{"id":321892,"date":"2026-04-27T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/?p=321892"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:22:36","slug":"task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Audition Preparation Tips from Avy Kaufman: Inside \u2018Task\u2019 and Her \u201cRelentless\u201d Push for Tom Pelphrey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A three-time Emmy winner (and 10-time nominee), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/sentimental-value-cast-avy-kaufman-casting-director\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Avy Kaufman<\/a> has also been recognized by her peers with 52 Artios nominations and nine wins, over a career spanning more than three decades, and nearly 400 films and TV shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The odds of her earning another Emmy nod this year are pretty high, judging from her work on HBO\u2019s <em>Task<\/em>. Created by <em>Mare of Easttown<\/em>\u2019s Brad Ingelsby and starring Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelphrey and Emilia Jones, the show follows an FBI agent heading up a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unsuspected family man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kaufman talked to us from her New York office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Insights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Casting decisions are driven less by credits and more by whether an actor feels authentic and fully \u201cmolds\u201d into the role.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kaufman emphasizes trust on both sides, believing actors know when to take risks, pass on roles, or step outside their type.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Access, persistence, and communication matter, as seen in her relentless push to get Tom Pelphrey to read for <em>Task<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n    <div class=\"d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center px-lg-5 px-3 pt-1\" style=\"background-color: rgba(10,9,9,0);background-image: url(&#039;https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mask-group.webp&#039;); background-size: cover; background-position: center;\">\n        <div class=\"banner-left col-4 col-lg-5\">\n            <h2 class=\"text-left\">Get access to thousands <br>of high-quality roles.<\/h2>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"banner-center col-3 col-lg-3 text-center\">\n                            <picture>\n                                            <source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/PHONE-MOCK-2-mobile.webp\" media=\"(max-width: 768px)\">\n                                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Group-32.webp\" alt=\"Banner Image\" class=\"banner-image-mobile\">\n                                    <\/picture>\n                    <\/div>\n        <div class=\"banner-right col-5 col-lg-4 text-center\">\n                            <a id=\"banner-link\" href=\"https:\/\/app.castingnetworks.com\/login\/signup\/TALENT?_ga=2.43125222.2103773832.1721048373-1030609057.1713483804&#038;_gl=1*1vfcgsy*_gcl_au*MTk4MzczMDgyNy4xNzIxMzA4NzY4*_ga*MTAzMDYwOTA1Ny4xNzEzNDgzODA0*_ga_5V50WCP8LX*MTcyMTMyMTIwOS4zMDYuMS4xNzIxMzIxMjM5LjAuMC4zMTgwMTM3MQ..&#038;post_type=news&#038;p=135120&#038;preview=true\" class=\"btn-article btn-primary btn-dark text-white text-nowrap\" target=\"_blank\">\n                    JOIN FREE TODAY                <\/a>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Let\u2019s start with [your decision to cast] Tom Pelphrey as Robbie.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I was relentless. That&#8217;s the tricky thing about casting. I speak for myself only, but you read something and you get a feeling for it. It was important for me to have different voices tell this story, and Pelphrey was not a new name in the world, but I was relentless. I just felt like he could go toe to toe with Ruffalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What was it that made you so relentless about him?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>At first he wasn&#8217;t going to read, but they said he had to, so I begged his team. And he did. It was that simple.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Do you find there are more actors now who won\u2019t read? Or are reluctant to?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s an attitude, per se, for everybody. I feel that when some people feel like they&#8217;ve done it before. I feel that way sometimes if I&#8217;m asked to take a meeting and I&#8217;ve done it. It&#8217;s a tricky thing. I never say this, and I&#8217;m going to say this is now, you need an agent or a manager or whomever it is that\u2019s taking care of the talent to have a good conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was able to speak clearly with his team just to say why it&#8217;s important for this reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>There are at least three major actors, Alison Oliver, Sam Keeley and Phoebe Fox, who are either English or Irish, and I\u2019m curious about how you found them and brought them in for this very American story.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I had seen Alison in two British shows, and at first I was like, \u201cWait, is that the same person?\u201d Because she&#8217;s a chameleon. She read on a Zoom and everyone loved her. Same thing with Phoebe. Sam as well. If I&#8217;m lucky enough to get visas, I love to look at talent from all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they can have the proper accent and we can get a visa, that&#8217;s just fun for me personally. People don&#8217;t want me to do that most of the time, but it makes my job a lot of fun and curious and imaginative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Is that one of the things that you would recommend to any foreign-born actor? To get their American accent down?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m going to recommend doing whatever you feel comfortable with. I just feel like that&#8217;s the one beautiful thing in seeing actors, is we can all feel when they&#8217;re comfortable. They just mold into the role.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Emilia Jones plays something I hadn\u2019t seen her do before, which is always good to see from an actor.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You never want to say this out loud, but there were choices, and the team really loved Emilia. When I saw what she did, I was so deeply proud of her. I mean, the relationship between her and Tom was so interesting and strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You never know what it&#8217;s going to be like, y\u2019know? You read something and then they go off and shoot it for nine months, and then we get to see it two years later. Sometimes I&#8217;ll look at shows I&#8217;ve worked on and I&#8217;m going, \u201cGod, I don&#8217;t remember that character \u2026 \u201d (Laughs)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Should actors be trying as many new things as possible?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s interesting, because I&#8217;m here to talk about one show, but there&#8217;s a show I worked on last year, where an actor in the movie passes on a role. I used to get upset, and I&#8217;m sure I still do because I take everything too personally, but if an actor passed on a role, I didn&#8217;t even want to share it with the director. I didn&#8217;t want to feel it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s taken me many years, but I feel that I have to trust if an actor passes on a role or accepts a role they&#8217;ve never done, it&#8217;s what they need to do. I have to trust that they know. We don&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s so hard to be an actor!