Casting Castillo Cum Laude

[Augusta]

 

Like my regular analogy with Miami Vice to Star Wars IV, you just cannot say enough about the amount of technical excellence that existed at every corner of the crew and cast that made this production.

But EVERY member of Miami Vice was shockingly high in his skill set, and that's often overlooked by the audience, (because that member just makes his job look so effortless).  Just how good was Mr. Olmos at his role as Castillo?  SHOCKINGLY good.

How did they pick this man, out of all the actors they could have opted with to try to replace Gregory?  And they struck gold with Edward.  
I copy/pasted this from one of the Gossip/Entertainment websites:

..."The show has taken Italian men’s fashion and spread it to mass America,” the Bloomingdale’s exec told Time in ’85. It wasn’t just Johnson’s character either. Trudy (Olivia Brown), another vice-squad detective, sported the hottest women’s styles of the day.

Philip Michael Thomas, who played Crockett’s partner Det. Rico Tubbs, struck a decidedly sharper image with his double-breasted designer suits and dark shirts (open several buttons, of course).

On the other hand, department-store customers weren’t flocking to stores to look like Lt. Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos). When preparing to play Castillo, Olmos insisted on the simplest wardrobe possible.

Incredibly, Olmos got the Castillo role over the phone one night at his home in Los Angeles. The following morning, he was on the set in Miami, deep into playing the character he’d created on his overnight flight. And Olmos had found his desired wardrobe waiting for him when he arrived.

When he’d made his requests for clothing, Olmos knew he didn’t want Castillo to look anything like Crockett or Tubbs. “I mean, every single outfit these guys were wearing was, like, Versace,” Olmos recalled in a 2013 Television Academy interview.

“Do me a favor: Get me a black suit,” he told wardrobe. “Make it a ‘wash-and-wear.’ Throw it in the washing machine. Wash it and don’t iron it. Just let it be used. And get me a thin tie. Any color shirts, that’s up to you. Just make them very inexpensive shirts.”

Oddly enough, Olmos capped it off with wrestling shoes (a comfort choice). And with that, after thinking about creating the Castillo character for a few hours, Olmos had established the simple, no-nonsense look that perfectly matched the character’s being.

Olmos was joining Miami Vice six episodes into its first season, so it might sound like he had an excessive amount of influence with regard to creating Castillo’s character. It wasn’t an accident: Olmos wouldn’t accept the part until he got creative control over Castillo.

That decision also gave him influence when it came time to set up Castillo’s office. While set designers had filled the room with papers and files, Olmos requested they clear everything out. He saw Castillo as living in a focused, uncluttered world. (The only prop he requested was a bottle of aspirin.)

As soon as Olmos got on the Miami Vice set, he didn’t feel right about Castillo’s office. “When I walked in the [office] at the beginning, there was stuff everywhere,” he told the Television Academy. “Papers and pipe holders, paper upon paper, and books…”

Though Olmos agreed it looked “lived-in,” he didn’t see it as Castillo’s. “I went to the set designer and said, ‘Take everything out,'” he recalled. After the set designer got approval, they removed literally every object from the office. But Olmos had one request. “Just give me some aspirin [for the desk].”

When rehearsals began, Olmos also insisted on Castillo’s door being closed. That put Olmos at odds with Johnson, the show’s star, on his very first day on set. Looking back, Olmos thought the confrontation between him and Johnson helped when it came time to shoot Castillo’s first scenes.

Sitting there with a bottle aspirin on top of an empty desk in an empty room, Olmos did his first rehearsal with Johnson (Crockett). And though it went well, Johnson took issue with Olmos’ decision to close the door of his office following their rehearsal.

“Don goes, ‘Hey Eddie, leave the door open,'” Olmos recalled. “‘I don’t want to work with doors.'” Olmos believed that Castillo would shut the door to his office on his first day in charge, so he couldn’t agree to Johnson’s request. That led to a multi-hour standoff on the set.

When Olmos stuck to his idea for Castillo’s office, Johnson became annoyed. “‘We’ll see about that,'” Olmos recalled Johnson telling him. Then he left the set, and Olmos said he and the entire Miami Vice crew waited for hours while the issue was addressed behind the scenes.

