Like any of the actors Rebecca Dealy brings in for an audition, she’ll ask herself to draw on her own experience. Upon heading to New York from Pittsburgh, she thought she might have a career performing on stage when she first began attending NYU, but when an internship at a casting agency called on her natural talent to be the one to read sides with actors, she began to see the possibilities within herself to become a casting director and having once stood where they did waiting to be evaluated, she could offer compassion and patience.
“I hope it helps, being in the room with actors, knowing what a crazy thing an audition is and how uncomfortable they might be and try to help calm them down and be able to talk to them and have a shared vocabulary,” says Dealy. “[That experience] does mean overall, I care so much about the actor’s experience in the audition, in the process, and on set.”
Such conscientiousness in all aspects of Dealy’s work has become a hallmark of films where the immersion into a world appears so effortless it is meant to go unnoticed, but once a connection between her credits is made, it’s hard not to spot her rare gift for building worlds both in front of the camera and behind it. Often teaming with directors on their first features who are still feeling out their approach to working with actors, Dealy has helped usher in a number of unusually accomplished debuts and can establish a sense of place as readily as any production designer with the ensembles she’s put together where no part is overlooked and often the smallest roles complete the feeling of authenticity, from the Christian fundamentalist community of Laurel Parmet’s “The Starling Girl” or the Angolan enclave in Brooklyn where Ekwa Msangi’s “Farewell Amor” as well as seamlessly blend a thoughtful mix of experienced actors and those making their way onto a set for the first time to make the world feel that much more lived in.
Her skills might’ve been put to their greatest test to date on “The Plague,” Charlie Polinger’s dark comedy inspired by his experience attending a summer sports camp for boys that required Dealey to search far and wide for actors between the age of 12 and 13 who looked as if they hadn’t acted before when portraying such an awkward age. Dealey had come to Polinger’s attention for her work casting Ari Aster’s first two features, finding actors unnerving in how familiar they feel but not quite to achieve a similarly queasy tone when considering the merciless teasing that occurs amongst kids. (The title refers to a potentially made-up malady that two unfortunate kids – Ben and Eli, played by Everett Blunck and Kenny Rasmussen respectively – are rumored to have contracted and mocked by the peers, led by Kayo Martin’s annoyingly unflappable Jake.)
But aside from a lone adult in Joel Edgerton as a coach, assembling a predominantly prepubescent ensemble where group dynamics were as important as nailing any individual character presented a challenge Dealey had never faced before and while the cast of kids would eventually literally have to be eased into a pool when water polo is their sport of choice, Dealey was intent on making sure the water was warm for the first time on a film set for many of them, finding the right personalities not only for the characters they’d play but to handle such a demanding shoot when Polinger demonstrates such a particular eye.
It takes something special to get audiences to stay put when reminding everyone of that terrifying moment in adolescence when you want to crawl out of your skin, yet “The Plague” proves irresistible in part because of its grim humor but also how relatable every character is. The film caps off a year which began with two other films Dealy cast caused ripples at Sundance — Alex Russell’s “Lurker” starring Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin and Rachael Abigail Holder’s “Love, Brooklyn” with Andre Holland, Nicole Beharie and DeWanda Wise — while she already was busy preparing for 2026 with a host of exciting films that include Adam Wingard’s “Onslaught” and Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters.” Graciously taking a moment away from sorting through headshots for a reteaming with Polinger on the Mikey Madison-led “The Masque of the Red Death,” Dealy spoke about how she found the perfect role for herself on a production, redefining what a casting director can be in the process and bringing the best out of everyone around her.
How’d “The Plague” come your way?
I got it through the producer [as well as] through one of the director’s best friends, and the director’s agent all at different times, depending on where they were in the process. The first time I read it, it wasn’t really quite set up yet and then it came back a year later and it happened to be at a time where I was extremely busy and I [thought], “Oh no, not this one of all the ones to come when I’m really busy because this is so hard.” That’s why the best friend and agent also came and said, “You have to do this movie.” It just felt so daunting when I was already a little overwhelmed at the time. But Charlie’s world was so clear that I thought if I’m going to do a kids movie, this is going to be ultimately what I want it to be experientially because of how strong his writing was. But it did feel like a big, tall order.
From what I understand, you weren’t only working from a script, but Charlie also shared personal diaries from this time in his life?
