Thread by @ericasbreamcast

Story time:

We read an actor for the series lead of a pilot. He was perfect for the role but the network wasn’t convinced. We read/taped him 2x, but they still weren’t seeing it. In an act of passion, the prods wrote a brand new scene for him, one they felt would seal the deal.

His agent didn’t want him to read again. They felt like the writing was on the wall and didn’t want to put him through it. We pleaded, the producers wrote a love letter for the agent to pass on to the actor… the actor said yes to reading again. One caveat…

we were in a time crunch. He had to learn the new scene immediately and come in tomorrow, on a Sunday morning, to tape it.

He did. He was wonderful and so open to notes and adjustments. He was ready to fight for this role. We (prods and Casting) were all more in love with him than ever. We got a tape that we were all ecstatic about. We sent it to the network that night.

The network said no.

Two months later, I read in the trades that that actor had gotten a series regular role on another show. That show is now WILDLY popular, critically-acclaimed and several seasons into its run.

The pilot we worked on did not get picked up, despite an incredible set of creatives, a great script + assurances from the network that this one was their favorite. If that actor had booked our pilot, he would’ve been unavailable to even audition for his now-uber successful show.

Moral of the story is this: what is for you will not go by you; when one door closes, another one opens… Those platitudes exist in our lexicon because they’re true. It may be hard to trust those ideas when you’re dealing with rejection in real time, but…

if you continue to work your craft, that “no” will simply mean “not yet”.

This story is brought to you by “that time of year” when we look back at everything we did in 2021, (during a global pandemic, mind you,) and have feelings.

#CastingLovesYou #CheersToYourEfforts