Olmos guessed the delay had to cost tens of thousands. Meanwhile, he’s sitting there wondering what he’d done on his first day. (The crew was also avoiding him.) Finally, producer John Nicolella turned up and told Olmos everything was going to be fine.

In some ways, it was: They shot the scene with Castillo’s door closed. As Crockett, Johnson burst into the room, slamming the door against a file cabinet. Then he slammed a file down on Castillo’s desk. Annoyed, Olmos (as Castillo) barely looked in Crockett’s direction.

“The tension was excellent,” Olmos told the Television Academy. “You could feel it, you could cut it with a knife.” Olmos thought it worked so well, in fact, that he kept it going. “I didn’t look at Crockett or Ricardo Tubbs for 10 episodes,” he said. “I wouldn’t give them anything.”.....

Wow.  That means all the time we were just saying "I like Castillo---he's just cool", the actor was operating Castillo on a super-precise level.  He's as "vision-minded" and decisive as Mann about what "must" be done, when and where.  As if what he was seeing was way ahead of what the rest of us could see.  That's a technical master.  

The "group commander" in these tv shows has got to be slightly square, slightly behind on being hep or in-the-groove compared with the cops he oversees.  Not nerdish, but just noticeably "parent over the kids".  It's the formula, I guess (Starsky and Hutch, Emergency, Hunter, CHiPs, even Law and Order).  
I like Gregory Sierra as an actor, so much that I hated how he always ends up stepping out of each series he stars in.  He would have been the sense-bringer and surprise problem-solver in the crazy vice-cop climate of tasks.  He would have been "us", the audience who doesn't live in Miami and therefore is strongly pragmatic about getting his cops out alive and unscratched during the insanity of each episode, so they can continue on to the next case without a single loss in his team.
I also think it was crucial to have a Hispanic background in the group-commander.  Not fierce Latino, nor "flavorful Latino" (two stereotype characters Hollywood constantly pushes on shows).  NOT intensely Cuban, nor Puerto Rican, not any intensity at all---just a clear hum of Hispanic (even more subtle than Gina), that seals the reality of 1980's Miami.  
Could Gregory have pulled off that subtle Hispanic quality?  I'm not sure, but I wanted to see him in more episodes to find out.

With no chance to find out what Gregory could have done as commander, I'm eternally glad Edward agreed to the role.  Knockout replacement!

[RedDragon86]

2 hours ago, Augusta said:

 

Like my regular analogy with Miami Vice to Star Wars IV, you just cannot say enough about the amount of technical excellence that existed at every corner of the crew and cast that made this production.

But EVERY member of Miami Vice was shockingly high in his skill set, and that's often overlooked by the audience, (because that member just makes his job look so effortless).  Just how good was Mr. Olmos at his role as Castillo?  SHOCKINGLY good.

How did they pick this man, out of all the actors they could have opted with to try to replace Gregory?  And they struck gold with Edward.  
I copy/pasted this from one of the Gossip/Entertainment websites:

..."The show has taken Italian men’s fashion and spread it to mass America,” the Bloomingdale’s exec told Time in ’85. It wasn’t just Johnson’s character either. Trudy (Olivia Brown), another vice-squad detective, sported the hottest women’s styles of the day.

Philip Michael Thomas, who played Crockett’s partner Det. Rico Tubbs, struck a decidedly sharper image with his double-breasted designer suits and dark shirts (open several buttons, of course).

On the other hand, department-store customers weren’t flocking to stores to look like Lt. Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos). When preparing to play Castillo, Olmos insisted on the simplest wardrobe possible.

Incredibly, Olmos got the Castillo role over the phone one night at his home in Los Angeles. The following morning, he was on the set in Miami, deep into playing the character he’d created on his overnight flight. And Olmos had found his desired wardrobe waiting for him when he arrived.

When he’d made his requests for clothing, Olmos knew he didn’t want Castillo to look anything like Crockett or Tubbs. “I mean, every single outfit these guys were wearing was, like, Versace,” Olmos recalled in a 2013 Television Academy interview.

“Do me a favor: Get me a black suit,” he told wardrobe. “Make it a ‘wash-and-wear.’ Throw it in the washing machine. Wash it and don’t iron it. Just let it be used. And get me a thin tie. Any color shirts, that’s up to you. Just make them very inexpensive shirts.”

