Allison Jones

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268 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Dec 2024 last heard Dec 2024

Allison Jones’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard · Allison Jones (Award-Winning Casting Director) · 18 Dec 2024 podcast

I would say just sort of read the room sometimes and don't come in and say, I just got the sides last night, so I'm not prepared. That's an old trick some actors have done for decades. Right. I will already know which actor is going to come in and go, oh, I just got the sides last night. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. These are great tips. And don't chew gum in an audition unless it calls for it.

A lot of people are insecure and they'll eat food or chew gum in an audition. Eat food? All the time. Bring a big sandwich. What do you think about coming in in character? Yeah. I can see freaking people out or I can see it really working. And you mean coming in in character, being the character, not dressed like a policeman or something. Well, that's two questions, I guess.

Well, self-tapes, I think it's fine to look like the person. Because studio executives who approve these parts, you're in a cop uniform, they're going to think, oh, he can be a cop. Yeah, it does a lot of the work. God bless them, but most of them think surface things. Yeah, they're juggling different things. Yes, exactly.

And then you do have a group of executives who are unbelievably tuned into the creative part of it, but many are not. But I would say come in in character with comedy. I think it's okay. I wouldn't say you have to. But for example, J.B. Smoove came in to audition for Curb as the character he had made up. And he came in, Larry, Larry David. He came in instantly. Larry was on the floor. Right.

He hit the part immediately, basically. Yeah. So you got to be pretty confident when you do it.

Yeah, exactly. Frequently also, when the scene is done, you get a feel for the person. Yes. The way in Borat, Ken Davichian, who played his assistant in Borat in the first Borat movie, came in with Sasha did not know, but with a very authentic Eastern European accent. And then after he was done, after he got the part, we told him he was American.

So that was smart. And Sasha was blown away because we LAG'd him. I mean, we... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everybody knows what McLevin is. Yes. Oh. I would say it was the toughest role ever to cast. No kidding. Because it took months and months. Pre-internet, I think we did some sort of a MySpace thing. That was the first big internet thing, right?

Yes. And it turned up nobody. Those are days you still put up flyers in high schools and things like that. Wow. And I knew I wasn't turning up a good geek. You know, I know I can recognize a good geek. And Judd was like, no, no, no, no, no. Michael Cera first came in for McLevin. And then it was apparent he was perfect. That was right after he finished Arrested Development.

So he wasn't a star yet. We still had to read Every Kid in Town to play Seth and Evan. Judd first. only wanted kids who were actually 18 or 19. So at the time, Jonah was a little bit too old. We wanted him to do the table read and no, Judd wanted kids younger. I sort of ignored kids who were older than 19 or 20. And then it did dawn on Judd, wait a minute, Jonah looks like a baby.

Of course he can do this. And then Michael Cera came back and read as Seth. And of course, wait a minute. Or Evan. Or Evan. But McLovin, I wanted to find the Most amazing nerd ever, Greg Mottola did too. And I knew I wasn't turning anybody up. Casting people know when they're not delivering and you had to keep looking. And so we put up flyers in high schools and I still have a copy of my flyer.

It was Attention Nerdy High School Boys. Call this number or fax. Picture to picture to this number. The little head shot of Christopher Mintz-Place came through a bad fax. His forehead was stretched out.

We had sent, and my associate at the time, Delia Frankel, had looked up improv classes in high schools. So we had sent them around to high schools and they were calling us. And I think the way he got was one of his friend's mothers said, there's a flyer for a nerdy high school kid, Christopher. I think you should submit it. So he came in. Judd saw it instantly. Other people did not.

I did, Judd did. The reason I thought he was funny is because part of the scene was he had to name his character McLoving. He said McLoving instead of McLovin. Crack me up just the way he said it. Those are the little things you recognize in comedy. And he was just like Coke bottle glasses kind of a kid. The same way that Martin Starr was.

He read for all three male roles in Freaks and Geeks, all the geek roles. And he was just like, bingo, he's one of them. And knew what he was doing. He came in and he was like, wow, look at the way this kid looks and he can act. Right. Same with Tim Simons when he came in for Veep. Thank you for that compliment, by the way. Veep and Parks and Recs knocked me out, those casts.

And I'm not saying it to pat myself on the back. They're unreal. It's all an act of faith, all of it.

He was at some point. I think he was. I don't know specifically. But not for V. Not for V. The way I found Tim, and it's a great sort of casting story. I should get into the Phyllis story, too. Am I taking you over too much time?

One of my associates at the time, Peter Kousakis, who's now a great manager at Mosaic, he said, would you meet my friend Tim Simons? He said, did you see that Abraham Lincoln commercial when she says, does this make my butt look big? And I said, oh yeah, that tall guy. He's cool. Of course I would see him. I love to see new people, of course, as all casting people do.

And I met him, I think we just brought him in to read for something and it was like, oh, he's really good. We put that in our head bank and I brought him in. shortly thereafter, I think, for one thing that he didn't get. And then I brought him in for the Veep pilot, which was written as like a short, stocky chain smoker. Right.

Any good casting director, you don't really read the writer's description because you need to just bring in good people.

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