‘Only Murders in the Building’ Casting Director Tiffany Little Canfield on Her White Whale for the Comedy Series

‘Only Murders in the Building’ Casting Director Tiffany Little Canfield on Her White Whale for the Comedy Series

Only Murders in the Building went “meta” this season, casting Eva Longoria, Zach Galifianakis and Eugene Levy as themselves to portray Hollywood movie versions of the mystery-solving trio played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. In its four seasons (season five is about to debut), the Hulu show has come to be known for the star power that’s graced its doorstep, including Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Melissa McCarthy, Cara Delevingne, Tina Fey, Shirley MacLaine, Sting … the list goes on and on.

Here, Tiffany Little Canfield, who is casting director alongside Bernard Telsey and Destiny Lilly, reveals her process and her white whale for the show.

Originally, how did you know Steve (who co-created the show), Selena and Martin would be the perfect trio?

It was Steve and Marty when I was hired. Dan Fogelman — I worked with him on This Is Us at the time — reached out to me and said, “I’ve got a show about a true-crime podcast in New York City with Steve and Marty, do you want to look at it?” We started to talk about it: With their dynamic, what would be interesting? Because you want to have someone who comes from a really different world from [Martin and Short]. We came up with a list, and we did some auditions that went really well. Selena’s team reached out. I’ve pursued [Gomez] in the past, and it’s hard to get her because she’s such a multihyphenate. This one, I think, really intrigued her, because [her team] confirmed the meeting right away, which was not my previous experience. [Martin and Short] were going to meet her first, and then she was going to audition. The chemistry and the Zoom was so on fire from the first moments of the meeting, they knew this was a fit.

Casting Eva, Zach and Eugene to mirror the trio was an inspired choice. How do you pick your actors every season?

Sometimes it’s just a meeting, like where this one started, because we knew it was going to be the three movie star versions. We thought, “Would it be funny to have the actors who play Steve and Marty be in their 40s, and the Selena actor is a child?” We then came up with a list of ideas, and ultimately it became about their dynamic. With Eva, what was really funny to us is she’s such a multihyphenate, too, and matches who Selena is in real life, but the character of Mabel is in such a shutdown period of what’s next for her in her career. The dynamic of her and Eva felt meta.

Do actors’ teams reach out to you for a part, or do you reach out to them?

Both. Kumail Nanjiani was shooting an independent film on the East Coast, and they said, “He has time. Is there anything for him?” So that became like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if he was Christmas-All-the-Time Guy?”

With Eva, Zach and Eugene, they are playing a version of themselves. What are those conversations like?

We get a lot of incoming, “this person would like to be on the show,” but they aren’t always necessarily meaning to play themselves, because we’ve had cameos in the past. … I would say we frame it differently. We say it’s a “comedic take on your persona.” So that is how we pitch it. We’ll take real things about the person’s persona and the writers will kind of put it through the Only Murders lens.

Is there ever any hesitation from the actors when they have to play a less favorable version of themselves?

Yes, we definitely deal with that. It’s not that they’re comfortable playing themselves. It’s more about they want to rather play a character. I think that’s the feedback we tend to get, not so much of being uncomfortable in their own skin, or how they’re going to be represented. I don’t think that’s a big part of it. It’s more about, If I’m going to get to be on this show, I really want to play one of those zany characters that isn’t myself.

Was there a guest acting role for season 4 that was more challenging to pin down?

I would have to say Jin Ha’s [who played screenwriter Marshall P. Pope] character. Because — no spoilers — but we need to have that character fly under the radar in a certain kind of way. Jin’s audition was so fantastic, but he’s also competing against famous actors that are household names that also would love to be part of it. And so when we just talked about it, it really made sense to us that it should be Jin. We also are very familiar with Jin’s body of work, which is phenomenal and incredibly diverse. He can do anything. It felt like he was the perfect choice here, because if we needed him to fly under the radar, we knew that would happen. If we needed to pull heart strings and the dramatic beats, we knew he’d have that. And he’s also very, very silly, so he’s perfect. It was a tricky one, for sure.

Do you ever feel pressure to up the ante for the next season in terms of star caliber?

Absolutely, I think we all feel that pressure because we want the audience to be as tickled when they start to see the cast announcements roll out. I think that’s part of the fun of it.

Who is your white whale for the show?

We already got it! Meryl. I’m stealing this from casting director John Papsidera, only because it seems impossible since he’s retired very publicly, but Daniel Day-Lewis. [Anemone, for which Day-Lewis recently came out of retirement, is his son’s project.]

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.