The Jones & Juliet Casting team are leaders in the real people casting, street casting, and in the documentary world.
With extensive work handling union and nonunion commercials, castings for documentaries, documentary shorts, internal interviews for case studies, print campaigns, voice over campaigns, and narrative films featuring real people, our casting company has experience in every facet of the real people casting process.
Whether we are tasked with finding people who have never seen the ocean, real ball kids for the US Open, or interviewing essential workers who kept the city moving forward during the pandemic, the Jones & Juliet team strategizes a unique approach for each and every casting call.
For real people casting, our casting company uses a combination of research and outreach to organizations that will lead us to people who are a perfect fit for the spec. We also use street casting and social media research, open casting calls, and individual outreach through our extensive real people database of thousands of people nationwide
North Carolina Tourism:
Firsts That Last
TASK
Find a real mother and daughter who had never seen the ocean or been to North Carolina, willing to travel and be filmed for ‘Firsts That Last’.
PROCESS
Our research team identified areas that were landlocked and far from easily accessible transportation. We reached out to family oriented organizations – from non-profits for underserved youth and families, to youth sports organizations and parent groups, we left no stone unturned. We utilized our network of non-union agencies with talent that fit the specs as real people, and used our real people database of 5,000+ people nationwide to search high and low.
PRODUCT
We found a number of amazing and deserving families who were a fit – the team ultimately went with Jazmene and Peyton, a wonderful mother and daughter who were captured in one of the most moving and beautiful spots we’ve worked on to date.
New York Times:
Takeover, Op-Doc
TASK
Find young people with social justice and mutual aid backgrounds in and around the Bronx. Chosen talent would need to accurately portray younger versions of the real Young Lords, a group of young Puerto Rican activists in the 1970s.
PROCESS
Our research team put casting calls out to organizations in the Bronx and surrounding areas supporting community mutual aid efforts, social justice, the Puerto Rican community as well as arts organizations. Our team also collaborated with the Nuyorican Poets Café to find young artists, writers, poets, and musicians. We also considered actors with similar backgrounds, and scanned social media to find any strong local voices in the community.
PRODUCT
The assembled cast was made up of poets, community activists, musicians, actors and students, and looked like young versions of the real Young Lords. Lynn Nottage came on as an executive producer, the doc premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was selected by The New York Times for the op-doc program.
Prudential:
US Open
TASK
Find real professional ball people, tennis umpires, tennis players, and tennis fans to match the level of tennis pro Ethan Quinn.
PROCESS
Our research team got in contact with the official US Open Ball Crew and the United States Tennis Association to coordinate finding ball people and tennis umpires with pro experience. We reached out to every D1 tennis program in the tri-state and NYC area to find players and alumni at a level professional enough to play the opponent.
PRODUCT
The spot was played during the US Open, and the assembled cast successfully fit around Ethan Quinn as a professional crew of tennis-adjacent pro’s.
NEST:
Power Project
TASK
Find families who live in a NY area freestanding house, whose energy bill exceeded 10% of their income and who were struggling to make ends meet. The families were asked to share their stories of financial struggle and their experience with installing and using a NEST thermostat.
PROCESS
Our street casting team canvassed Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens – standing in grocery store parking lots, visiting community centers, and talking to locals. Our casting research team contacted non-profit family support organizations and first-time homeowner groups in the tri-state. Our real people database of over 3000 non-actor families in the NY area helped us spread the word.
PRODUCT
Three families were selected – a father working three jobs to support his three kids, a single mom and her young daughter, and a veteran facing unemployment and an uncertain future for his wife and two kids. The project was a part of a non-profit mission called Nest Power Project, which worked in tandem with Habitat for Humanity to cut energy costs for low income families around the US.
Phillips Simply GO:
Breathless Choir
TASK
Finding real people who struggled to breathe due to illnesses like Cystic Fibrosis, severe asthma, COPD, and collapsed lungs. These real people were taught to sing over a five day experience, culminating in a live performance at the historic Apollo Theater.
PROCESS
This project was cast in conjunction with House Casting in 2015. Our weeks long process included attending a 9/11 First Responders picnic on Long Island where we spoke with 9/11 heroes who were struggling with their health as a result of the attack. To speak with them was both humbling and heartwarming – we were moved beyond words by their stories. We also interviewed school children, collaborated with organizations that support people with breathing-related diagnoses, and street cast in union square.
PRODUCT
The campaign was the Cannes Lions Grand Prix winner, 2016 Pharma, in addition to winning the PRA Grand Prix, IPA Health Best of Show, Gold Effie USA and Silver Clio, among others.
Nine years later, the eighteen members who were selected to appear in the campaign are still in touch. One first responder, Lawerence, had not listened to music since 9/11. After filming the campaign he was the first one to call Nef several months later at 7 AM on her birthday to sing to her. Every year Nef and Laurence still wish each other Happy Birthday. Claire Wineland, the extraordinary and inspiring young star of the film, passed away in 2018.
