99% Invisible - 185- Atmospherians

Episode Date: October 20, 2015

The phrase ‘from Central Casting’ has become a kind of cultural shorthand for a stereotype or archetype, a subject so visually suited to its part it appears to have been designed for that role. Search the news for ‘straight out … Continue reading →

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. In September 2015, Duke University's football team promoted its backup quarterback to starter. This was a little bit of a shake up because the new starting quarterback was a total rookie, stepping up to take a man to the team. Duke's new quarterback may have been inexperienced,

but he sure did look the part. He was exactly the kind of person you'd cast in a movie about a team trying to turn their luck around. Dude is 6'4", 225 pounds, has boyish good looks and an aweshocks grin. That's aweshocks producer, Sam Greenspan. Meanwhile, in Orange County, California, a public defender was making headlines for his work investigating how local law enforcement had been stacking the deck against defendants. Newspapers show him in a standard suit with wireframe glasses, ductile hair, and a goatee.

He's got the look of a 20-year veteran of the courts who's managed to keep hold of his ideals. Meanwhile, in the West African country of Burkina Faso, a group of armed soldiers in military fatigues forced their way into a cabinet meeting and asserted their control over the government. In each of these cases, the quarterback, the attorney, the coup, newspaper articles about each of them described them in exactly the same way.

They were all written up as being straight out of central casting. Calling something or someone from central casting is a kind of cultural shorthand for a stereotype or archetype. Something so visually perfect that it's like it's been designed. The first time Barack Obama flew in Air Force One, he said to the pilot, I've got to say you're out of central cast. You're exactly what I want.

The pilot Air Force one will look like. If you do a new search for the phrase straight out of central casting, you'll get tons of hits about athletes, business executives, politicians, billionaire philanthropists. But every noun that you'll find an article that makes reference to a proper noun central casting in Burbank, California. Morning. I'm going to central casting, please. I've known the phrase straight out of central casting for a long time, but I'd never really

stop to think about where it came from, and so I was quite surprised to learn that central casting is a real place. I know, right? It's like learning that ACME is a real company, and that they still make Ann Vills. Even my taxi driver, a long time resident of Los Angeles, even he didn't know central casting was real. Central casting is in Burbank, California in the San Fernando Valley, and it's where the vast majority of extras come from.

Okay, I am on South Flower Street in Burbank, California outside of the central casting building. It's a nondescript two-story office building, the kind of place you'd expect to find in orthodontist. In every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting in the very early, early morning. People line up outside central casting. When I got there at eight o'clock on a Monday morning,

there were about 50 people in line. It would grow to about 100 over the next hour. And at the very front was a woman named Karissa Garrow. I got here at 3, 10 in the morning. 3, 10 a.m.? Yeah. So it's already been a long day.

Yeah, it has. The people in line at Central Casting aren't there for auditions. Karissa and everyone behind her in line are there for the chance to fill out some paperwork, take a headshot, and get entered into Central Castings Database for extras. They will not be cast for speaking roles, though many, if not all, are hoping that a director or producer will like their look and give them some dialogue.

Just like how John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe and Brad Pitt got started. The line of Hollywood hopefuls stretches down the sidewalk. Some people have broad lawn chairs or blankets to sit on. And they all look, well, they look like they're straight at essential casting. There's a handsome Texan in a suit and tie, fresh face to the prospect of showbiz. Friends called me over and I'm from Texas.

So they was like, hey, you want to do some background work background work central casting you can go over there. There's a female body builder I do fitness competitions so I'm trying to build myself as a brand and that industry as well. A guy who calls himself Kid Radioactive I'm gonna be famous even though it's already hot and most of the people here have been waiting for three four five hours people are are cheerful, optimistic even. Then, at around 9.30 a guy emerges from inside central casting. He's handing out these laminated slips of paper. They kind of look like oversized bookmarks.

These are the tickets in to today's registration process. He only makes it halfway down the line when he runs out. You didn't get one, I'm sorry. Should we wait and see if somebody doesn't have their pay for it? No, ma'am. Thank you. Come back Wednesday. Where's he morning?

It's kind of lined up between like four, maybe five in the morning. Central Castings Bouncer is named Russell Leblanc. I'm a safety specialist, this is passing out the cars this morning. Right. So your people is either best friend or worst enemy in the morning? Yes, pretty much. One person protests and if you ask Russell about exceptions, but most of the 60 odd people who didn't get tickets

retreat to their cars wordlessly. Then the door to central casting opens up and the 50 or so left golden tickets in hand slowly file in. The first job that any aspiring film actor gets is usually as an extra, known in the industry as background actors. They're the people who really make the film without your being aware that they're present. That's Anthony Slide. My name is Anthony Slide.

