David Rapaport has helped cast Gossip Girl, 90210, Arrow, and The Flash. For the first time, he talks about auditioning the actors who became iconic faces of The CW.
David Rapaport
Brad Everett Young
It's impossible to imagine Gossip Girl without Blake Lively or Arrow without Stephen Amell, and that's all because of David Rapaport, who has served as the casting director on some of The CW's biggest shows since 2008.
"I love seeing movies and TV shows and thinking, Who would I cast in that role? Or reimagining where people might fit," Rapaport told BuzzFeed News while sitting in one of his casting suites in Burbank, California. "I feel like you need to learn that gut instinct of what works tonally for [your show] — that's a learned instinct and it's also a learned thing to trust your instincts."
So far, those instincts haven't betrayed him. Along with his team, Rapaport has helped hire dozens of other actors who've gone on to help define The CW network. "There is no easy decision because there are maybe 50 people who make that final decision — studio, network, producers — so even though I think I have the right actor for the role, it is always a process to get them cast," he said. "I kind of have to fall in love with all these people I cast because I need to assume the world is also going to fall in love with them, so I have to see that ability in them and I fell in love with each and every one of these actors for what they brought to the character."
Here, in his own, lightly edited words, Rapaport details the highs, lows, hurdles, and discoveries he's made over nearly a decade of working with The CW.
Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen, Gossip Girl)
"I met with Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage — and this was at the height of The O.C. — and they basically said, 'We need the next Mischa Barton and Adam Brody,'" Rapaport recalled of his first meeting with the executive producers. "At the time, they were the biggest names in television. I said, 'Absolutely. Count on us to find them for you.' I don't know where the fuck I thought I was going to find them — I don't even know where I got the ego to say that I could do that, but it was the challenge placed on the table, but I knew that it was something we could do.
"Blake Lively was literally the only person I could think of for Serena. I had seen her in Accepted [a 2006 comedy co-starring Justin Long] and at that time, there were no Lena Dunhams or Zooey Deschanels — it was all about beauty and glamour, but being approachable and Blake was the ultimate It Girl. I was terrified we wouldn't get her or they wouldn't like her because, honestly, they show lived and died on her and I had absolutely no other ideas. And I read so many people. I think at the end of the day, we tested Blake, Katie Cassidy, who is now on Arrow, and this girl who was [Serena] on the Gossip Girl books. Not even her face, just her legs. But it made sense.
"Blake was the front-runner. We did a screen test with her and the note we got back was that she was 'sunny California' and they said, 'I don't think we'll buy her as an Upper East Side debutante.' And Josh said, 'Well, Mischa Barton is from New York and I sold her as a sunny California girl; there's no reason people won't.' So we did another screen test with Blake and all we did was straighten her hair to make her look a little more sophisticated, so to speak. What's ironic is, in the pilot, she ends up having the wavy hair. From there on out, so much of the casting on Gossip Girl became about the hair because Leighton Meester is naturally blonde and the way we got her the job was we dyed her hair. Ultimately they were the best actors for it and brought something really special to their roles."
The CW
Leighton Meester (Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl)
"Leighton is a little bit colder than Blake but I like that," Rapaport said of casting the two as Gossip Girl's best frenemies. "A lot of actors come in and want to please me and are super-kind [and] trying to be my best friend and they flirt and the whole thing, and that's great, but I look for people to come in and be professional and to be kind and courteous. I'm not looking for you to love me; I'm looking for your personality. I'm looking for your uniqueness, so to speak. And Leighton wasn't a bitch when she came in, but she wasn't overly nice or overly generous. She was professional and she did the job and played the role well, and what I liked about her is that she owned who she was. She wasn't going to kiss everyone's ass and that was very Blair.
"She was obviously playing a character, but I wouldn't have cast her as Serena because she's not open like that and that's what makes her interesting and that's why I feel like you go back and think, There is nobody else that could have played these characters. I think the network initially pitched us Ashley Olsen and Rumer Willis for Blair and Serena — I love Rumer, she's grown into quite an amazing actress and person, but that, to me, was based on protecting the investment of a television show where creatively, these lesser-known girls really captured the essence of the show and carried it for six years."
The CW
No comments:
Post a Comment