Seth Yanklewitz doesn’t only do comedy, although he is very good at it. He’s also very good at assembling ensembles. This is proven by his work of putting together the cast of New Girl, which is arguably one of the best casts of any sitcom this century. He was even nominated for it in the show’s first season, alongside fellow casting directors Juel Bestrop, Anya Colloff and Michael Nicolo. Throw in The Hangover, Eastbound & Down and How I Met Your Father, and it’s clear that the casting director is at the top of his game.
His most recent triumph, which he cast with Ben Pollack, is the hilarious Hulu sitcom Deli Boys. The show, which stars Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh and Poorna Jagannathan, is about a pair of pampered Pakistani-American brothers whose lives fall apart when their convenience store magnate dad dies. He spoke to us from his home in LA.
Insights: Lessons From Seth Yanklewitz
- Hone comedic timing by studying seasoned comedians and their delivery techniques.
- Display compatibility and the ability to work as part of a team during ensemble auditions.
- Come to auditions well-prepared, with strong choices made, and be ready to take and incorporate direction.
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How did you get into casting in the first place?
I went to NYU Tisch for acting, and I immediately hated it. I toughed out the Acting Program for another three and a half years. In my sixth semester, I was allowed to do an internship. I did an internship at Liz Lewis Casting in New York, which, at the time, she and Bernie Telsey were the two biggest commercial casting offices. I fell in love immediately. Like, immediately. I stayed there and rose through the ranks quickly to be a casting director within three years, and that is how I got my toe wet in casting.
What was it about acting that you suddenly hated?
I was in the experimental theater wing, which was very avant-garde. Although I loved Catherine Coray, who was my acting teacher freshman first semester, the idea of all the other stuff they did, like yoga and walking on imaginary grids on the floor, just didn’t compute to me. I wanted to be Tom Cruise or a soap star. Neither was going to happen in the late 90s.
The other thing: I fell in love with New York City and the nightlife, and that took a bit of a turn for me in who I became, how I came out and was formed as a young adult. When I got in the commercial casting room, where you’re a one-man show, running the camera, giving direction, reading with the actors, changing the way they did it. Then getting the job, and recognizing that, I was like, “Ooh, this is for me. This is magic.”
I hear that a lot. The magic of getting people a job and making their dreams come true, and the endorphins that come with it.
It happened yesterday. I’ve been working on a show for Amazon, and we had the male lead. To be able to tell the actress that she got the female lead … the agents called her with me on the phone, which is very rare, but it was so wonderful. She was like, “Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up. Oh my god, is this real? Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up. I’m lying down. I have to lie down.”
It was just so amazing. It’s not an ego thing for me, it’s just knowing that someone came in the room, did the work, fought for a part, put everything on the table and is rewarded for it. It’s magic.
You do a lot of comedy, which is not easy. Is there a secret to doing it successfully?
I learned early on in my career from Bonnie Timmermann to be quiet and pay attention. I was lucky enough at the start of my career to work with Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Judd Apatow. We did Eastbound & Down for Danny McBride.
You watch the masters, you see how they set it up, and what they’re looking for to deliver the funny. As you watch and you listen, that’s how you hone your skill to know that, “Okay, this is the fun.” This is the joke in the scene. This line has to be delivered properly for all of this to work, and there might be one or two ways to do it. This is where the skill of the comedic actor comes in, right? Will Forte would deliver it differently than Vince Vaughn, but it could be hysterical either way.
We did Seth Gordon’s first movie, The Breakup, and Vince is a real master class in delivery. I was just quiet, and watched and learned, and it sinks in. Then, I think if you have the natural sort of stuff in you, you’re able to take what you’ve heard and the direction they’ve given, and then use it for other actors.
Do you find that that helps you with an ensemble, too? One of my favorite ensembles of the last 15 years is New Girl, which was complicated by having to replace Damon Wayans Jr. with Lamorne Morris in the second episode.
We got Zooey [Deschanel] within the first week of starting the project, and the role of Coach, which was Damon, was originally written as a chubby, Jewish, white guy. I said to [creator] Liz Meriwether and everyone, “Guys, there are too many white people in this show. We’re never going to get it picked up by Fox. We’ve got to see diversity somewhere, and I think Coach could be the role.”
What wound up happening was that all the diverse guys were coming in and reading it like a white, Jewish guy. I went to Liz and asked if we could change it, rewrite the scene or even the stage direction, and then it started to work. That’s how we got to Damon Wayans Jr., who was on a show for CBS that was supposed to be canceled, and then it wasn’t.
They created this other character, and I said, “Guys, it’s Lamorne,” who I had seen in these commercials for Las Vegas. He was so weird and cool, and he had read for Coach.
Bonnie Timmermann was a master at ensembles, and I learned from her that you can’t cast individually. Everybody has to mesh. Once we got Zooey, we had her read with Jake Johnson and a couple of others. It was immediately Jake, and it just sort of came together. [When we talk about] Max Greenfield, I don’t think anyone realized how magnificent and magical and genius he would turn out to be in that role. I knew he had it in him, but he surpassed everyone’s expectations.
What was the process like on Deli Boys?
We just started auditioning. Abdullah Saeed, the show creator, it was his first script. He wrote about marijuana for Vice, and this script was hysterical and genius from day one.
I had to teach myself history. I did a deep dive into Pakistan and India, and look, I’m going to admit I was uneducated. I didn’t know there was a war. I had to learn, “Oh shit, we can’t just cast an Indian in these parts.” When I went into the meeting, I talked about it, and I think they were blown away by the fact that I bothered to do that much research. When I got the job, Abdullah insisted that we had to stick to Pakistan. People from Mumbai would not be in this world, and we can’t have two brothers who are, like, Northern India and Southern India.
Those kinds of specifics make all the difference.
They do. I have known Asif Ali for a decade, and I’ve always loved and watched him grow. We did a ton of auditions and tested people, and it was Asif immediately. Saagar had tested for the Asif role, and when we cast Asif, I said to everyone, “Guys, do me a favor, can we test Saagar for the other brother?” They said sure, and when Saagar read for the other brother, everyone was like, “Oh, my God, he’s the guy.” Then I was obsessed with Poorna, because she was a rising star, and it was a big deal to get her. Then they reconstructed the show to be a trio for her. I just think she’s everything.
There must be something enormously satisfying about assembling a successful ensemble like that.
I’m proud of it, and I’m proud that a group of actors [who could have] otherwise probably [been] given, unfortunately, the role of the terrorist or only a doctor, they have been put front and center, and gotten this chance to shine and lead shows and make people laugh.
With all the people that you see, if you had one piece of advice or wisdom to offer someone coming in to audition for you, what would it be?
Just be prepared. I never want people to be off-book, but make your choices before. Be kind to everyone in the office, and just be open and available to take direction. There’s nothing worse than when either somebody flubs and they’re like, “Can I do that again?” And they do the same thing. Or, when you’re like, “Okay, let’s do it one more time. Can you do X?” And then they do the same thing. Sometimes, that’s the difference between getting the job and not getting the job.
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