The first day back from Thanksgiving break brought returning students, as well as community members, a unique opportunity. Crew members from the Netflix series ‘Mindhunter’ presented background information on what goes into casting and creating a very time-specific and detail-oriented successful show and gave those in attendance an opportunity to be cast in the upcoming season, if chosen.

Dr. Emily Sweitzer, director of Cal U’s social deviance program, saw this show as a good example for students to learn from how characters within this show study deviant thinking of numerous serial killers.

‘Mindhunter’ is set in the 1970s and follows Holden Ford, played by Lancaster, PA native Jonathan Groff, an FBI agent who begins “studying a new class of murderer”. The show, based on the book Mindhunter by John Douglas, had a successful first season and will be done filming season two in approximately two weeks.

Trevor Neil Williams, extras casting associate, expressed that the most challenging part of this [production] is pulling it all off. He went on to explain how this show focuses a lot on the aesthetic of everything and how an FBI agent looks different from a police officer who looks different from a father and so on. Each character has a very specific look and role, whether they have lines or not, which can make casting a very tedious process.

“Meticulous research is the first step, because it’s a tremendous challenge to be as historically accurate as possible with everything from that time period,” Williams shared.

Williams also shared that by the end of filming approximately 4% of the Pittsburgh population will have been used for season two.

Following the presentation, those in attendance were given the opportunity to fill out an application to be considered for roles of extras during the last couple weeks of filming.

Sophomore Theatre major, Jeromy Mackey, was one of the students who took part in the open casting call,

“Having such a high-profile show come to our campus for casting calls was a really nice opportunity. I’m really glad Dr. Sweitzer saw this opportunity and decided to bring it here.”

Filming normally occurs for 12-14 hours a day, maybe longer, Monday through Friday and actor’s will be paid and fed for their time. Their last day of filming is December 14. Williams mentioned that this casting call may be used for future sessions of Mindhunter as well.