Oddly enough, Olmos capped it off with wrestling shoes (a comfort choice). And with that, after thinking about creating the Castillo character for a few hours, Olmos had established the simple, no-nonsense look that perfectly matched the character’s being.

Olmos was joining Miami Vice six episodes into its first season, so it might sound like he had an excessive amount of influence with regard to creating Castillo’s character. It wasn’t an accident: Olmos wouldn’t accept the part until he got creative control over Castillo.

That decision also gave him influence when it came time to set up Castillo’s office. While set designers had filled the room with papers and files, Olmos requested they clear everything out. He saw Castillo as living in a focused, uncluttered world. (The only prop he requested was a bottle of aspirin.)

As soon as Olmos got on the Miami Vice set, he didn’t feel right about Castillo’s office. “When I walked in the [office] at the beginning, there was stuff everywhere,” he told the Television Academy. “Papers and pipe holders, paper upon paper, and books…”

Though Olmos agreed it looked “lived-in,” he didn’t see it as Castillo’s. “I went to the set designer and said, ‘Take everything out,'” he recalled. After the set designer got approval, they removed literally every object from the office. But Olmos had one request. “Just give me some aspirin [for the desk].”

When rehearsals began, Olmos also insisted on Castillo’s door being closed. That put Olmos at odds with Johnson, the show’s star, on his very first day on set. Looking back, Olmos thought the confrontation between him and Johnson helped when it came time to shoot Castillo’s first scenes.

Sitting there with a bottle aspirin on top of an empty desk in an empty room, Olmos did his first rehearsal with Johnson (Crockett). And though it went well, Johnson took issue with Olmos’ decision to close the door of his office following their rehearsal.

“Don goes, ‘Hey Eddie, leave the door open,'” Olmos recalled. “‘I don’t want to work with doors.'” Olmos believed that Castillo would shut the door to his office on his first day in charge, so he couldn’t agree to Johnson’s request. That led to a multi-hour standoff on the set.

When Olmos stuck to his idea for Castillo’s office, Johnson became annoyed. “‘We’ll see about that,'” Olmos recalled Johnson telling him. Then he left the set, and Olmos said he and the entire Miami Vice crew waited for hours while the issue was addressed behind the scenes.

Olmos guessed the delay had to cost tens of thousands. Meanwhile, he’s sitting there wondering what he’d done on his first day. (The crew was also avoiding him.) Finally, producer John Nicolella turned up and told Olmos everything was going to be fine.

In some ways, it was: They shot the scene with Castillo’s door closed. As Crockett, Johnson burst into the room, slamming the door against a file cabinet. Then he slammed a file down on Castillo’s desk. Annoyed, Olmos (as Castillo) barely looked in Crockett’s direction.

“The tension was excellent,” Olmos told the Television Academy. “You could feel it, you could cut it with a knife.” Olmos thought it worked so well, in fact, that he kept it going. “I didn’t look at Crockett or Ricardo Tubbs for 10 episodes,” he said. “I wouldn’t give them anything.”.....

Wow.  That means all the time we were just saying "I like Castillo---he's just cool", the actor was operating Castillo on a super-precise level.  He's as "vision-minded" and decisive as Mann about what "must" be done, when and where.  As if what he was seeing was way ahead of what the rest of us could see.  That's a technical master.  

The "group commander" in these tv shows has got to be slightly square, slightly behind on being hep or in-the-groove compared with the cops he oversees.  Not nerdish, but just noticeably "parent over the kids".  It's the formula, I guess (Starsky and Hutch, Emergency, Hunter, CHiPs, even Law and Order).  
I like Gregory Sierra as an actor, so much that I hated how he always ends up stepping out of each series he stars in.  He would have been the sense-bringer and surprise problem-solver in the crazy vice-cop climate of tasks.  He would have been "us", the audience who doesn't live in Miami and therefore is strongly pragmatic about getting his cops out alive and unscratched during the insanity of each episode, so they can continue on to the next case without a single loss in his team.
I also think it was crucial to have a Hispanic background in the group-commander.  Not fierce Latino, nor "flavorful Latino" (two stereotype characters Hollywood constantly pushes on shows).  NOT intensely Cuban, nor Puerto Rican, not any intensity at all---just a clear hum of Hispanic (even more subtle than Gina), that seals the reality of 1980's Miami.  
Could Gregory have pulled off that subtle Hispanic quality?  I'm not sure, but I wanted to see him in more episodes to find out.

