#the only tv production office i've worked in during shoot was literally still casting one of the main leads DURING pre-production

[pynkhues]

With casting the US at least, it's pretty common for major roles in a show to go out via breakdowns (these don't look like breakdowns, but they're similar) as though it's open casting when really they're making an offer to a specific actor. So that by itself doesn't suggest to me that these aren't real, but I have no idea if they're real otherwise.

Yeah it does seem like Rolin was envisioning someone less traditionally beautiful for Lestat! Fascinating. I wonder why, if it was him thinking that made a more interesting physical complement to Louis? Just the feeling that someone more unusual looking would be compelling? So it makes sense that his perfect reaction to Sam was NO WAY MR. PRETTYFACE. And he realized that Sam is a delightful freak lol. But also, while Sam's beauty is the classic Disney prince thing in a lot of ways, he IS unusual looking too -- his features aren't just your bog standard super handsome guy, they're more striking than that. We've talked about him being a mix of masculine and feminine in some ways, and that's part of it.

Sorry, that first sentence should read "when casting IN the US" (I got a glimpse as I sent it and I think I left out the "in")

Yeah, interesting! It makes sense that casting would look a little different as the nature of our TV production schedules are pretty different and it's a much smaller industry, to say nothing of the fact that Australian productions usually cast very close to the wire as you don't really know if you've been greenlit until the last possible minute.

I'd be soooo interested to hear if Rolin had anyone in his head when he was thinking about casting both Louis and Lestat, especially since he's clearly had pretty strong ideas about other roles. He often makes it sound like he went in pretty open-minded, but - - yeah. Clearly he wasn't thinking of someone with Sam's face, haha. I agree though, I think one of the things that makes Sam good looking is that he actually has pretty unconventional features to him. Guys who have that more pretty Disney prince look can often come across as a bit sexless, but that's not really an issue for Sam, at least not Sam as Lestat, haha.