I am the author of 76 books, I believe, if they can't correctly, on the history of popular entertainment, and one of them is Hollywood unknowns, a history of Hollywood extras, stand-ins, bit players, and stunt people. Even though the industry has shifted to calling them background actors, Anthony Slide still calls them extras. They were always called extras in the early years, Fiodor Dreiser, the novelist, called the Atmosphelians, which is a rather nice title,

I think. If you're a director, you need Atmosphelians, because if you try to shoot a film out in the world with regular people, the risk you take is the people walking around suddenly aware they're being filmed, and so they're suddenly going to start waving at the camera, mugging or whatever. Plus, you're going to have to shoot the same scene a bunch of different times, and so they're suddenly going to start waving at the camera, mugging or whatever. Plus, you're gonna have to shoot the same scene a bunch of different times, and so you need to be able to tell your actors, background included, where to go and what to do. You need people who are paid to listen to you.

It's about control, yes. In the early days of cinema, the Hollywood machine had near complete control of extras, both on the set and off. People would come from all over seeking fame and fortune. And to get work, people converged on the gates of the movie lots, hoping to get cast for the day. They were desperate. Many were exploited. So many horror stories were emanating from Hollywood.

That by the 1920s, Hollywood had been nicknamed the Port of Missing Girls. The Port of Missing Girls is a place where women flocked in their thousands and their tens of thousands in the hope of getting into films and they were all very vulnerable. They were reliant upon the men at the studios particularly the casting directors, the assistant directors who would hire them and a lot of times these men would simply ask for sexual favors as a reward for hiring them to appear in a movie for a dollar a day. Extras who did get hired were often not paid what they were promised.

By 1925, the state of California was threatening to investigate Hollywood if they didn't clean up their act. And so as a means of regulating the industry and keeping the government off their back, the Motion Pictures Association of America, the MPAA, established central casting. A centralized clearinghouse to match people who wanted to be extras with the people who wanted to hire them. Now, instead of just picking one of the major movie studios and just standing around at the gates all day hoping to be picked, people who wanted to be extras could register with

central casting. So now, they could wait by their phone, hoping for a call like... Hello. Does Maple Jones? Yes. Berkeley Company. Warners. Be there at 8 tomorrow.

Street Close. Extras also called into central casting, constantly. So much so that the operators developed super quick ways to relay information. If there was no work, they'd say, NERK. NERK! They wanted the extras to try again later, they'd say, TRE-LE. But as cinema took off, and as silent films gave way to talkies, the need for extras only grew.

And central casting had to get more sophisticated and it's tracking and recruitment of extras. This is the team that's doing the registration today. Back in present day central casting, executive vice president Jennifer Bender is showing me around. So then afterwards they'll come over here and get their photos taken. This office is one of three.

Central casting is now in Burbank, New York, and New Orleans. Between all three offices, we've got about 90,000, almost 100,000 people. It's like there's a small city living inside their computer servers, an extremely diverse and infinitely indexable city. This is Spain. I am Sam.

Brandy, nice to meet you. Jennifer introduces me to Brandy Hawkins. Brandy takes me on a test drive of how the central casting database works. She opens up a window on their custom-built software which has just about every search parameter for a person you can imagine. Hight, race, shoe size, bus size tattoos, location of tattoos, missing lens, how much nudity you'll do. Now she just needed a target. Do you want to look for like your photo double? Oh my god, yeah, let's do that.

Okay. So I, this is just looking at you, this is what I would do, but you can't get a friend of mine. No, please. So I would go in maybe the 24 to 35 range. Okay. And I would do Caucasian, male. Like, six, six, one, six, two. It's pretty good. So I would do like six to six, three.

I would do hair color, and then I would brown, coat, but 40, 42, some more. morning. I'm good at this. And like 32 ways. 32 ways. And something we would just do a search. And one by one a stream of tall brown haired 30-something white dudes all scroll by. And then we just kind of scroll through and see kind of who we think that like might come up that anywhere near That's pretty good Like I would submit him he looks like he'd be like your long-lost brother. Oh

Man that sounds so unsettling. It was a little unsettling. I just wanted to stand up and shout. No, I'm unique I asked Brandy how she got comfortable talking so explicitly about what people look like. It was very difficult first because I came from a human resources background and there were so many things you couldn't do. Like you couldn't hire people based off of their looks. Whereas now that's what it's all about,

like they'll literally say, I need African-American mail, six feet tall that fits these sizes. And, you know, like if you're creating a basketball team, it, you know, it's not going to look like a realistic basketball team if there are all these Caucasian looking guys who are five foot four. And so to do this, central casting and pretty much every casting agency that deals with background, there are plenty of others. Their callouts can be pretty blunt. Central casting's Facebook page is full of descriptions such as, and this is a real one, quote,

looking for a hip, attractive man and women who appear to be Asian in their 20s with trendy wardrobe, no visible tattoos. To an outsider, this language can really feel abrasive. It's clear that this line of work demands that you categorize and stereotype. Kristen Barona is a senior casting director at Central Casting. And to get a feel for how she works, I asked her how she'd cast a couple different locations, starting with a dive bar. A dive bar, I would probably do an older

Caucasian guy bartender, kind of maybe on a little bit on the bikery side or a little bit on the sketchy side, because they're always at a dive bar. Then I would probably do a second bartender that would be like a tatted up hipster and some women that have probably been, you know, through it. Auto body shop.

