This year’s Academy Awards will include the first-ever Oscar for Achievement in Casting. It’s the first new category in 25 years, since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001 (which inaugural award was won by Shrek).

Casting, though, is seen as kind of an illusive, inscrutable art form. We feel like we can separate out the writing and the editing and the costuming and the directing from a thing. But the cast kind of IS the thing a lot of the time, right? It’s kind of inextricable from the thing, it feels like.

This hour: a look at the art of casting.

GUESTS:
Mellini Kantayya: An actor and writer and the author of Actor. Writer. Whatever. (essays on my rise to the top of the bottom of the entertainment industry)
John Frank Levey: A four-time Emmy Award-winning casting director and the author of Right for the Role: Breakdowns, Breakups and Breakthroughs from 35 Years of Casting Iconic TV Shows
Connor Ratliff: An actor, writer, and comedian and the creator and host of Dead Eyes
Michael Schulman: A staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears

This year&rsquo;s Academy Awards will include the first-ever Oscar for Achievement in Casting. It&rsquo;s the first new category in 25 years, since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001 (which inaugural award was won by&nbsp;Shrek).
Casting, though, is seen as kind of an illusive, inscrutable art form. We feel like we can separate out the writing and the editing and the costuming and the directing from a thing. But the cast kind of IS the thing a lot of the time, right? It&rsquo;s kind of inextricable from the thing, it feels like.
This hour: a look at the art of casting.
GUESTS:
<ul>
<li>Mellini Kantayya:&nbsp;An actor and writer and the author of&nbsp;Actor. Writer. Whatever. (essays on my rise to the top of the bottom of the entertainment industry)</li>
<li>John Frank Levey:&nbsp;A four-time Emmy Award-winning casting director and the author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.johnfranklevey.com/book">Right for the Role: Breakdowns, Breakups and Breakthroughs from 35 Years of Casting Iconic TV Shows</a></li>
<li>Connor Ratliff:&nbsp;An actor, writer, and comedian and the creator and host of&nbsp;<a href="https://headgum.com/dead-eyes">Dead Eyes</a></li>
<li>Michael Schulman:&nbsp;A staff writer at&nbsp;The New Yorker&nbsp;and the author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/oscar-wars-michael-schulman">Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears</a></li>
</ul>

The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.