"Heated Rivalry" Casting Directors Jenny Lewis & Sara Kay

Vinnie Mancuso (0:01)

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Jenny Lewis (0:43)

I think we do know what people are going to feel is hot, and that might not be just a visual, it's the whole package. So when we see it in an actor, we're like, okay, we know that this person is going to meet the requirements of the audience. I do like to toot our own horn that that's something we really get, and we're tapped into, and sometimes we see it and not everybody else sees it.

Vinnie Mancuso (1:09)

Hello, and welcome to another new episode of In the Envelope, The Actor's Podcast, where the biggest names in film, television, and theater offer acting lessons and behind-the-scenes insights you won't find anywhere else. I'm your host, backstage senior editor, Vinnie Mancuso, and joining me today are two casting directors behind the breakout story of the past few years, Jenny Lewis and Sara Kay of Lewis Kay Casting.

What I am referring to is Jenny and Sara, of course, cast Heated Rivalry, the romance book adaptation that introduced a large portion of its audience to its two main stars, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. We, of course, also dug into the upcoming Season 2 and the casting of their two new romantic leads, Justice Smith and Charlie Gillespie. But even beyond the Heated Rivalry of it all, Jenny and Sara have nearly 20 years of casting experience that also includes everything from the upcoming romance book adaptation This Summer Will Be Different to projects like The Boys, Twisted Metal, and What We Do in the Shadows. This is just a great behind the curtain chat with two people who know how to spot breakout stars and know what an audience wants and how actors can give it to them. Let's get right into it. Here is casting directors Jenny Lewis and Sara Kay.

Sara and Jenny, how are you doing?

Sara Kay (2:34)

We're good. We're good.

Jenny Lewis (2:36)

Fighting a cold, so who knows?

Vinnie Mancuso (2:39)

That seems to be a trend. I'm actually doing the same, which is funny because we're not anywhere close to each other. I believe you're in Toronto and I'm New Jersey, so I guess it's just widespread. We will make this as painless as possible. You're both coming from TIFF?

Was TIFF a success for you guys?

Sara Kay (2:57)

I don't think we do TIFF anymore Vinnie. We're just like old now.

Jenny Lewis (3:00)

We feel guilty about saying it.

Sara Kay (3:02)

Yeah.

We go to some meetings, we take meetings, we go to some parties. We didn't have any films in TIFF this year, so we didn't go to any of those. Yeah, no, it's not really a big thing for us anymore as it was back in the day.

Vinnie Mancuso (3:17)

That sounds like a success to me.

I'm curious, when you're at something like that, is it hard for you to turn off the casting director brain? It's just you're not going to a ton of movies, you're only going to think, but you're in town. Are you just adding people to the mental rolodex? What is your relationship like to just like, oh, that person's interesting, I'll save them away for later?

Jenny Lewis (3:37)

I think we are always saving people for later mentally. I don't think there's anything we watch where we aren't making notes or sending messages to each other. Like, hey, remember this person for me. Oh, wait, is that just me?

But we're always, yeah, I don't think we ever turn off that part of our brain.

Vinnie Mancuso (3:57)

I'm sure it helps. I'm sure everywhere you go now, you're being reminded of the massive success of Heated Rivalry, especially when it comes to Connor and Hudson, the breakout of the past however many years. I'm curious, now that we are where we are now in the present day, when you have a success story like that, like Heated Rivalry, like that casting, does it cause you to re-evaluate what happened there? You know, like they sort of like look at that casting and be like, whoa, that one really worked.

Sara Kay (4:28)

Yeah, I think it was lighting in a bottle. I think we've said that a few times because I do think it was very different casting. But in the moment, we weren't thinking while we were doing it, oh my God, this is going to be a massively huge success and these guys are going to become huge stars. I think that came definitely as a surprise to everybody, including us, but the casting process for it, the show itself felt like something different. So then you feel like, okay, this could be big.