Auto body shop. Auto body workers, mostly Hispanic. Guys, I would do definitely a guy in his 40s kind of ponchy with maybe a mustache. And then some younger guys that are kind of running around. I would probably do a female in her 50s that's the receptionist. I mean, I picture myself in the place

in what I would see. What I would see. What I would see. Background actors are supposed to look like they belong there. So casting directors play to our expectations about how we think the real world looks. And sometimes in doing so, they end up perpetuating those expectations. Casting directors are trying to strike a balance between authenticity and expectation.

They're constantly looking at the real world and wondering if it matches the way they would cast it. Here's central casting executive vice president Jennifer Bender again. The other week I was in New York and I was walking down the street and there were, this is just so silly, there were more blondes than brunettes. And what's very stereotypical if you're casting a New York street scene is they don't want any blondes because people think of New York they think of Brunettes, right? And I just thought to myself, if I were to cast the scene doing a New York straight scene, I would be fired because this it doesn't even look like it should be really here. Back in the registration room, the people who are waiting outside all morning sit at chairs facing a PowerPoint presentation.

Essential casting employee comes out. All right, guys, good morning. How's everyone today? I think it's been out there for quite a bit. employee comes out. The central casting orientation is pretty much like any new employee orientation. The next form is the i9 form. That should be the second to last page in your pocket. Though every now and then, there are some forms to fill out that you would not find at most places of business. And on to level of immunity. For this one, I do need everyone to select one thing. So yes, would be everything, of course. No is swimsuit for women.

Partial would be naked seen from the rear from the end. So just keep that in mind. Of course, you can always edit this. There are boxes to check for tattoos, piercings, missing body parts. If you can dress in drag, There are boxes to check for tattoos, piercings, missing body parts. If you can dress in drag, you can dress like a clown, you can juggle. There's also information about how the payment system works, and a session on identifying the signs of heat exhaustion, and who to talk to if you're feeling ill on set.

After about an hour of document signing, everyone gets a headshot. And that's it. They are released back into the world where they will wait for a role. There's a cynicism that one could take here. That central casting is about turning humans into objects. It is one of the only, if not the only job, where you are hired solely for what you look like. On the other hand, though, one could argue that this is progress. Here, everyone will be seen. The young, the old, the short, the tall, the housewife, the ex-gang member, the bombshell, the amputee.

This is a pathway into showbiz that's not about nepotism or cronyism or who you'll sleep with. At central casting, people fill out eye-nines and get some knowledge base about what to expect on set. And actually get paid. And maybe, just maybe, one of them could become the next Brad or Marilyn. But until then, they'll check Facebook and wait by their phones for the call. Hey Jill, this is Jimmy from Central Casting. Hey, I'm calling to see if you want to work American Crime Story tomorrow. Alright, so you're going to be a media type at 9.30am? Correct.

Awesome, thank you Jill. Of course, alright, bye bye. Hey Dusty, this is Jimmy from Central Casting. Hey, how's it going, man? Good, good. Are you available tomorrow? Awesome. Alright, so you're going to be a media type at 9.30am?

Correct. And you're all set? Alright, you too. Bye bye. We type at 9.30 a.m. Correct. And you're all set? Alright, you too. Bye-bye. We're booked up on the Caucasian spots. So we need one more African-American one Hispanic one, Asia. Still graffing your kiss. I'm longing to linger till the day.

99% Invisible was produced this week by Sam Greenspan with Katie Mingle, Avery Truffman, Kurt Colstead, and me Roman Mars. Special thanks to Davian Nelson, Ellen Lewis, Grant Wilfley, Claire Tanner, Andrea Hume, Bill Maranella, Devon Brown, Jack Wallace, Alana Goldstein, Raquel Lamoth, and everyone at Central Casting for Letting Us in the Front Door. The people you heard online were Carissa Garrow, Cory Lo, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of me, dream of meW San Francisco and produced out of the offices of ArcSign, an architecture and interiors firm not even remotely out of central casting in beautiful

downtown Oakland, California. You can find this show and like the show on Facebook, all of us are on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify, but to find out more about this story including cool pictures and links and listen to all the episodes of 99% invisible. You must go to 99pi.org. Radio Tapio. From PRX.

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