When you build your initial casting lists, there’s always a lot of discussion about which movie stars you consider going after. For instance, Ethan Hawke is at a point in his career where you do call and check whether he’s interested in doing TV. It’s not that he’s not getting movie offers, but he could certainly have showcase role like Kiefer Sutherland does on 24.

Do you need stars for a TV series? Not really. Look at Lost: other than Dominic Monahan, none of those actors were movie people. Legend has it that they seriously considered Michael Keaton for Matthew Fox’s role, but they didn’t need him.

For a TV show, you need actors whom audiences will connect with. Some movie stars obviously have that ability, so that’s why they’re in the mix, more than any promotional value of having their name attached.

As always, thanks for taking the time to shine a light on another process of our unique industry.

Yup, sometimes you do write scenes specifically for auditions. That often happens when a character doesn’t really have a audition-able moment in the current script. You write something longer and meatier, so you can get a better sense of them. And regardless, you end up tweaking some stuff when doing sides, since you don’t end up needing much stage direction.

Paulo:

Bradley Cooper would be ideal for McGinty. We checked. He is “unavailable for TV.” Which is ironic, since he’s on a TV show (“Kitchen Confidential’) on Fox, which doesn’t look like it will be renewed. But the truth is, he was really good in a giant hit movie (WEDDING CRASHERS), so he can probably get a lot of good movie work at this point.

So you find yourself saying, “We want Bradley Cooper from last year…” (sigh)

The first casting session went really well, by the way, so I feel pretty confident we won’t be lamenting Mr. Cooper’s inavailability.