NPR

'He's Not A Leading Man': A Casting Director On Rembrandt's Self-Portraits

The Dutch artist painted scores of self-portraits, but they weren't exactly flattering. Casting director Margery Simkin thinks he could have played the manager of a baseball team.
Two self-portraits by Rembrandt, painted two years apart, are on display at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif.

Margery Simkin is a casting director. Her job is to look at thousands of faces, and her gut reaction — how she feels about what she sees — can lead to movie and TV roles.

But for this story, she isn't looking at a headshot — she's looking at a painting. "This wouldn't be somebody that could be a bad guy," she says. "There's a softness.

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