With no chance to find out what Gregory could have done as commander, I'm eternally glad Edward agreed to the role.  Knockout replacement!

I think Michael Mann was responsible for casting EJO.

My view is seeing as he was close friends with Ridley Scott in the 80's maybe he was encouraged to sign him up through "Blade Runner?"

EJO opened so many new doors in the series, he was one of the reasons it was so groundbreaking as it began.

[RedDragon86]

Just found an interview of EJO confirming that Michael Mann wanted him for the role. 

“I was very happy and very proud,” Olmos recalled in his Television Academy interview. “I had done Zoot Suit, I had done Blade Runner, I had done Gregorio Cortez … and Michael calls me up and says, ‘Do you want to do Miami Vice?'”

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by RedDragon86

[cageyJG]

This was an awesome read!!!!!

Viva el Castillo!

 

[miamijimf]

Excellent music, almost Flaminko.

[Tom]

Am 17.12.2021 um 14:22 schrieb Augusta:

 

Like my regular analogy with Miami Vice to Star Wars IV, you just cannot say enough about the amount of technical excellence that existed at every corner of the crew and cast that made this production.

But EVERY member of Miami Vice was shockingly high in his skill set, and that's often overlooked by the audience, (because that member just makes his job look so effortless).  Just how good was Mr. Olmos at his role as Castillo?  SHOCKINGLY good.

How did they pick this man, out of all the actors they could have opted with to try to replace Gregory?  And they struck gold with Edward.  
I copy/pasted this from one of the Gossip/Entertainment websites:

..."The show has taken Italian men’s fashion and spread it to mass America,” the Bloomingdale’s exec told Time in ’85. It wasn’t just Johnson’s character either. Trudy (Olivia Brown), another vice-squad detective, sported the hottest women’s styles of the day.

Philip Michael Thomas, who played Crockett’s partner Det. Rico Tubbs, struck a decidedly sharper image with his double-breasted designer suits and dark shirts (open several buttons, of course).

On the other hand, department-store customers weren’t flocking to stores to look like Lt. Martin Castillo (Edward James Olmos). When preparing to play Castillo, Olmos insisted on the simplest wardrobe possible.

Incredibly, Olmos got the Castillo role over the phone one night at his home in Los Angeles. The following morning, he was on the set in Miami, deep into playing the character he’d created on his overnight flight. And Olmos had found his desired wardrobe waiting for him when he arrived.

When he’d made his requests for clothing, Olmos knew he didn’t want Castillo to look anything like Crockett or Tubbs. “I mean, every single outfit these guys were wearing was, like, Versace,” Olmos recalled in a 2013 Television Academy interview.

“Do me a favor: Get me a black suit,” he told wardrobe. “Make it a ‘wash-and-wear.’ Throw it in the washing machine. Wash it and don’t iron it. Just let it be used. And get me a thin tie. Any color shirts, that’s up to you. Just make them very inexpensive shirts.”

Oddly enough, Olmos capped it off with wrestling shoes (a comfort choice). And with that, after thinking about creating the Castillo character for a few hours, Olmos had established the simple, no-nonsense look that perfectly matched the character’s being.

Olmos was joining Miami Vice six episodes into its first season, so it might sound like he had an excessive amount of influence with regard to creating Castillo’s character. It wasn’t an accident: Olmos wouldn’t accept the part until he got creative control over Castillo.

That decision also gave him influence when it came time to set up Castillo’s office. While set designers had filled the room with papers and files, Olmos requested they clear everything out. He saw Castillo as living in a focused, uncluttered world. (The only prop he requested was a bottle of aspirin.)

