Casting A Spell: Bernie Telsey and Tiffany Little Canfield On The Search For Galinda And Elphaba And The Making of ‘Wicked’ And ‘Wicked: For Good’

Ariana Grande, director Jon M. Chu and Cynthia Erivo on the set of 'Wicked: For Good' Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection With two months still to go, the Oscars are still far from a done deal, but while pundits nitpick about Best Picture and Director, a thornier decision will be to decide which is the best cast of the 10 films on the Oscar shortlist. Amazingly, this is the first time the category has been put to the vote, and one of the names on shortlist — Bernie Telsey , who, in tandem with Tiffany Little Canfield, cast Jon M. Chu ’s Wicked two-parter — was a key figure in the fight for recognition. Why did it take so long? “You know what?” says the industry veteran. “I’m asked that question a lot, and I really do mean this — I don’t know if a brand-new doctor, after eight to 10 years of medical school, says, ‘Why did it take so long?’ You just celebrate the fact that it happened. Even though I was one of the inaugural governors, with David Rubin and Laura Kennedy. When we started the process, the casting director branch was very much wanting this, wanting to be recognized. But, really, it’s so private what we do. It’s behind closed doors. You can’t really talk about people’s auditions. How do you explain what it is that we do? So, it really was a lot about education, and once it was really shared and explained, and we had the support of directors and producers and actors, it really was wonderful how quickly the Academy accepted it. We’re thrilled.” Related Stories News 'Sinners' Miles Caton Talks Sacrifice, What He Learned From Co-Stars & The Precipice of Stardom News Jonathan Bailey & Ariana Grande Confirmed To Star In London Revival Of Stephen Sondheim's 'Sunday In The Park With George' The duo took time out at the weekend to explain things a little more clearly… Watch on Deadline DEADLINE: So, how far back do you go back with Wicked , both of you? BERNIE TELSEY: When I had less gray hair. [Laughs.] I started working on the pre-Broadway show for Wicked when it started out in San Francisco before I came to Broadway. So, it’s almost 24 years of working with Marc Platt, the producer, who’s the producer of both versions. And Stephen Schwartz, obviously the composer and Winnie Holzman. So about 24 years, we’ve just been doing all of the Broadway replacements, all of the national tours and some of the European companies. So that’s how long we’ve been on it. TIFFANY LITTLE CANFIELD: For me, I started working with Bernie in 2001. I was working on an opera, but the way our company works, we’re really a team. You know how it is on Broadway — someone could be injured, sick, and suddenly you need to have an emergency session, you have to have your ongoing Equity calls. And so, we would all pitch...

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