russian, right? And so they were literally just submitted self tapes like random submissions, just random submissions. I mean, this is really where I'm sure it happens in every other place that has casting, but in Canada, you know you're going to have to cast it will not Connor's role, but you know you have to cast it in Canada. You need to look for everybody. Everybody all over the country. And there's so much that all of us feel about the world of safe self tapes post COVID, but I will say it has allowed us to see so many more people than we used to be able to consider. There's only so many people you can bring into a room. And so I do think that helped us. Yeah, the portals that have opened the good and the bad you lose a little bit of that magic that we talked about earlier when you're face to face with somebody, but portals have never been open in this way with seeing people around the

23:11globe. Yes. And that's why people keep asking us, oh, how did you judge the chemistry by Zoom? Well, those guys actually weren't in the same city. And Jacob was not in the same city. And this was not a budget that could fly everybody to the same city to do a chemistry read. So chemistry reads had to be done by Zoom. And I think we're lucky. This fell where it did that we have all learned the new version like how to trust yourself when you're watching a zoom to know that what we knew when we were in the room is still true. Like honing those new instincts in the beginning watching self-tapes and trying to figure out is this good? Am I confused? That was a whole new set of learning and reeducation we had to do for ourselves as casting to learn how to maybe see through in the early days, like somebody's bad reader or somebody, you know, and that we had to then educate the teams and say, please ignore this part, focus on, you know, that I think has been a learning curve.

24:13But we have at least an R company cast quite a few full series from scratch during the pandemic by Zoom. And they all worked out. Like it wasn't like, oh, there's no chemistry. I mean, the magic between Hudson and Connor, like you couldn't have predicted that in a room outside of a room on the top of the mountain. Like you couldn't have known it until it happened. It was just lightning in a bottle. But you do feel some of it over Zoom. You get a sense. These people will work out, get along, have the chemist, the natural chemistry they need to have. I mean, I think that happened in your in the callbacks for yes for them for those two guys. Yeah. So just so I understand. So callbacks, they were physically together or they didn't meet until they got on set. They're like to have a job of pants. Yeah. They did not. And were you there when they met in person? No. Okay. We did like a set visit halfway through. They already. Yeah. Yeah. So they were with each other. And that was, I mean, that was the weirdest part for us at this

25:16point is we are very used to knowing the after so well. So often we've known them since they were kids and they grew up with us. And we've been in the room with them a million times and chatted. And with these guys, it was like, hi, we cast you because it was all Zoom or self-tape. They'd never met us in person. And so when we showed up on set, we were like, can we? We now feel like we knew that's a love, but we've never actually met them. So that that part is weird. Yeah. Yeah. Online universe that part is very weird. Yeah. I mean, I just remember throughout my career showing up at the rap party or something like that. And everybody had bonded. Everybody knew everybody was like, so as we said, we have this amazing time with the director in the beginning. And then we're sort of, bye. We're done. We're like done finish before they go to camera. People don't do. Don't forget about us because we were first hired at first on. And so they're like, yeah. And you're right. You show up at casting crew parties and you're like, you need

26:18me. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Oh, and the actors who plays Svetlana, she, yes. Yes. We love her so much. She's like local, like real, just real, Toronto morning race. Well, she's not maybe a model first. She was like, she's still models. She's still models. She's so ridiculously beautiful, like the loveliest version. In Russian. And right. So that was just a, did we luck out with her? You'd cast her several times saying, yeah, I love her. And I had definitely auditioned her, but not actually. She was so perfect. Yeah. But she was. Yeah. Yeah. That was just, I feel like there's so much about the show that was just lucky. But it isn't lucky. It's because we've got a wonderful talent pool here. And they were given an opportunity to shine, you know, and that we could take chances on people. But she's someone we do audition. Like that's not, she wasn't a new person. A lot of the other cast members were people we were very familiar with. I'd say all of them. Everybody, but Hudson and Connor.

