From Mermaid Extra to Casting Director, Meet Atlanta-Based Heather Taylor

By Carol Badaracco Padgett

In 2011, in her early days in the film and television industry, Heather Taylor was swimming in a huge tank of water in a hotel lobby in Miami. She got the film gig as a mermaid on a tip from a friend.

Today, the Atlanta-based casting director and owner of Casting TaylorMade just wrapped work on Season 1 of the Apple+ TV series “Cape Fear” at Assembly Studios in Doraville, Georgia, starring Amy Adams and Javier Bardem.

We sat down with her to learn about the journey, her home base in metro Atlanta, and what advice she has for others hoping to break into the film industry in Georgia and beyond.

First off, how was production of “Cape Fear” at Assembly Studios that recently wrapped? Tell us a few things about the experience.

Taylor: We went under the code name of “Peaches” for “Cape Fear,” and the Season 1 production was great. Before that, I did a little pilot called “Stumble, and before that I did “Gross Point Garden Society.” All of these were all at Assembly.

Assembly is an incredible studio; it offers so much. I can't wait to see that place packed out at the end, because it is a beautiful establishment and they've really thought of everything—places for production meetings, where the costumes are kept, everything. And you feel it when you walk in there.

How did an early acting gig in Miami, as a mermaid, help put you on a career path in the film and television industry?

Taylor: I lived in New York for six years, working in the fashion industry. And I wanted to do something else, so I moved back to Miami, where I’m from.

A friend of mine saw an ad in Craigslist for a vintage period piece called “Magic City,” and I loved vintage and I also always had a love for TV and film. When I was younger, I also did musical theater and was very involved in drama. But I never thought to pursue that as a career because it's not like everybody gets to be a celebrity and make good money in this path. So I knew I wanted to make good money, and I knew [acting] would be a strike-by-lightning-type situation, but nonetheless, it could happen. So since I had no job right then, I thought, let's give it a shot. Let's see what it's like.

So I went to an open casting call and they hired me on the spot to work the next day on a TV show called “Charlie's Angels,” because the extras casting company that was also doing “Magic City” was also casting that TV show. But I was more interested in the vintage period piece, “Magic City,” though.

I did the one production [of “Charlie’s Angels”] and then the very next day I did the “Magic City” production, [where] they actually had me diving in a tank inside of the hotel lobby like on the set. I was a mermaid in this tank behind the bar.

I think it was a very undesirable position because the water was chlorinated to the level that my eyes pretty much burned out of its head. And, you know, you're wet all day and you're diving constantly in this tank, and it's pretty deep, and I had no experience doing something like that.

But I thought, anyway, I can get into [the industry]—I’ll take it. So I did.

From there, how did your career evolve into being a casting director? And when did you start up your company, Casting TaylorMade?

Taylor: The “Magic City” [production team] told me I should come back again. And I'm like, do I have to do the tank again? Could I not do the tank? And they said, of course, you can do something else.

So, I got another position to be an extra on some scenes, and they're like, this girl looks like the actress. Have her stand in for her.

And I kept asking, what am I supposed to do? And they told me, “Just stand here.” So I stood there.

I'd been in the corporate world when I was in New York City, in some major jobs, and I'm very much a professional. And so I was very confused about the whole setup, but they really enjoyed having me on-camera, and I listened, and I was very inquisitive about what I was supposed to be doing. And so they had me stand in for her full-time.

It ended up, I became the blonde stand-in in Miami for all the productions that were down there. And it was so fun. It was incredible, and I met so many people. I had the most incredible [roles to stand in for, for example], and one of them was “Burn Notice.”

In all the roles, there was this crazy, fast-paced action. Like I'm pulling a plane one day, and another I'm in a plane, or we're on a yacht, and it was so much fun. So then I though, okay, I want to do this. This is fun. It doesn't make a ton of money, but wow, the experience, and like this is a dream come true.

Then I began to get little cameos on different shows, [and I started doing different things they needed]. So they might ask, “Will you drive 100 miles an hour down this road? I'm like, okay, yeah.” I really would literally do anything like that, and I was super grateful for any opportunity.

But then Florida lost their [tax] incentives, and it was very clear that that would be just a matter of months before it was completely gone.

And everyone was saying, move to Atlanta, I had never been to Atlanta. But I did have a best friend that was doing her residency here for Emory and invited me to come up and check it out, and she told me that if I hated it, I could leave. So I packed up my car with enough stuff for about a month, and I drove up to stay at her place.