When it’s a first-time filmmaker, there’s so much of their first film that is from their own life and the challenge or the fun is always trying to navigate how much of their experience do we allow into this and how much are we trying to recreate versus how much of it are we allowed to make this new iteration of their experience? So I was always trying to find that balance of by checking in with him, like, “What was the real bully like for you? Or do you remember this part of [the story]?” so that I could get a sense of it, but still help mold it into what ‘The Plague’ wanted to be more so than his particular experience. He was very generous in sharing a lot of that with me, which was incredibly lucky.
You’ve gone into so many different communities. How much apart from just getting a script or working with the director, do you actually investigate a place and sort of get an idea of who to populate it with?
Yes, especially because they’re also very different worlds, so sometimes they might be worlds I don’t know that much about myself and there’s an incredible amount of care that I try to put into that. That’s part of the fun for me of like expanding the world of actors that I know creatively, professionally, but then also personally. I’ve learned so much about religions, countries, languages. I can hear the difference between different dialects in Arabic now. I don’t know what they’re saying, but I can tell where they might be from. That’s really enriching to me as a person and then it is the task in casting of every day is new. All systems go on this. I can’t do anything by the numbers when it’s a world I don’t know as well and I really want to make sure I’m populating it in the right way.
What is it that makes you take a chance on a director?
It’s the amount of courage that I can feel in the script. I want it to feel it could be great, but I also am really attracted to the courage individual artistry when that’s so loud or focused, whatever it is. It makes me feel like that’s going to be a real collaboration because I’m going to try to tap into what it is they want with what it is I do as opposed to [delineating] “they do this, I do this, here are my choices.” Those are the movies I like to see too, when you’re like, I don’t know if I’m understanding what I was supposed to understand, but man was that cool. You know, that’s one of the things that I really like as a viewer. And so I think those are the movies that I end up being attracted to. And also, like real character driven, character developed stories. I watch movies for not just the actors, but for the characters. Do I believe them? Do I feel, are they making me feel? And so if I have been moved in that way, after a script, that’s a good chance that I’m going to want to do it. Because that again, is that that’s a specificity of the writer’s belief in themselves and their own characters.
When assembling a cast like this, how much flexibility is there? Because I imagine that you’re seeing people that are really exciting and their dynamic together is great, but they may not fit any character in particular.
The best part about using kids is what they bring, so there was a lot of room for it because a lot of the boys read for different parts originally than they might’ve ended up with, so it was about finding the first three leads, and really trying to understand how that was going to set the tone. Then if there were these other kids that we met and loved, it was like, “Okay, what if this part was a little bit more like this? And then if we have this kid to balance that, does that work?” It was this puzzle that we could be really flexible with if Charlie really liked the kid and what they were bringing to it, but also making sure that they still felt like individual characters that Charlie had written for particular reasons.
The relief of seeing Kenny’s tape very early on, because it’s my job to tell everybody that everything’s going to be great and be sure we’re going to find everyone and that’s true. I really do believe that, but I just felt so daunted by the task at hand that seeing Kenny’s tape very early on appear the Eli of my dreams, but also so individual to Eli and to Kenny, that was like, “Okay, I can do this. This movie is going to be great.” And slowly chips started to fall and moving people around and calling people back and all of that. But that was the first time I was like, “Okay, these kids are all out there and I’m going to find them.”
Everett actually was the lead of another film “Griffin in the Summer” this past year, but did you know he could carry a movie when he walked in?
I think it had just finished [production]. That was a fascinating process because like [his character] Ben, it takes a little while for him in his understanding of that role to get as deep as it did in a way that is absolutely perfect for the part. Kayo just appears in front of you and you’re like, “Yeah, great.” Kenny, who played Eli, was one of the first tapes I even watched, but Everett, Charlie and I both loved from the beginning, and [saw] how much potential is there, but we had to work on it just because the part is so layered and at that young age, it is hard to calibrate how much you’re sharing and how much you’re withholding. There’s the instinct to want to withhold, but cinematically you can’t withhold everything. And it didn’t take that long, but it was like a little bit longer of a process to where we were both like, “He’s absolutely ready and got it.
From what I understand, Kayo actually was discovered on TikTok. Are there different paths now to finding the right actors?
Yeah, I will out myself as I have taken a little bit of a turn on TikTok. I have always appreciated what it is, but the idea of looking on it [for casting] felt like it was crossing into the wrong world almost. That’s really not the case anymore because so many people who are actors or aren’t officially, but could or should be actors are making content like this. But Kayo was always just full of personality and individuality and such a great bully in a way that I hadn’t really seen before portrayed. It’s not the obvious bigger bruising kind of kid, but if you look at any of his TikToks or his content where he’s skateboarding in New York City, he has that [toughness] naturally. We still had to put him through a process and I was very clear like, “Let’s make sure everyone can handle this” because to be on set is long and hard and it’s a lot to memorize and there’s a lot going on. So we put Kayo through the wringer, but it really worked and I’m now no longer ashamed to go there. But as we started really feel for the actors, we wanted to make sure that they’re seen first.
