My Summer Lair Chapter #126: How Do You Look For A Serial Killer?
Casting director Laray Mayfield continues to be David Fincher’s subtle magic trick. She was worked with Fincher since Fight Club which includes dynamic work like Panic Room, Zodiac, Social Network, House of Cards and most recently Mindhunter.
Released on August 16, 2019 Season 2 of Mindhunter is incredibly complex to cast…with the grieving Atlanta mothers, the various killers, and a myriad of locations each requiring a regional accent or distinct taste.
Even before Season 2 Mindhunter was a fascinating casting challenge because the serial killers are real and a lot of their dialogue is quoted directly from the transcripts of the real life conversations the real life FBI agents. However the FBI agents in the Netflix tv show are not completely accurate renditions of the Behavioral Science Unit agents. With the serial killers there’s enough accurate documentation to provide parameters for her casting search however for the FBI agents who are fictional composites so this gets tantlizing.
I focus on 2 actors she cast in Mindhunter Season 1 who appear in Seaon 2: Joe Tuttle as agent Gregg Smith cracks me up (when Wendy Carr mentions being a lesbian his jaw drop is note perfect) and Albert Jones an Atlanta FBI Agent Jim Barney…he brings a cool presence to the show; every scene he’s in…he is salt just adding some flavour.
More than just working and casting with David Fincher her other notable casting work includes Paper Man (fun movie most people haven’t seen), Spring Breakers, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed and of course: Marvel’s Netflix series (Luke Cage, Daredevil, Punisher and Jessica Jones).
Fantastic opportunity to see the casting agent behind the Fincher wizard.
Observe: Cameron Britton transform into Ed Kemper:
Laray Mayfield @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Thursday August 29, 2019 at 6:30 pm
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