The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly) - The Hollywood Reporter Awards Special
RESERVATION DOGS
To land the Indigenous cast for the FX comedy Reservation Dogs, casting director Angelique Midthunder and series creator Sterlin Harjo agreed that an open casting call across reservations and Indigenous communities in Oklahoma would be the way to go. But when Harjo told Midthunder that he was joining her for the 10-day search, the casting director had her doubts. “I didn’t know [if] it was the most efficient use of his time,” she says. The opposite turned out to be true. “He was there every day and would point out to me who were interesting people that might fit into the world that he was creating. He started working with them right away, because he knows what he wants and he has a great eye for talent. Some of the casting was even reverse engineered, if we’d see an interesting character.” Their greatest coup was finding 16-year-old Lane Factor, who plays the series’ youngest lead, Cheese. “He did not have any experience that I know of,” says Midthunder. “He just had a presence and a maturity beyond his years. He was prepared and respectful of every situation that we brought him into.” Finding the other three main characters — Elora, Bear and Willie Jack — demanded a different approach. “When you are looking for young people who are the right age to play high school, and also talented, intelligent and reliable enough to carry a show, it’s a little tough,” she says. Three of the four main castmembers ended up being actors whose careers Midthunder had kept an eye on. “As soon as Devery Jacobs started working, I was like, ‘That girl’s a star.’
I had a pulse on her skill set, so I knew that she was somebody that could do it,” says Midthunder. Canadian D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai was also someone who had auditioned for Midthunder in the past. “He is charismatic and has strength and toughness, but also a sensitivity,” she explains. But perhaps the most notable audition was Canadian Paulina Alexis, who impressed them so much that the creator gender-flipped the character of Willie Jack to hire her. “She literally made me laugh out loud,” says Midthunder. “If in the middle of watching 27 tapes I laugh out loud, it’s like, ‘We got a live one here.’ ”