<\/p>\n
Casting director Heidi Levitt<\/a> has spent decades working in close collaboration with many of the most acclaimed directors of their era on some of the best \u2014 and most perfectly and audaciously cast \u2014 movies of all time. Movies like \u201cJFK<\/a>,\u201d \u201cNatural Born Killers,\u201d and \u201cNixon\u201d for Oliver Stone, or Michael Bay\u2019s \u201cThe Rock,\u201d and multiple films for Mark Pellington<\/a>, Wayne Wang, Wim Wenders, and others. She never seriously considered becoming a director herself, however, until her husband Charlie was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say this is not the movie I wanted to make, this is the movie I had to make,\u201d Levitt told IndieWire in a recent interview about her new documentary \u201cWalk With Me.\u201d A personal portrait of Heidi and Charlie\u2019s quest to better understand and find treatment for his condition as it progresses, \u201cWalk With Me\u201d is both a moving portrait of the evolution of a marriage and a potent piece of advocacy for more open discussions of Alzheimer\u2019s and the role of caregivers in America.<\/p>\n More from IndieWire<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s afraid when you mention that word,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cThey start looking at you differently. You\u2019re not Charlie; you\u2019re the guy with Alzheimer\u2019s. And I was really afraid of that.\u201d Levitt realized that her background and experience \u2014 not just in film, but in journalism, where she began her career with the intention of becoming a news producer \u2014 put her in a privileged position to tell Charlie\u2019s story, so she reached out to documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, with whom she had worked on a project that never saw fruition, for feedback.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote a proposal and sent it to him, and he was super enthusiastic about it,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cThen the pandemic hit.\u201d Although the pandemic and other factors put the brakes on Levitt\u2019s initial plan to get Gibney to produce the movie through his HBO deal, she was determined to keep shooting. \u201cIt really became a coping mechanism for me, and it gave Charlie purpose. The biggest thing a person loses with Alzheimer\u2019s is purpose, which is what makes it so scary to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n Levitt spent four years shooting every few months between her and Charlie\u2019s homes in Los Angeles and rural Vermont, raising funds as she went along and relying on the expertise of an accomplished crew that included director of photography Lisa Rinzler (\u201cMenace II Society,\u201d \u201cBuena Vista Social Club\u201d). Rather than simply shooting around the clock and finding the movie in the editing room, Levitt wanted to be precise and intentional, both for personal reasons (shooting constantly would have been too invasive) and to build on her knowledge as someone who had been working in narrative film since the 1980s.<\/p>\n \u201cI really thought about everything in terms of characters and story and narrative arcs,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cI knew I wanted to show time, and I wanted to show change. I structured it as a filmmaker, like I was writing a story.\u201d Levitt also brought her experience as a casting director to the film when it came to choosing other people who had dealt with Alzheimer\u2019s, from patients and caregivers to doctors, to feature in the story, opting for laser focus in her selections so that there would be fewer but more insightful and impactful voices in the piece.<\/p>\n Levitt also applied what she had learned about working with actors from Stone, Wenders, and others to \u201cWalk With Me,\u201d attempting to create an environment that would yield the best results from her subjects \u2014 starting with her own husband.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know that Charlie would be so good on camera,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cThat was a lucky, amazing thing that happened.\u201d In scenes with other participants, Levitt tried to create the same kind of circumstances she would in an audition for a dramatic film.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an audition, I feel I get the best performance when we\u2019re intimate and it feels like we\u2019re just having a conversation,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cSo I did that a lot with the doctors. I needed to guide them into the comfort zone to talk with me.\u201d One thing that Levitt learned from directors like Stone was that getting the best results from an actor requires a wide array of techniques \u2014 sometimes ones that are quite manipulative.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery great director I\u2019ve worked with has figured out how to get the best out of everybody, from the art department to the actors to me,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s incredibly manipulative, but that\u2019s how they keep their eye on the prize. The way Oliver got great performances was he figured out everybody\u2019s soft spot and he picked at it.\u201d There was one \u201cactor\u201d in Levitt\u2019s movie who she knew would not give her great results with that kind of manipulation, however.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Charlie, I just had to create an environment and let him be, because if I tried to direct him, he would feel like I was bossing him around,\u201d Levitt said, adding that during the editorial process she had to learn to view Charlie and herself from a certain distance, as characters. That said, sifting through the archival footage \u2014 home movies she interspersed with the new material shot both in 16mm and digitally \u2014 had unexpected and welcome effects on the director.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an opportunity to fall in love with my husband again, because this disease is so awful and keeps changing who he is,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cThat archival stuff was a real comfort.\u201d Although Levitt largely tried to present herself as a character, she did feel that it was important at one point to show herself editing the film, reminding the audience that she\u2019s not just a character but the person telling the story.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was hard to figure out where I fit into the story\u2019s trajectory,\u201d Levitt said, noting that finding the balance between focusing on Charlie as an individual, on their marriage, and on the larger, overriding issues having to do with Alzheimer\u2019s and caregiving was one of the central challenges of the film.<\/p>\n \u201cPerspective is something that I need in my life. I get so invested in saving Charlie or in trying to figure out what to do that I lose myself a little in the process. So I think showing myself watching the film as I\u2019m editing it is a reminder that you have to find your way back a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that the movie is finding its way out into the world, Levitt is finding herself increasingly in the role of advocate for Alzheimer\u2019s patients and their caregivers. Tuesday night, she\u2019s screening the film in Washington, D.C. for members of Congress in an attempt to begin a national conversation about Alzheimer\u2019s, and she hopes to make more films that shed light on the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to tell the same story over and over, and I don\u2019t want to see the same \u2018oh, woe is me\u2019 story we\u2019ve seen before,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cThis is a part of life, and I\u2019m thinking about other stories we can tell, hopefully in a fresh way, that provide that perspective.\u201d Levitt concludes by reasserting that her own perspective as a filmmaker was deeply informed by her career as a casting director, which makes her extremely happy about the Academy\u2019s decision to finally honor the profession with its first Oscar this year.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a casting director is one part anthropologist, one part actor, one part director,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have directed this movie as well had I not been a casting director.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWalk With Me\u201d will screen on Thursday, November 20, at Cinema Village<\/a> with Heidi Levitt in attendance for a Q&A, followed by a North American release from Outsider Pictures.<\/p>\n Best of IndieWire<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Casting director Heidi Levitt has spent decades working in close collaboration with many of the most acclaimed directors of their era on some of the best \u2014 and most perfectly and audaciously cast \u2014 movies of all time. Movies like \u201cJFK,\u201d \u201cNatural Born Killers,\u201d and \u201cNixon\u201d for Oliver Stone, or Michael Bay\u2019s \u201cThe Rock,\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2162901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[389682,388519,343055,415002,415003,366199,415004],"class_list":["post-2162900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-casting-director","tag-director","tag-heidi-levitt","tag-husband-charlie","tag-oliver-stone","tag-wim-wenders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/For-Her-Filmmaking-Debut-Casting-Director-Heidi-Levitt-Found-the.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2162902,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162900\/revisions\/2162902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}