On the drive here, I called every single person I knew, and nobody could offer me another stand-in job because everything was kind of halfway through the production or at the end of production, and a stand-in position isn't just something that you're going to switch out for a main character quickly, unless somebody really screwed up.

Then, one person I knew [from Miami] gave me an opportunity [in Atlanta], saying they had a position open for an extras casting assistant. And I actually said, “What is that?” And he said, “Well … you get to go to set and l[be like] the people that have called you in before, it's that job.”

At first I thought, no, but it ended up I couldn't find another job. So I called him back and said, “I’ll take it”

It was for Tyler Perry Studios, and I drove to Atlanta and started the next morning [in 2013]. So, I literally got to my friend's house, settled in for maybe an hour, because it was late, and then woke up and was at Tyler Perry Studios at 5 a.m. And I had never been to Atlanta before that.

So I went there and I started learning about this extras casting position, and it was really cool. I never even [knew] that this position existed. So, it was very fascinating and I'm good at this sort of thing, because I had a job in New York City that was essentially almost like casting, but it was for real estate, and my job was to profile people in the hotel lobby [for Hilton Grand Vacations]. My job was to find people that looked like they could afford and would have an interest in a deeded piece of property in New York City to also use at timeshare properties. I’d also worked in retail and in wholesale for fashion, where I [learned to watch people and get a feel for them], and I just kind of knew. I had a sense of how people present themselves … I knew how to navigate that.

Then you had an opportunity to be “the” casting director on an NBC production, correct? And what did you do next?

Taylor: I had the opportunity to be a casting director for extras on a production for NBC, and I’d always dreamed of being part of something [like that]. It was called “Constantine,” and I jumped right in.

Everyone loved my work, and so then I got to cast some really spooky things, some normal things. It was like a full gambit of different castings because the show was different each episode, and each episode, we were in a different location. No two locations were the same. So it allowed me to showcase that I could come up with all the different things they needed.

They loved my work and told me I should do this full time, and that I should do this on your own and start my own thing.

[So, some time passed and] I went off on my own … and [fast-forward to now, I got good work, hired a few people] and now I have my own company.

We started off very busy, and then an AD led me to Stranger Things, and from there you can only imagine, it was just like boom, boom, boom.

Now, the entire industry around the country has slowed down and is adjusting to a new normal. How do you view that, and how do you view Georgia’s place in the industry and the future?

Taylor: Atlanta really provides a well-rounded group of backdrops for whatever your production might be, because it can really sell your story as anything that you need, whether it's downtown, city, the railyards, or a suburban neighborhood, which could be Hawkins, Indiana. [Georgia] can be absolutely anywhere. And in Savannah, we have the beach.

This is like the city that just keeps giving. It does that with everything, from social aspects to community and food. Everything you could want, need and more is available here. I feel like anyone that comes here from other places to film always has a really good time.

It's tough all across the country right now—everywhere.

What advice do you have for newcomers into the industry, those who are just starting out and finding a career?

Taylor: I would say do the same thing I did for myself. I see a lot of people come into this industry thinking that doing extra work is beneath them.

I’m talking about trying every single department for one. Also, being an extra gets you on that set. It's the key to the door. So, whether you're a script supervisor, interested in costumes, lighting, grips, electric, camera, everyone has to get on the set, and everyone needs to know what a set is. And if you come into this industry thinking that you're better than that, you're definitely not going to succeed.

So, being able to get in there and see exactly what goes on to give you a bigger picture of what happens [at] these studios, what happens on these sets is crucial.

Be curious to learn how it works. At the start, I had absolutely no idea. My jaw was on the floor when they would come and take the wall out of the set to film [from the other angle].

So, get in there [by looking] for an entry point, being um an extra, or a PA job, which can be hard to get. But in a PA job, you have a more structured environment, and they're going to want to make sure people are competent and able to handle and execute things. They want to know they won’t have to take so much of a risk.

Another thing about being an extra, you could have zero experience and look right, and there's your moment. So, it's so important to give it a try and keep your eyes and ears open to everything you can experience while you're on that set. There is no moment that should be considered as wasted because when you're in holding, you can talk to other people, pick their brain, find out about other companies, find out other things, ask them questions. It’s like a resource that keeps giving.