As soon as Olmos got on the Miami Vice set, he didn’t feel right about Castillo’s office. “When I walked in the [office] at the beginning, there was stuff everywhere,” he told the Television Academy. “Papers and pipe holders, paper upon paper, and books…”

Though Olmos agreed it looked “lived-in,” he didn’t see it as Castillo’s. “I went to the set designer and said, ‘Take everything out,'” he recalled. After the set designer got approval, they removed literally every object from the office. But Olmos had one request. “Just give me some aspirin [for the desk].”

When rehearsals began, Olmos also insisted on Castillo’s door being closed. That put Olmos at odds with Johnson, the show’s star, on his very first day on set. Looking back, Olmos thought the confrontation between him and Johnson helped when it came time to shoot Castillo’s first scenes.

Sitting there with a bottle aspirin on top of an empty desk in an empty room, Olmos did his first rehearsal with Johnson (Crockett). And though it went well, Johnson took issue with Olmos’ decision to close the door of his office following their rehearsal.

“Don goes, ‘Hey Eddie, leave the door open,'” Olmos recalled. “‘I don’t want to work with doors.'” Olmos believed that Castillo would shut the door to his office on his first day in charge, so he couldn’t agree to Johnson’s request. That led to a multi-hour standoff on the set.

When Olmos stuck to his idea for Castillo’s office, Johnson became annoyed. “‘We’ll see about that,'” Olmos recalled Johnson telling him. Then he left the set, and Olmos said he and the entire Miami Vice crew waited for hours while the issue was addressed behind the scenes.

Olmos guessed the delay had to cost tens of thousands. Meanwhile, he’s sitting there wondering what he’d done on his first day. (The crew was also avoiding him.) Finally, producer John Nicolella turned up and told Olmos everything was going to be fine.

In some ways, it was: They shot the scene with Castillo’s door closed. As Crockett, Johnson burst into the room, slamming the door against a file cabinet. Then he slammed a file down on Castillo’s desk. Annoyed, Olmos (as Castillo) barely looked in Crockett’s direction.

“The tension was excellent,” Olmos told the Television Academy. “You could feel it, you could cut it with a knife.” Olmos thought it worked so well, in fact, that he kept it going. “I didn’t look at Crockett or Ricardo Tubbs for 10 episodes,” he said. “I wouldn’t give them anything.”.....

Wow.  That means all the time we were just saying "I like Castillo---he's just cool", the actor was operating Castillo on a super-precise level.  He's as "vision-minded" and decisive as Mann about what "must" be done, when and where.  As if what he was seeing was way ahead of what the rest of us could see.  That's a technical master.  

The "group commander" in these tv shows has got to be slightly square, slightly behind on being hep or in-the-groove compared with the cops he oversees.  Not nerdish, but just noticeably "parent over the kids".  It's the formula, I guess (Starsky and Hutch, Emergency, Hunter, CHiPs, even Law and Order).  
I like Gregory Sierra as an actor, so much that I hated how he always ends up stepping out of each series he stars in.  He would have been the sense-bringer and surprise problem-solver in the crazy vice-cop climate of tasks.  He would have been "us", the audience who doesn't live in Miami and therefore is strongly pragmatic about getting his cops out alive and unscratched during the insanity of each episode, so they can continue on to the next case without a single loss in his team.
I also think it was crucial to have a Hispanic background in the group-commander.  Not fierce Latino, nor "flavorful Latino" (two stereotype characters Hollywood constantly pushes on shows).  NOT intensely Cuban, nor Puerto Rican, not any intensity at all---just a clear hum of Hispanic (even more subtle than Gina), that seals the reality of 1980's Miami.  
Could Gregory have pulled off that subtle Hispanic quality?  I'm not sure, but I wanted to see him in more episodes to find out.

With no chance to find out what Gregory could have done as commander, I'm eternally glad Edward agreed to the role.  Knockout replacement!

We know from several interviews especially EJOs one a few years ago that Michael Mann directly approached actors that he wanted and he had a clear vision for certain types and persons. Whether he consulted casting agents like Bonnie Timmerman on this is unclear but there was no casting for EJO and he raised the price several times in a row, so he must have been very sure about EJO for a main role and a shooting the next day in Miami.

For Michael Talbott there is a similar story. A friend of Talbott wanted to audition for the Switek role for the pilot, but MM reportedly said „That‘s nothing for you, but where is your friend Michael Talbott?“ (he had seen him in Rambo first blood).