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Rachel Tenner and Mickie Paskal have been casting commercials, industrials and films at Tenner, Paskal and Rudnickie Casting for 7 years. They have been the owners for 5 years.
Rachael: What is your favorite play or movie?
Rachel Tenner: Oh my God.
Mickie Paskal: Oh God, I love The Producers.
Tenner: Instead of Little Darlin's?
Paskal: I was almost about to say that!
Tenner: I'm serious, I thought you were going to say Little Darlin's.
Matt Dillon's finest work.
Paskal: I have that movie memorized. So, that must count as my favorite movie.
Tenner: Rushmore is a movie that I've seen recently and it's one of my favorites. I watched it over and over again. And as far as plays go, we loved This Is Our Youth.
Paskal: Yeah, that was a great show.
Tenner: I think it was Roadworks.
What do you love most about the casting process?
Tenner: That's a hard one.
Paskal: I would say probably discovering a new talent. Having someone come in and just blow me away. Someone undiscovered who is the one out of a hundred that walks in with something amazing going on. I think that is always really great.
Tenner: I think that's true, and also the process of doing scene work and seeing ten people that day and having ten people come in with ten different reads and ten different interpretations and getting to actually direct and talk about it and work on a scene, which leads to the one person who will come in and nail it.
Who were your role models when you were starting out?
Paskal: Rachel has always been my role model.
Tenner: (Laughs) She's kidding.
Paskal: You mean as casting directors?
Anyone who influenced your life.
Tenner: I would say my mother. I don't remember having a role model, but I think I would say my mom because I've always felt that I can do anything. I've never been taught there were things I couldn't do. You know what I mean? I have two older brothers and there was never a difference between us. We were always treated equally and it was assumed that we would all make it to our own personal goals. I mean, I was the baby, so I was treated a little differently in that way. Now, I appreciate that, because when we do interviews, people ask me how is it owning a business as women and my response is, "The same as being a man," because I've always looked at it like we were opening a business and not necessarily opening a business as women. So I'm going to say my mom.
Paskal: I'm going to say your mom too.
(Laugh)
Tenner: She'd appreciate that.
Have you ever gone skinny dipping?
Tenner: Yes
Paskal: I will add it to my list. Couldn't you have asked about bungee jumping?
Have you?
Tenner: We did a daredevil drop at Great America.
That would be so much fun.
Paskal: That sort of counts.
It totally counts; that thing is amazing.
Tenner: Yeah, it was scary.
What was the most influential book you ever read?
Paskal: I know I will think of great answers tonight. I'm going to have to go with To Kill a Mockingbird. It was the first book that I read where everyone in it felt real to me.
Tenner: Oh God, I can't think of one.
Paskal: I'm just lovin' Harper Lee.
Tenner: Books are hard because the're like...
Paskal: The're like different times in your life.
Tenner: Exactly...even more so than film.
Paskal: What awakened you to reading? Like was there-
Tenner: Oh, the Judy Blume series was huge.
Paskal: Deenie, man.
Margaret.
Tenner: I think it would be Jackie Collins'.
(Laughter)
Tenner: I forgot the name of the woman-what was the woman's name?
Paskal: Lucky.
Tenner: Lucky! Lucky! Jackie Collins' Lucky.
Paskal: As a woman, I too was touched by that novel.
Tenner: Jim Hightower and Noam Chomsky are two authors that I have been reading lately, and both have had a big influence on me. Their ideas on politics and economics in our country are really interesting.
Paskal: From Jackie Collins to Noam Chomsky.
Tenner: Jim Hightower wrote a book called There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos. It really affected me. It's about corporate greed and politics.
How did you know that you wanted to be a casting director?
Tenner: For me really, nothing. (Laughter) It was just a matter of knowing that I wanted to be in the industry. I worked at it by trial and error and found what clicked. I did a couple of other things first. I interned for a producer, and then at a talent agency and then finally, I came to casting. Casting is exciting because you get to be an integral part of a film. You're not the whole thing, but you are a part of it and what you do is important. It's like what Mickie said earlier, it's very exciting when you find the right person and it clicks. And when I see someone's words brought to life, that's the aspect of it that made me stay with it. And working with actors. Learning to have a voice of my own and working with actors. And understanding acting, because I didn't really know a lot of it.
Paskal: It's not really a fair question in that I don't think anyone sets out in school to become a casting director because it's an unpublicized career.
Tenner: Right.
Paskal: I think half the people who graduate from college in theatre have no idea what a casting director does, as opposed to a talent agent. So I think a lot of the people who are casting directors came via the acting route or the agency route because that is how you discover it. That's how I came to it--from an acting background.
Tenner: I'm amazed sometimes when you talk to people and they ask you what you do and you say you're a casting director and they say, "Really?!!" I always wonder how they know what a casting director is.
Paskal: Right.
Tenner: I never would have known.
Paskal: There are no schools or classes for casting directors which is kind of bizarre.
What are the turn-ons and turn-offs to your job?
Paskal: People who do not treat it like a profession. Actors that come in unprepared with no choice-that is probably my biggest turnoff.
Tenner: Definitely. They should treat it like a business. We are not your mothers, we are not your therapists. We're not here to nurture you and coddle you and make sure everything is okay. This is a business. From a client point of view, sometimes we deal with people who don't understand what
casting is, what it really involves. They'll ask for three knife juggling clowns between the ages of 31 and 33 and they'll need them by the afternoon.
What are your favorite projects to cast?
Paskal: No Sleep till Madison was a great project.
Tenner: It really was.
Paskal: It's an independent film that we just finished casting.
Why was it a great project?
