Lost - Casting for Aaron
Julie Carlson, extras casting director for Lost, speaks out on the woes of casting for little baby Aaron!
Julie Carlson is usually more frantic than shy, but whenever she sees a blond, blue-eyed baby at a drugstore or a public park, she knows it’s best to hold her business card at arm’s length. That way no one will mistake Carlson, an extras casting director, for a potential kidnapper.
The tactic works, and that’s good, because finding babies to appear as “Aaron” in the ABC drama “Lost” has become Carlson’s never-ending quest.
Last season, she needed 30 babies. The season before that, 27. She finds them everywhere.
“I spend a lot of time calling doctor’s offices,” Carlson said. “There are mom’s clubs and twins clubs. There are all kinds of people I call about these babies. It’s hard work. And they all have to look alike.”
She needs that many because stardom is fleeting when you’re an infant on camera. One week, you’re cuddly Aaron, aging a day or so every Wednesday night. The next week you’ve literally outgrown the part.
It may take two days to film an episode, but each baby Aaron usually spends very little time on screen. That’s fine with Carlson — the close-ups are a casting headache.
“It scares me when they do that,” she said. “I have to match what has been on film. That is what the public is used to seeing.”
Babies being babies, Carlson always arranges to have an extra infant on the set.
“It may be that one is too fussy, and I need to replace it,” she said. “We have had some great luck. They coo when they are supposed to coo and cry when they are supposed to cry.”
With filming for the fourth season of “Lost” set to start this week, Carlson’s stress level is beginning to rise again. She’s found six babies for the first episode, but none for the second.
“I am frantic about that,” Carlson said. “I am going to call ob-gyn offices. They know who I am by now. I say: ‘Hi, I’m Julie. Have you had any blond-haired, blue-eyed babies born in the last few months?’ ”
Source: Honolulu Advertiser
Tags: lost season 4, lost-aaron, lost-castingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Lost Season 4
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