What is it like to work with us?
It takes a village to pull-off a project like A Deadly Legend. Our new friend and casting partner Heidi Eklund from @hudsonvalleycasting brought timely, on-point casting home! 🔥
Heidi and her team embodied commitment and hard-work. They negotiated our celebrity cast and found impressive talent, who were the perfect-fit for our large cast.
Friendly, flexible and easy-to-work with, Heidi is a true advocate not only of her clients but also for bringing forth new talent! 🎬
-Eric Wolf and Kristen Ann Ferraro, Producers at RemCycle Productions
"While I've done voice overs a few times, working with Wayne was eye-opening. He had so many valuable suggestions and professional insights. It was fun and exciting, plus I now have a valuable promotional tool. thank you Jeremy, Wayne and Heidi."
~Richard Hutchings
"We've known Heidi for a number of years, and she is simply wonderful. She has endless energy and a sharp eye for talent. In addition to her professionalism and passion, she has a joyful outlook that infects everybody around her. It's no wonder she is in high demand. She cares deeply about every project she works on, and always sees it through to the very end. We loved working with her on our award-winning short film, Lychee Thieves, and look forward to collaborating on future projects."
~Kathleen & Stephen Gyllenhaal, directors
"As an acting instructor, Wayne Pyle is profoundly knowledgeable of his craft, highly patient and always accommodating toward his acting students. Having trained under Wayne in the past, I speak from personal experience when I say that this man is a true artist as illustrated from his various field work in the worlds of both film and television. Mr. Pyle is excellent at quickly assessing an actor’s strengths and weaknesses, sharply honing in on what requires improvement.
His criticisms are always highly constructive and very helpful and he will undoubtedly dedicate all of his efforts to ensure that you see vast improvement at a reasonable pace. Most importantly, Wayne Pyle fully understands the struggles and difficulties of acting yet with his talents he is able to make the experience of learning incredibly enjoyable and immersive. The bottom line is, he his a superb acting coach and you will absolutely not regret training under him. "
~Peter Rabasco
"Heidi has been an invaluable resource to us. Her access to area talent is unmatched, she's well-tuned to our production needs, and she works very, very quickly. We can't imagine a more pleasant or accommodating collaborator."
~Chris Lueck, Steven Leach, Full Frontal Features
Within one year of Heidi's arrival at Vassar, she saw a way of helping our students. By organizing auditions to find appropriate local talent, she brought a richness to the quality of the story telling in our Senior Narrative Films. Today our students have a broad choice of talent and can work with SAG/AFTRA professionals, which gives them a head start in the real world of filmmaking. Heidi guides them in signing contracts with SAG/AFTRA and following through with their post production paperwork. Our students' films are making an impact in the festival world and a part of that recognition comes from the efforts of a caring Casting Director.
- Ken Robinson, Professor of Film, Vassar College
Producing the documentary film Leaving Sleep, a chain of unforeseen complications made it necessary to contract an actor for a very specific role on extremely short notice. I contacted Heidi Eklund only a few days before the already scheduled shoot and she managed to set me up with the perfect cast for the role in question. Heidi is a truly efficient professional and has a wonderful personality. I would work with her again anytime."
~Jan Muller/Okin Khan, Producer/Director
"Working with Wayne has been incredibly helpful. I no longer feel stuck in my own head and can truly live in the moment during auditions. I feel the utmost confidence in recommending his coaching because he is an incredibly knowledgable actor that has cultivated his tools over a lifetime of experience. Not only has he studied under some of the most highly sought after teachers of the craft, but he also utilizes these skills in his own wonderfully powerful work. He's a compassionate voice of truthful experience, and I consider myself very lucky to benefit from the wisdom of such a talented artist. "
~ Anthony Charles
I’ve known Heidi both personally and professionally for over ten years and
I think she’s qualified to work as a psychologist as well. I did not come to acting comfortably. It was not really my idea. But when Heidi suggested I audition, she was either deaf to my objections or she was just plain belligerent; I’m not sure which and I’m not sure it matters. But it was her ability to believe in something not obvious to me that gave me the confidence to attempt more than I believed possible, and Heidi shines in that."
~Kim Emerson/Actor
"Being a Russian-speaking actress in USA provides many fun opportunities for playing tough Eastern-European characters:mercenaries, assassins - you name it! But what if this wonderful Russian accent you have is in control of you, instead of YOU being in control of it?! Then – bad news! - You are stuck being type-cast as all those criminals… What can be worse for an actress than seeing all the amazing diverse roles slip right through her fingers, only because of her accent (well, at least in those cases, when casting directors confirmed that they LOVED the audition, but the All-American girl can’t really sound like she works for KGB)…
Sounds frustrating, isn’t it? Well, this is exactly where I was in my acting career, before I got chance to work with amazing accent coach Mr. Wayne Pyle. Not only he helped me to identify those sounds, words, and intonations that make me sound more Russian than I might need at the moment, but he also provided me with huge variety of tools, techniques, and materials that were tailored to getting me to where I want to be accent-wise. He is extremely professional, knowledgeable, and fun to work with! Ability to hold training sessions over Skype has been very helpful, since we are all very busy! Mr. Pyle also shared with me multiple resources, which will not only help me to improve my American accent and tone down Russian accent (when needed), but also to learn and understand other accents (that is a real treasure for all the actors looking to take on more diverse roles)!
What are the results? Well, first, seeing sincere surprise on the faces of casting directors and fellow actors, who talked to me before the training sessions with Mr. Pyle and after.
And then there is what really matters - being cast for roles, where the nationality of the character doesn’t define her! Yes, yes, I’m not being cast as a typical American girl, but this is not where I want to be as an actress anyway. However, I am being cast for Lead and Supporting roles now that do not have Russian names or pre-story attached to them! And this is only the beginning! I am looking forward
to what else I am able to achieve thanks to the training, tools, and knowledge that Mr. Pyle gave me! Who knows – maybe I’ll see you soon from the big screens across the world! ;)"
- Olga Bogdanova
"I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Wayne. Wayne always displayed the utmost preparation and enthusiasm when it came to teaching, as he took bits and pieces from several different acting methods, in order to create a style truly his own. The learning was not limited to just the classroom; I came home after every session with new material to study, tutorials to watch, exercises to try out, which helped build a strong consistency throughout the whole the learning process.
I left off with the sense that I not only better understood the process of studying and delivering a monologue, but also that I became a stronger actor overall. I’m definitely going to refer back to all of Wayne’s guidance and advice as I continue to study the art. Anyone with an interest in brushing up on his or her skills, or curious about different ways to prepare for a monologue or scene should take his classes! I highly recommend them."
~Defne Gencler
There is no casting director that I have worked with of as of yet that has more experience, ambition and care for the casting of a film and for the film itself, than Heidi Eklund. She will even wake up the other members of her film crew when they are slumbering from casting blindness. Heidi is an A+ casting director."- Yoel Emanuel Eisenstadt , ~Assistant to Moshe Mones "Dovid Meyer"
Heidi Eklund has a clear grasp on needs of both the production and the actor ... She is creative, professional and a pleasure to work with. I’d work with her again!!
~ Frank Fasano III, Actor