{"id":55312,"date":"2025-11-16T04:40:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55312\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T04:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:40:20","slug":"wicked-casting-director-talks-marissa-bode-at-deadline-casting-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55312\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wicked’ Casting Director Talks Marissa Bode At Deadline Casting Panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen asked if there was a particular role that was a challenge to cast for Jon M. Chu\u2019s Wicked<\/a> duology, the films\u2019 casting director Bernard \u201cBernie\u201d Telsey highlighted Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn conversation at Deadline\u2019s Contenders Film: Los Angeles<\/a>, Telsey, who has worked on the stage version of Wicked for the past 20-plus years, stressed how Nessarose had never been played by an actress who uses a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat was something that was so important to Jon Chu and Marc Platt that we really did a search, just to find someone who was a wheelchair user, who is \u2018tragically beautiful,\u2019 as they say in the script, who can sing and who can carry the distance from the first film to the second film,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was also wonderful for us, because we got to meet so many new actors who, you know, who could, who it could have been. But Marissa was a real find.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Sinners\u2019 & \u2018One Battle After Another\u2019 Stunt Coordinators Reveal How Small Nuances Make Big Sequences Have Impact \u2013 Contenders Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tFrancine Maisler, who worked on Ryan Coogler\u2019s Sinners<\/a> and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere<\/a>, praised the choice in Bode, who will transform into the Wicked Witch of the East starting November 21 when Wicked: For Good<\/a> arrives in theaters. Maisler also stressed the teamwork and worldwide search she and her colleagues undertake to find the right actor for a role. Relationships with directors also influence the casting process.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe relationships are so strong with who we work with, you\u2019re able to challenge them, and they trust you,\u201d Maisler said. \u201cI just finished one for Aaron Sorkin, and having just done Sinners, I fell in love with Wnumi [Mosaku], and there was a role she was right for in The Social Network [sequel]<\/a> and and I just said, \u2018Can you just hire her? Do we have to go through all of this?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Well, you think it\u2019s okay if I just meet her?\u2019 and I go, \u2018Well if you must.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it comes to narrowing down between the two remaining candidates for a role, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery casting director Mary Verneiu chalked it up to \u201cintuition\u201d for the final decision.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Knives Out 3\u2019: Everything We Know About The Second Rian Johnson Sequel<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s energetic, it feels like it\u2019s kind of fate,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce you get to that place, it\u2019s like you feel it and you know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA House of Dynamite casting director Susanne Scheel shared one filmmaker with whom she worked taking the time to connect with the three runners-up for a role who didn\u2019t end up getting it after thoroughly combing over all four.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe picked the one, and then he wrote letters to the other three saying, \u2018I could have made four different movies, because you all four presented something so unique and so amazing, and I just had to decide which movie I wanted to make. And I\u2019m so sorry I didn\u2019t choose to make your version. But thank you so much for the participation,’\u201d she shared. \u201cAnd I never had a director do that, and I thought it was so extraordinary, like he had really sat down and been like, \u2018Okay, I\u2019d be choosing to make this film, this film, this film, or this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Eleanor The Great\u2019 Star June Squibb, Writer Tory Kamen Believe Audiences Want Aging Heroes \u2013 Contenders Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCheck back Monday for the panel video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked if there was a particular role that was a challenge to cast for Jon M. Chu\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31183,31184,48,52,51,47,50,49,34390,25179,34440,34187,34441],"class_list":["post-55312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-awardsnews","tag-contenders-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-novid","tag-sinners","tag-springsteen-deliver-me-from-nowhere","tag-wicked","tag-wicked-for-good"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}