Conversation: Ronna Kress and Tara Rubin

Ronna Kress and Tara Rubin discuss the art of casting for the stage and screen

Ronna Kress (left) and Tara Rubin are casting directors. Photos by Patrick Strattner (Kress) and Chris Sorensen (Rubin)

CFA Alumni

Conversation

Ronna Kress and Tara Rubin discuss the art of casting for the stage and screen

February 11, 2026

Steve Holt

Casting directors may never be the most recognizable names in the credits, but every great film and stage director knows how vital they are to a successful show. Famed director Baz Luhrmann regularly turns to Ronna Kress (’81) to cast his films, which include Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby. The pair spend months finding the right actors for each role, often holding hours-long audition workshops to nail the casting.

“I spend so much time on any movie I do to make sure relationship casting is right, because it doesn’t matter what I do, you can’t fake that,” Luhrmann told ABC’s Good Morning America in 2021. “You can corral it. You can curate it. But if you don’t get that right…it’s never going to work.”

The first of Luhrmann’s films Kress cast, Moulin Rouge!, won two Academy Awards in 2002 and was nominated for Best Picture. The pair are now working on Jehanne d’Arc, a biopic about the teenage saint, due to release in 2027. Kress’ other credits—which total more than 100—include blockbusters like Deadpool, Mad Max: Fury Road, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Fast and the Furious.

Casting for the stage is similarly crucial, and few have done it more prolifically than Tara Rubin (CAS’77). The founder of Tara Rubin Casting (now known as TRC), her credits include a who’s who of hit Broadway shows, including Mamma Mia!, Dear Evan Hansen, and Six, to name a few. In 2025, four shows cast by Rubin’s agency picked up 31 Tony Award nominations and 12 wins.

Rubin, who transferred from CFA to the College of Arts & Sciences as a BU student, regularly speaks to and mentors students from the School of Theatre. “It means everything to come full circle in this way, and to have an opportunity to share what I’ve learned with actors who are just starting out,” she says.

Rubin and Kress had never met before CFA invited them to discuss their storied careers and how big-time movies and plays are cast.

I remember thinking, well, if I never get hired for anything else, I will have met Stephen Sondheim.

Tara Rubin (CAS’77)

Tara Rubin: I was thinking about the cast of Moulin Rouge! and how the cast seemed like they had been born and raised in that production design; they fit that world so beautifully.

Ronna Kress: Thank you. Baz [Luhrmann] is really inspirational and works in a very different way than most directors. [Casting directors] usually come onto a project, work for three months, and then you are on to your next project. On Moulin Rouge!, I was casting for a year and a half. Baz is always writing and developing the material at the same time that he’s casting. The casting process really influences the writing, and vice versa. On Moulin Rouge!, we saw singers who wanted to be actors, actors who wanted to be singers. We were in New York and auditioning actors, and one night we went to see The Blue Room [on Broadway]. We were the last ones in the theater, and we both looked at each other and said, “Wait a minute, what are we doing? Why are we not talking about Nicole?” So, [Baz] sent her a note. He sent her a dozen roses. She came and auditioned twice, which was just incredible. She read and sang for us first, and then read with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Baz worked with Ewan [McGregor] in London and we rolled the dice that he and Nicole would have great chemistry. It was this magical, unbelievable experience. What made you go out on your own [as a solo casting director]?

TR: It was the challenge. I wondered if there was one more step for me in this field, and I wanted to see if I could take it. I had been offered an opportunity to cast a Stephen Sondheim Festival at the Kennedy Center—six of his musicals that were going to be done in repertory the following summer. I remember thinking, well, if I never get hired for anything else, I will have met Stephen Sondheim.

RK: That’s an incredible first job, and to have spent time with Stephen Sondheim. How do you oversee all of these shows simultaneously? For instance, finding all those kids from [2024 Tony-winning musical] The Outsiders. I saw on your website that you have a number of people who work with you, but you have to oversee all of that, right?

TR: Well, in January [2025], I sold my business to four of my colleagues. So it’s now called the TRC Company, and they are officially the owners of the company. I am consulting and casting and working with them. But up until January, I was always so fortunate to have an incredible team of people working with me. They made it possible for our company to work on multiple projects.

RK: And are you doing your auditions live or on tape?

TR: Live. You all are still doing everything on tape, right?

Our auditions are like theater auditions.They’re three hours long…the experience is both auditioning for a film and rehearsing for a play.

Ronna Kress (CFA’81)

RK: I’ll do a lot of the pre-reads either on Zoom or in person. [Baz and I are] are working on Jehanne d’Arc, and so first we watch everything on tape, and then we met a select group of actresses in London in June [2025]. Our auditions are like theater auditions. They’re three hours long. Baz sees it as a chance to rehearse with the actors. He films the auditions, and so the experience is both auditioning for a film and rehearsing for a play. The only other person [I’ve worked with like this is director] George Miller on Mad Max: Fury Road.

TR: I do think there’s that circuit of energy that happens when actors are auditioning in person.

RK: When I [worked] with [legendary casting director] Marion [Dougherty], she had note cards of actors, and sometimes she would sit with me and pull the notes out, and she’s like, “Let me see, Robert De Niro: He could be good.” And you’re just like, “Oh, my God.” Her generation were trailblazers for us. I feel like I’ve had some of that in my career in terms of finding people, but it’s not like it was when these people were starting in our business.

TR: I’d love to hear you talk about casting action movies, which I find so fascinating.

RK: Working on Mad Max: Fury Road with George Miller—his audition process is very similar to what Baz does. Those auditions were four hours long, with two actors having to play reverse roles. And so many people that we saw came out of those auditions and now have careers, like Gal Gadot, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Renner, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Ruth Negga. It was just an amazing group of actors who came through that process who weren’t necessarily right for the film, but have emerged as the next generation of actors. It’s so exciting to see that happen.

TR: It’s just so fun to talk to another casting director. It’s like being at a parent-teacher conference: an opportunity to speak in depth about a subject you love. Casting directors have forged such bonds by working together and through our professional organization, The Casting Society. Next year we have the historic occasion of a casting director receiving an Academy Award for the first time. Our casting directors worked so hard—people like Bernie Telsey, Lora Kennedy, and David Rubin—to make that happen, and that certainly is significant in our world.

RK: Oh, definitely. BAFTA and the Emmys have obviously started to recognize us and what we do. But in the film world, it’s thrilling to see that happen, because so many of the people that came before us should have been recognized.

TR: It’s a great legacy our generation can pass to the next.