Six to BaconSeason 01
02 / 06Episode
02
Aaron Vance
Casting Director · Manhattan
Welcome back to Six to Bacon. I’m Matt. Two weeks ago Renée Okafor put me in touch with a casting director she’d worked with twice. She wrote a two-line email. He wrote back the same day. That almost never happens.
Aaron Vance has been casting in New York since 2008. I asked him how he ended up doing this for a living. The short answer is — he didn’t plan to.
I was an assistant to an assistant. The person above me quit on a Friday. On Monday someone needed five faces for a Volvo commercial and I was the only one in the office. I just — said yes. That’s pretty much the whole industry, honestly.
Later I asked him about the rules of cold contact. Specifically, how he decides whether to write back to someone he’s never heard of.
“Nobody owes you a reply. The trick is to write the email that doesn’t ask for one — and then send it anyway.”
Most of what comes through my inbox is people who want something. The thing that gets through is the person who’s already given me something — context, an idea, a reason to remember the message. The pitch where I have to do work to figure out what you want? Those go in the trash by lunchtime.
And then I asked him — the question. Who would he send me to. Not who’s most famous, not who’s most likely to get me to Bacon in one jump. Who would he want to spend an hour with right now.
Lisa Mendel. We worked together on an indie in 2019. Total nightmare shoot, we became friends. She produces — really produces, not just gets called producer. I haven’t talked to her in maybe two years. Honestly, I’d love an excuse.
So that’s where we’re going. Lisa’s in LA. We’re flying out next week to record. Whether she sends us further toward Bacon or sideways into someone unexpected — we’ll find out at the same time you do. Until then.