Paskal: The script was fabulous, funny and real. We had open reign as far as who we wanted to bring in to audition. There were no confines around us as far as who we could see and they were respectful of the actors and the acting process and they were open to the Chicago talent pool.
Tenner: Cupid was fun, as was Stir of Echoes and Too Much Flesh. The bottom line is getting a film that allows us to be a bigger part of it than just casting a day player, thus allowing us to add our little twist to it by bringing in actors that they weren't expecting to see.
What are three do's and don'ts actors should be aware of in the casting process?
Tenner: MAKE A CHOICE, have your headshots, bring your headshot stapled and have a pen. Basically, do your own office supply work, get the information, get the specifics of a job, and--
Paskal: Go for it and treat the audition as if it's the job. Don't treat it like you're going to get five takes and hopefully you'll hit the fifth one. Come in the door ready to boogie. We would much rather tell someone to take it down, or tweak it one way or the other, than be presented with nothing and have nothing to say. Because when there are 50 people coming in, especially commercially, you really have to do something to make yourself stand out. So those are the three things. Don'ts? It's all about self
sabotage. Don't give yourself an out. Your struggle as an artist, as an actor, is already so fraught with peril and so difficult, don't give yourself an out so that when you don't get something you can say, "Oh I didn't...bring my headshot," or, "I had no idea what I was auditioning for and I couldn't find parking so now I'm an hour late and now I'm all frazzled." Give yourself every opportunity to get it and if you don't get it, it's not because you suck or so many random things that become involved in the final
choice especially commercially; don't judge yourself too harshly. This is more of a do, but a callback is as good as a cast. You get called back because you did something awesome, you stood out. Then it comes down to demographics and who you are with. So don't judge yourself by bookings.
Tenner: Don't stop yourself in the middle of an audition.
Paskal: Aaarrhhh, I hate that! Don't ever stop your audition.
Tenner: Don't self edit. If you think you're screwing up--keep going. Don't stop and ask us to rewind.
Do you have any piercings or tattoos?
Tenner: Ear piercings.
Paskal: I have a tattoo. I got a tattoo from Tattoo Ted in Des Moines, Iowa. It's a red, yellow and green peace sign on my hip and for some reason he threw in a letter for free so I have an "R" underneath it. That was my then boyfriend's first initial, but now it's my husband Ross' first initial.
Tenner: Thankfully.
Paskal: I knew I had to marry someone with an "R" name.
What are your future plans for Tenner, Paskal and Rudnicke?
Tenner: Interesting question.
Paskal: (Laughs)
Tenner: That's something we are discussing now, trying to figure out where we are going to take things. So...bigger and better. Pretty vague, but right now we are considering that very thing. We have a definite passion for film so the more of that we can do, the better.
Do you have any desire to go to Los Angeles or New York to cast?
Tenner: Maybe, yeah. Chicago is wonderful, but if we were to move it would simply be to have more access to the film community. It's not for lack of a talent pool here, or because you can't make a living here. It would just be getting access to do the things we care about most. So I guess it's an option--we'll see.
What were your most embarrassing moments?
Tenner: Ever?
Ever.
Tenner: I have so many. My most embarrasing?
Paskal: I was at a dude ranch with my in-laws--
Tenner: Aaaaahhhh...this is a good one!
Paskal: --and bragging about how I was big old horseback rider and spent my entire childhood riding horses. So they brought out the horses for us to ride and while climbing on to my horse my shirt got wrapped around the saddle horn. Also, my feet didn't fit in the stirrups because I was too short, so when I dismounted, my shirt got even more wrapped around the saddle horn and I hung from my shirt and my bra broke and I was pretty much displayed for the whole family and the horse that was stomping around.
Tenner: I think you called me crying after it (laughing).
Paskal: Oh, shut up (laughing). That is so rude.
Tenner: It was really...I mean you were laughing. She was crying and laughing telling me this story.
Paskal: I love animals too, so hearing the horse scared and panicking...
Tenner: Mine I'm sure has something to do with farting in front of someone (laughter); that's my life.
Paskal: But you love that; you try to do that.
Tenner: I know.
What was your favorite and least favorite subject in school?
Paskal: Drama was my favorite, and math was my least favorite.
Tenner: I liked English and math, but I hated science.
Favorite photographer in Chicago?
Tenner: I'm pretty ignorant of that. I refer all photo questions to Acting Studio Chicago; by the time we get them I don't know who has taken them. But make sure your headshot shows us who you are.
Paskal: That's probably a good question for the talent agencies because they are the ones who look at the proofs. Unless they are outside on Brian McConkey's railing.
What to do you consider your biggest achievement as a casting director?
Tenner: I think I'm most proud of either Cupid for ABC or Stir of Echoes because of the medium. Both of those offered us the opportunity to help create a project and feel that we participated. We got to help shape every episode and for the film we really got to help bring the film to life and then go see it in the theatre. Actually, that was really fun. Stir of Echoes was great, I really enjoyed that, the script was great, the people in it were great; and the film was really well done and I thought it was exciting to go see. It was our first main title credit and it was exciting to see it up there. I think I was most proud of that.
Paskal: I only worked on Stir of Echoes for a week, so I missed that whole "start to finish" thing. I may go with No Sleep till Madison. That was the first time from start to finish that we were completely involved in the process and that we were totally and completely trusted and listened to in the casting process. I felt we had a lot of weight in the casting down to my final selection, which was great to have our instincts utilized that way. That's exactly why we are here and what we should be doing all the time. If it sucks, I never liked it, but if it's great...
Thank you so much.
Tenner: Oh, you're welcome.
Paskal: Sure thing, girlie.
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