When you are working with a lot of first-time directors, what’s it like using the casting process to develop the working relationship between the actors and the director?
It’s the most important thing. That’s one of the things I’m looking for in the room or the Zoom, whatever it may be, trying to find a shared language between the two of them. That’s one of my favorite things to see in directors of any experience, but particularly with first-time directors and then with kids of how quickly are they adapting to each individual kid and realizing, “Oh, to this kid, I can say this direction. To this one, I should probably say that.” When I see that really coming alive in front of me, however the audition is happening, that’s when I start to feel like, “This is not just like [this person is] right for the role, but they’re also right to work together” because ideally they are creating the role together, even though it’s written. I want to make sure that both sides get the collaboration that they want in that.
One of the things I’ve heard you say about younger actors is that you like to find their inner life and then making them aware of it and calibrating it. How do you use even the audition process to do that or get them to a certain place?
It’s also the patience of really seeing who they are and trying to take that in, first and foremost. Like any actor or person, that’s not always what they’re presenting with, at least the first go around, so sometimes it’s seeing a tape and saying like, “Oh, he might’ve been coached into doing that, but I feel like if I bring him back, there’s another color I could find.” And then you slowly start to open them up to see what their possibilities are because they haven’t necessarily gone through these experiences yet – or they’re just about to – so you don’t want to push them into that, a place they’re not ready for, but they can also all connect to their own emotions. It’s just taking the cue from them and supporting them into what feels comfortable to share and the vulnerability that everybody has is different at that age. That’s part of what you’re reading when you’re auditioning kids is how open they seem to even that opening.
Something that was slightly surprising for me to learn was how much consideration you gave to the shooting style of this – it was going to have a wide frame, meaning a lot of people would be in many shots and the long takes required people to really be on their toes. How did that influence the casting?
There’s so many technical things for these young actors to think about and I knew everything about it was going to be tricky. Shooting on film is another thing that’s so exciting, but it just makes me [as a casting director] think of the margin of error and the expense of it, then also the underwater aspect and not necessarily that they had to be water polo players, but in my mind, I was thinking about what an intense experience this is. So I did try to understand as much as I could [on the technical side] to be able to really give informed opinions to Charlie of who I thought could really be able to handle thinking about all of that stuff at once. I really wanted to make sure everybody felt prepared, both the young actors and Charlie for working with all of them and I tried to have as holistic an understanding as I could.
Recently, I caught Shatara Michelle Ford’s “Dreams and Nightmares” where there’s a really great scene in the middle of it with Robert Wisdom and Regina Taylor in a small part, and like Joel Edgerton in “The Plague,” it really feels like a natural part of the movie rather than stunt casting where you’ve got these seasoned pros. What’s that like to manage – not only getting actors of that caliber involved, but to make sure the dynamic is right with usually less experienced actors?
Yes, it definitely is exciting. I want the world for all of my directors, so that’s not just working with great actors, that is also actors that will help get the movies seen. And it’s not easy to do, especially for lesser known filmmakers or smaller budgets. But I really do believe the right projects find the right people. In these particular cases, these are also two extraordinary filmmakers that, with Shatara had a full feature at that point and Charlie had not, but it’s also those actors looking at the material and saying, “I can see it.” That’s incredibly gratifying because also I get to see them blessed in that way. When people say, “Yeah, I’m going to do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a smaller movie, I would love to be here to support this filmmaker,” that’s incredibly rewarding when it happens.
As an outside observer, this has been an incredible year for you, but I know you’re at least a year ahead of audiences in terms of what you’re working on. What’s this all been like?
Yes, I feel extremely grateful all the time with people I get to work with. I’m in London right now actually for Charlie’s next movie and it means the world to me that here we are together so quickly after “The Plague” and I’m seeing Lurker [around at theaters] because it’s showing here. And I have another movie that’s going to premiere South By that I’m extremely excited about – Boots Riley’s film. I think he is the absolute genius and the experience of working with him is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. It’s funny because there’ll be also stretches where nothing comes out, and you’re working and working, so to get to see them with your family members or get your friends to see them and have thoughts, it’s incredibly exciting. I feel extremely grateful all the time.
“The Plague” opens on December 24th in New York at the IFC Center and Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal. It expands on January 1st.