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>It goes hand in hand with what you said before, about an actor needing to do whatever makes them comfortable.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t know how other people work. We just love actors because that\u2019s what we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Two of the things that stood out for me were the motorcycle gang (the Dark Hearts) and the kids. Let\u2019s start with the Dark Hearts.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s interesting because I had done a show with Wagner Moura and Brian Tyree Henry [in <em>Dope Thief<\/em>] right before I did <em>Task,<\/em> and we were looking for similar characters [for the] motorcycle gangs. Bad boys. Dark characters. So it was just a deep search because I couldn&#8217;t use the people I had just used. Just auditioning a thousand people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>And the kids? Especially Ben Lewis Doherty as Sam.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And the kids! I&#8217;ve [cast] a lot of kids in my time, and I love casting kids. You&#8217;ve got to cast close to the bone. You have to understand who this kid is. And even for Sam, I like to talk to the kids for a long time to get to know them to see if they are actually ready to do something like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are tough roles for a kid. Sam, especially because, to be kidnapped? But kids \u2026 it\u2019s about love. I think, hopefully, [with]\u00a0 human beings, animals, we follow the love. Hopefully, we follow the love and keep trust in there because he had to have some trust as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>I think that applies to acting in general.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And life. You have to trust, you have to love, you have to do all of it, and it\u2019s all part of the same thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A three-time Emmy winner (and 10-time nominee), Avy Kaufman has also been recognized by her peers with 52 Artios nominations and nine wins, over a career spanning more than three decades, and nearly 400 films and TV shows. The odds of her earning another Emmy nod this year are pretty high, judging from her work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":321893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cn_email_teaser":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[745,732,751],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acting-advice","category-casting-directors","category-interviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Task&#039; Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Task&#039; Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casting Networks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1692\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1142\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Neil Turitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Neil Turitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Neil Turitz\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9\"},\"headline\":\"Audition Preparation Tips from Avy Kaufman: Inside \u2018Task\u2019 and Her \u201cRelentless\u201d Push for Tom Pelphrey\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1175,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Acting Advice\",\"Casting Directors\",\"Interviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/\",\"name\":\"'Task' Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9\"},\"description\":\"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg\",\"width\":1692,\"height\":1142,\"caption\":\"Tom Pelphrey as Robbie Prendergrast in \\\"Task\\\" (Peter Kramer\\\/HBO)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/talent\\\/project\\\/\\\/role\\\/\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Casting Calls\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/casting-calls\\\/\"},{\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/talent\\\/project\\\/\\\/role\\\/\\\/\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Casting Networks\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9\",\"name\":\"Neil Turitz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/wphb-cache\\\/gravatar\\\/824\\\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/wphb-cache\\\/gravatar\\\/824\\\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/wphb-cache\\\/gravatar\\\/824\\\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Neil Turitz\"},\"description\":\"Neil Turitz is a filmmaker, journalist, author, and essayist who has spent close to three decades working in and writing about Hollywood, despite never having lived there. He is also the brains behind Six Word Reviews (@6wordreviews on Instagram). He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.castingnetworks.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/neil-turitz\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Task' Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey","description":"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Task' Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey","og_description":"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/","og_site_name":"Casting Networks","article_published_time":"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1692,"height":1142,"url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Neil Turitz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Neil Turitz","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/"},"author":{"name":"Neil Turitz","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9"},"headline":"Audition Preparation Tips from Avy Kaufman: Inside \u2018Task\u2019 and Her \u201cRelentless\u201d Push for Tom Pelphrey","datePublished":"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/"},"wordCount":1175,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg","articleSection":["Acting Advice","Casting Directors","Interviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/","url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/","name":"'Task' Casting Director Avy Kaufman on Audition Tips and Tom Pelphrey","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-27T16:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-22T18:22:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9"},"description":"Looking for audition preparation tips? Casting director Avy Kaufman breaks down what casting directors look for and why she pushed to cast Tom Pelphrey in HBO\u2019s Task.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/task-casting-director-avy-kaufman-interview-audition-tips\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/task-tom-pelphrey_2.jpg","width":1692,"height":1142,"caption":"Tom Pelphrey as Robbie Prendergrast in \"Task\" (Peter Kramer\/HBO)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/talent\/project\/\/role\/\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Casting Calls","item":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/casting-calls\/"},{"item":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/talent\/project\/\/role\/\/"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/","name":"Casting Networks","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/#\/schema\/person\/93a47ea8dc2374ff96e500c3ef071ff9","name":"Neil Turitz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/824ad122ece0f64119671fbf606465d3x96.jpg","caption":"Neil Turitz"},"description":"Neil Turitz is a filmmaker, journalist, author, and essayist who has spent close to three decades working in and writing about Hollywood, despite never having lived there. He is also the brains behind Six Word Reviews (@6wordreviews on Instagram). He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/news\/author\/neil-turitz\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.castingnetworks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}