27:23Well, and the parents because they're Americans. Yes. We're Christina and Dylan cast as Americans for a reason. I think well, Christina, I mean, obviously they have some Q. So I'm sure that was a nice little benefit to the show. Christina, I think was still in Canada because she'd done the good doctor and hung around here. And so when we found that out, we were like, whoo, she's in Canada. Let's make a move. So I think that and Dylan, I think came to us because we were dealing with agent lawyer. I can't remember with person on someone else. And they were like, hey, what about Dylan? We were like, what nip type? Are you serious? Yes. So just sort of that one. I don't think we actively, we were auditioning people for that role. And just assumed we would be hiring somebody local. And then he kind of fell in our lap. Yes. Sometimes we can just, as you're saying, like here that somebody is around or the, you know, the agent might call and say, do you have anything

28:27for so and so? And then you can slot it in in a fun way or, you know, sort of talk, can you talk a little bit about, you know, when a role was written a certain way, but you were excited to have your director look at it a little differently. We do have our classic. We do have a fragment story. Bruce McDonald, who was a very, very famous Canadian filmmaker here. I'm sure, you know, we did a film called the Tracy fragments back in like early 2000. And it was at the time it was Ellen Page. Yeah. Obviously. Elliott Page. Yeah. Um, was the lead. And there was a therapist role. Yeah, that was supposed to be like, she was like an old lady. Yeah, it was supposed to be like an old lady. Like characters. Bruce always likes like a lot of character. And there was no one quite hitting. Like there was no one who was quite right. But there's this fantastic British actor named Julian Richards, who we both love. Yeah. And we were like, what if you just put a wig on Julian? Like just what do you want? And he was like, what? I love it. We're like, Brian, that was just

29:31us being kind of silly because we loved the fodder ourselves. Right. And they went for it. And it was fabulous. It turned out really well. That's actually a great Canadian film. Yeah, anyone's looking. Yeah. I could go in Tracy fragments. Yeah. But I think I mean, that does happen quite a bit especially when we're doing film and Canadian film, we are really able to kind of give our own, a lot of our own ideas, television series, especially US series that we do here, less so. I mean, we can definitely show people who are outside of the box. I'm depending on who we're working with because some people don't want that. But filmmakers, we find I'm sure you find them to always want that because that's part of what we bring to the table. It was creative ideas that you might not have thought of, or even if it's like a name person, somebody who you wouldn't have thought to drop in there, that would be really interesting. We do try to always cover all that. And I do think I feel like saying letter Kenny was a time where they definitely had people, not people, sorry, not specific people, but they had the characters. And then we brought in really not the obvious ideas for those people. And then they were like, oh, wait, that's kind of fascinating.

30:34Let's just make it that. So I think it's also the willingness of the creative team that they are sure enough and what they're doing that they can pivot and embrace something that they weren't expecting. So it doesn't, yeah, it doesn't always happen. I actually don't think that's a matter of trust between casting and creatives. I think that's just how confident your creatives are and what they're making that they can really go in a completely different direction than what they thought they wanted. Yeah, and I think we could safely say, you know, there's something in the water in Canada, like the actors are so good. And you know, like when you speak about actors in the UK, you can say, well, you know, there's such an emphasis on training there, maybe much more so than the US, maybe that's fair, maybe not. Is there something you can say as to why the Canadian acting pool is as strong as it is? I think they have to work three times as hard. I think that's a huge part

31:35of it. They're here in Toronto where we work. It's all like American everything. And so in order to compete with the Americans coming in from LA or New York for these parts, they have to work so much murder. And so they're constantly training as well. But also they just are having to hit the ground like like I have the confidence and I have the scale and I could do this. And I think that we don't give them so much credit for that because it's really hard to keep going up against the American actors or stars and just like having to keep being like taking on the chin and hanging in and thinking it's okay like my time will come. I think it's a huge part of it. And I think also just culturally the way we are as Canadians is really helpful to that because we're just a very like for the most part of your happy cheerful bunch who just like want to help and make things all together. Like we don't control really what we're doing. Like we like to be part of the process and be creative. And I think that's a lot of what the Canadian actors are too is they just they want to come and play and they know it's going to be harder for them. So they're just going to

