Originally posted Thursday, August 23, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
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TV shows and films live and die by their big stars. But casting the secondary characters properly - the bratty younger sister, the best friend, the cop, the nurse - can be crucial to keeping viewers in the moment.
That's where Atlanta's Tara Feldstein and Chase Paris come in. They run a fast-rising local casting company. When a show like FX's "Atlanta," Netflix's "Ozark" or "Stranger Things" needs a 14-year-old skateboarder, a hapless real estate agent or a gangbanger, they ask Feldstein/Paris to find them.
The pair send out calls to local casting agencies and typically using online-only audition tapes, pare down the best folks for the film or show producers to select from. That’s how they landed Barb on “Stranger Things” and the middle-school versions of Earn and Alfred for “Atlanta.”
We recently talked to the two hard-working casting directors about their process. Bottom line: their jobs are stressful, fun and ultimately fulfilling. They won an Emmy last year for casting “Stranger Things” and are up again this year for casting Emmys for that show and “Atlanta.”
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