There’s a famous story about director Martin Scorsese wanting to cast a “Cybill Shepherd type” for the role of Betsy the volunteer worker for his landmark 1976 film “Taxi Driver.” Shepherd’s agent, Sue Mengers, heard about the casting call and put forth none other than Shepherd herself.
“The Righteous Gemstones” casting department similarly went right to the top when looking for an actor to kick off the final season’s first episode. “Prelude” is a flashback-driven origin story of one Elijah Gemstone, a violent charlatan and drifter in the Civil War who possesses a gift for the grift, and the role is played by none other than Hollywood superstar Bradley Cooper.
“We needed somebody who the audience would immediately connect to, and that they would want to watch while not missing and hoping and wondering, ‘What’s going on here and where’s [Danny McBride’s] Jesse?’” casting director Sherry Thomas said. “So we started with a list, and on that list was definitely Bradley Cooper.”
The character, assumed to be either a great- or great-great-grandfather to patriarch Eli (John Goodman), would be seen in only one episode and share no screen time with any cast regulars. “Bradley read the script really fast,” Thomas said. “And I remember getting a text from Danny and it said, ‘He’s in.’ And in the text back to him, I’m pretty sure my response was ‘Are you f–king kidding me?’”
But that casting coup was part of a long tradition of “Gemstones” taking an unorthodox path to finding guest actors, as the series has always been interested in nontraditional drop-ins. This is a show, after all, that has employed people
as atypical as Macaulay Culkin, Eric André, Steve Zahn, Marla Maples and Joe Jonas (as himself, no less) for small parts.
“There was a really interesting balance of people that were offered a role (without an audition) and a lot of people that in other circumstances might be in that category but said, ‘I don’t care, I’ll read,’” said Thomas, who has been an integral part of casting some of the most enduring recent series in TV history, including “Breaking Bad,” “Dead to Me,” “Barry” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which have helped bring her nine Emmy nominations in 10 years.
“We start with an episode, and we determine what roles are likely going to come from Los Angeles or New York or what roles are probably going to be regional,” she explained. “But we simultaneously look at those roles and determine the person for it that fits the role best.”
Another important final-season role was the chanteuse Lori Milsap, the one-time singing partner of deceased materfamilias Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (played by Sugarland lead singer Jennifer Nettles), who strikes up a romance with the widowed Eli. On casting Megan Mullally for the deeper-than-it-seems role, Thomas said the actress just checked every box: “The conversation started with wanting an actress who could sing. And from there, you have to balance it with comedy. Then you have to balance it with somebody who is going to feel appropriate for Goodman so that it’s not ick. We always kept coming back to Megan, because it just felt right.”
Thomas won’t single out her greatest casting triumphs over the years, as everyone is so right for what they do — from Walton Goggins’ outrageous, often pantsless in-law Uncle Baby Billy to the letter-perfect young actors playing the Gemstone children in the fan-favorite “Interlude” flashback episodes. But Kristen Johnston’s May-May, Eli’s younger sister in Season 3, is a highlight for her. “That was an interesting part to navigate,” she shared. “We hadn’t seen her in a bit. There was such a heart and soul to her, a brokenness and a vulnerability. I don’t know that Kristen’s ever been able to show that side of herself as an actor.”
Now that the series has concluded, Thomas is enjoying the victory of casting directors finally being recognized at the Oscars, as they have been at the Emmys for many years now. Does that, combined with a new Oscar category for stunts, give her hope that her branch of the industry is seeing real change?
“It just took time for whatever reason, right or wrong, but we are part of the process, and it is a skill set,” Thomas said proudly. “We do advocate, we do fight, we do go the extra mile all the time where we’ll spend a half hour with an actor on an audition because we believe in them. It’s also cultivating those relationships over the years that you get to know an actor and the depth of their work and have the ability to champion and advocate for people and get them these jobs that are life-changing.”
This story first ran in the Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
The post Why Bradley Cooper Was the Perfect Person to Kick Off the Final Season of ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ appeared first on TheWrap.