32:38have to work extra hard and they and they really sincerely do like I give so much credit to the actors here because I it's hard I would never. But also comedy. We have so much comedy especially in Toronto. SCTV and like there's such a history second city and so much stand up in improv and it's a really strong through line here. And I think it gives the actors so much more they can dig into when and almost everybody takes an improv class because it really changes your bag of tricks for everything and so I think that's a bit unique to the talent pool here. And I think comedy is a bar if you will you know if you can do comedy you are a very skilled actor you know I see the movie poster behind me when we were casting the good girl like two or three weeks in it's a kind of dark drama and Miguel Artec to the director said to me this is actually a comedy and it changed my whole view of

33:42who should come in and then we were off to the races. It brought something to the process that gave it more depth. Yeah I think that is the case. I think you're totally right. I think the comedians themselves a lot of the times people say when they're casting with us on a comedy they're like you know we only want to see stand up comedians and we're like we'll hold on a second. There are amazing actors even our story we've so much theater here like so much and so even those stage actors or people who they're all capable of comedy and in fact they might bring something different to the table then a stand-up would bring because they also have all this background of acting but comedy is such a huge and important skill to have and we do there's so much kind of our office alone does so much comedy I think more so than anything else and there's so much about happening in Canada for sure. That's how you get through the winter days. And speaking of cold days let's talk about your coffee and tea rituals. Cheers is much more intricate than mine as I can imagine. Mine is you have different things like tea but you also like coffee but you have specific times of the day we're all only

34:45drinking yes correct. Well I'm coffee and I have a milk frother and then I use cream well half and half and then it's very important to have like apple pie spice cardamom is very important you get that in there with the coffee that is hugely important I start with a coffee I might move tea I have to interrupt what yeah like the coffee and what type of coffee process. Okay well we we have an espresso but I'm a little more low-key so my taste like a curry I use Tim Hortons coffee. Tim Hortons is our big coffee. Yeah because I actually can't handle really strong coffee I'm a little bit wimpy and then I do tea I prefer chai of all my teas and then I will drink diet pop but like I'm capped at 4 p.m. No more caffeine for Jenny after 4 p.m. Mine is just I am only a coffee drinker I despise tea. Quite a cross speaking tea then someone should

35:46check on me I might be sick like that's it but I do love coffee and I usually have like I use I like oat milk is my milk choice and I'd like like a vanilla latte but like not very sweet with like a double espresso and I only drink decaf sadly because over the years I have realized that I have a weird I don't know what it is I get like a little shaky from caffeine now where I never used to. But I also always know when you're in the office because Sarah likes a glass cup and like the clink of clink has to be a double wall to get as I do. I know she's here because I like to sometimes put a little bit of cocoa in my oatmeal stir it up which is where you're getting the clink of clink and then I put the double espresso in at the end and it's actually the cologne. Spoons are very important to us. Spoons are so important. Yeah it has to be the right here. We have a lot of very specific spoons for the coffee. Yes and Sarah likes a rose gold. Yeah. So we source some long specifically as long as they're actual spoons. Yeah. Yep. We have those. Yeah. So spoons are very much part of the pleasure of the process. But I might

36:51have to copy a rose gold spoon. I see now it really elevates your coffee experience. I understand that. Honestly that little stir in the morning is very important. Yeah. A big part of the ritual. I want coffee, Joanna. Very creepy. I'm here. So we're going to find. Yeah. 2 p.m. is my cutoff. Really? Wow. I literally only take breakfast meetings now because I dream about how I'll get to have a cup of tea. That's right. It gets us through. Well I can't thank you enough for your time and sharing your stories and your expertise. Our audience just learned a whole lot and was and I believe very entertained. So thank you so so much. You're very sweet. Thank you so much. And congratulations and again a shout out to our nominees. We're so proud of everyone. It's so exciting. I can't all believe this is the first year and like I don't know. So excited.

37:51And they're all amazing. And they're all like those are like I mean hello. The best of them. They're all amazing. We'll be calling them on to the show. Good. Hope so. Yeah. I love you. To my audience thank you for listening today. I hope you found the episode enlightening. It's really my true desire to share a unique perspective on the casting process and help you feel more confident and inspired. The podcast is available on Spotify. Our new episode updates you can follow the show on Instagram at the casting session. Please feel free to share this with your friends and writer review. I'm Joanna Colbert and I'll see you at the next casting session.