A pair of casting directors who live in Nanaimo will head down to Los Angeles next month to attend the 76th Emmy Awards, where they're up for an Emmy.
According to a release from the Television Academy, Maureen Webb and Colleen Bolton found themselves on the Emmy Awards nomination list, alongside team members Laura Schiff, Carrie Audino and Kei Kawamura, and were all nominated for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for FX productions’ historical drama and Japanese period series, Shōgun.
Webb and Bolton said they were honoured to work with such an amazing team on such an amazing project, and that casting was a great collaborative effort. Although the two were hired to fill Canadian roles, they ended up filling up quite a few of the positions.
“There was a lot of prep work before this to get the right people in for each role,” Webb said. “We were searching across Canada and definitely found some wonderful young talent.”
During their search, they were looking for people with a specific Japanese dialect, which could be limiting at times. They did find a few actors who hadn’t worked professionally in Canada before, such as international students.
“Everyone was extremely sensitive to making it culturally appropriate,” said Bolton. “When we were looking at the time of when it took place, and the ceremonies … the people that were chosen really had to immerse themselves into the Shōgun world … It was really important that if this was seen in Japan, or anywhere, that somebody watching it would actually believe that they were transported back into that era.”
The historical drama dominated the Emmy Awards’ nomination list, with 25 nominations overall, including Outstanding Drama Series, Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and two nominations for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
The awards night happens on Sept. 15, airing live at 5-8 p.m. PST from the Peacock Theater in L.A.
