Casting Director Allison Estrin on Finding the Right Actors to Elevate the World of ‘Inventing Anna’

Shonda Rhimes has given us so much good TV, and I’d argue the connective tissue between her shows lies in fabulous fashion and deliciously watchable (and bingeable) drama, all anchored by a cast of very, very good actors. For her latest venture, Inventing Anna, Rhimes’ longtime casting director Linda Lowy partnered with a team of veteran casting pros to tackle the many based-in-real-life characters that anchor the juicy legal drama that centers on a pretend socialite.

Allison Estrin, one of seven casting directors Emmy-nominated for Inventing Anna, brought her expertise to the series, looking for authentic and dynamic actors to act as supporting players to Julia Garner’s scheming Anna. The result is a cast list that includes big names, several Shondaland regulars, and hand-picked character actors that tear into the headline-making plot with fervor.

Here, Estrin discusses how some of Inventing Anna’s big casting decisions came about and her approach to making sure each and every on-screen role pops.

Awards Daily: How did you become involved with Inventing Anna?

Allison Estrin: It was all very exciting. I followed the trial. I read the New York Magazine article and kind of became obsessed with Anna and the whole thing, and followed every bit of the trial, the Instagram page with what she was wearing every day; I looked at all of it. I was fascinated. And then Linda Lowy, who is Shonda Rhimes’ long-time casting director, all the way back to from Grey’s Anatomy, called me and Henry Russell Bergstein and said, ‘Shonda has a show that’s going to be shooting in New York.’ Without even knowing what it was, I immediately said, ‘Yes, of course.’ It’s Shonda Rhimes. Of course. I’m going to say yes. Then I looked at the script and saw what it was. Obviously, whatever I could do to cast it, I was going to do; I was so excited about it. When we met Shonda, I started talking to her about it and realized that she had been as obsessed with [the case] as I was. And just looking at it like, ‘I can’t believe all of this is real.’ It was all really exciting. 

AD: And as a casting director following the trial, did you do that thing where you were dream casting the parts in your mind?

AE: You know, it’s funny. I didn’t completely; I always think about that stuff a little bit. I always think, ‘Oh, this would be a great show or movie.’ But I don’t often think about, ‘Okay, which person has to play this?’ Especially when it was someone as specific as Anna and her voice. I didn’t know ahead of time that Julia Garner could do that type of accent. I mean, that was just so incredibly exciting when we first heard her do it. So, I just knew that it was something that would be so incredible up on the screen. 

AD: Absolutely. Shonda is known for having a rotating group of actors that she likes to work with, and there are several Shondaland regulars in Inventing Anna. How does that work? Did Shonda have certain roles where she already had someone in mind?

AE: Yeah, there were a few that she already had in mind, like Katie Lowes. Shonda immediately said that she was going to play Rachel. And I was like, ‘Oh, great. So, so exciting.’ Rachel is such an incredibly fun character, and this was such a different type of role for Katie.

There was a lot of collaboration as the various roles came up, like Noah, Katie Lowes’ boyfriend, played by Christopher Lowell. He was an actor that I’ve cast a handful of times before, and I just know and love, and he is also a photographer. It just made so much sense. And he was also someone that had worked with Shonda. So it became, ‘Okay, well, this is someone we know and love, and we think it would work really well.’ 

AD: How did you all find your Anna in Julia Garner? 

AE: Julia was always someone on Linda’s list. She had really been talking to Shonda about her for a while. She was also an actress I’ve known since she was a teenager working in New York, and she was always such a special talent. There was just a question of if she was going to be available. Then the timing started to work out and, she really wanted to do it and put in the time and got that accent down. She just came in and wowed everyone.

Linda called Henry and myself and just said, ‘Oh, we have it. We have Anna! Wait until you hear the accent. She’s incredible.’

AD: How did Anna Chlumsky come to be a part of the show?

AE: Anna Chlumsky was also cast by Linda pretty early on. The lore is, I believe she was the only one that actually met Anna [Sorokin]. And Shonda just immediately said, ‘Great. That’s our Vivian.’ And she immediately felt perfect as the person to tell the story—an everyday woman that we were all kind of following as the story is told.

AD: And how did you approach casting the supporting characters that flesh out Anna’s world? 

AE: We had so many different worlds that had to be created, the whole world of 12 George, the hotel, we had the courtroom, and then all of the high society with Kate Burton, um, who was also a Shondaland favorite. And then all of the Rikers people. So, it really was about figuring out who really fit in where best so that we could create the overall picture of where Anna, and also Vivian, were so that we could go back and forth between all of their worlds.

AD: What about your background actors, those small roles that add so much texture to the series?

AE: Yeah. We had a lot of those in Inventing Anna. We cast around 200 actors out of New York. I really have such a special place in my heart for some of those Riker’s actors Miche Braden, who played Glitter Eyeshadow. I think she was just such a particularly special actor that the moment you saw her and you saw that glitter eyeshadow on her, you’ll just always remember her.

And that’s really the most important thing, is to have these wonderful faces, wonderful actors that you were just going to keep going back and remembering. Andre Ward, who played Jeannot, is a wonderful, well-known Broadway performer. Having him as the hotel manager playing against Alexis Floyd was just exciting to see— all these worlds coming together.

 AD: Which role would you say was the most challenging, or maybe one that was exciting for you to see fully realized?

AE: Oh, that’s a hard question. Chase was a tough role because we really didn’t know that much about her boyfriend. He wasn’t someone that we knew who he was in real life. So we were really having to go off of the things that were said about him and kind of creating an essence of someone that we really believed Anna would be dating and having this relationship with.

Saamer Usmani came in, and the audition was to do the Ted Talk that he gives. He was just immediately so intelligent and brought us in, in a way that I could believe that Anna was brought in and that I could believe that other people would give him money for a company.

AD: Obviously, every project is different. Every role is different. But when you’re in that audition room, what are you looking for? What is that essence that grabs you? How would you describe it? 

AE: I would say more than anything, it’s watchability. I really want to continue watching everyone, and even with these small roles, if they really come in and have created a full character, we should be able to have the camera go off and join them in a whole other story. And that’s what I think is the most exciting, what draws me in—when someone comes in and just has a fully developed world happening, no matter what size, or what role.

AD: That’s interesting! Would you say that’s your general philosophy as a casting director? 

AE: Yeah, I would actually. I think that’s incredibly important. I have found, especially in casting long-running series, I’m about to start the seventh season of Billions. I find that it’s really important that every single role, no matter the size, has to be played by an actor who fully embodies it and has the ability to create something that could possibly end up being a major protagonist in an episode or a season later on. Which has happened on Billions. I think that is my general philosophy that everyone has to really fully embody everything that they do. 

Inventing Anna is streaming now on Netflix.