Skip to content
Who's in the Video
Bonnie Timmerman is one of Hollywood's most successful, and reportedly highest-paid, casting directors. She began her career with Manhattan's Phoenix Repertory Company in the 1970s, casting then up-and-comers, Glenn Close,[…]

When an actor with that special something walks in to a room, it changes color, Timmermann changes.

Bonnie Timmerman: You can sense that. I mean I . . . I remember the first time I met Meryl Streep was at this theater that I told you about – the Phoenix Theater. And she walked in and she had her pants all tied up because she was riding a bike to the audition. And she had a wheel . . . a wheel of her bike in her hands, and her hair was all messy. And I thought, “Oh my god, she’s glorious. She’s . . . she’s just beautiful.” So you do get those feelings. You do . . . You are drawn to people that, you know, come in; come sit down next to you and talk to you and you see something. And maybe they’re not necessarily right for the part, but there’s something about their personalities. Maybe you wanna put them in another role. But yes, the room changes. The color changes. Usually golden . . . golden yellow I think for me. I get very excited and try to place these performers in either the role that they’ve come in for, or in another part. So I like to think that when I cast a movie, or even work on a movie, that it would be a movie that people see a hundred years from now. I think that’s the way I always look at things. Will people look at this project, this movie, this actor in 100 years in the same way we look at Betty Davis, and Cary Grant, and Humphrey Bogart. And I think we’re looking at them for a very long time. I think that’s the goal – to see that talent that you think will last forever and ever and ever.

Recorded On: 12/21/08


Related