Paradise Creator Says He Lied to Disney to Cast Julianne Nicholson

comingsoon.net:

As performance in Hulu’s recently released show continues to rake in positive reviews from fans, showrunner has come out to confess that he somewhat lied to Disney to cast her. Nicholson portrays the seemingly innocuous yet menacing Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond in the series, who partakes in several morally ambiguous activities to maintain order in the bunker. While the actress has firmly cemented herself into the role, as Fogelman revealed, he had to bend the truth to cast Nicholson.

In a recent discussion, the renowned producer disclosed that he wanted the Janet Planet star to play Sinatra from the very beginning. However, scheduling conflicts forced him to delay the production of Paradise by lying to Disney.

While talking with The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Fogelman explained the intricate process of recruiting Julianne Nicholson as Sinatra in Paradise. “She was somebody I wanted from the very beginning. I’d admired her from afar. I didn’t want Sinatra to be like a mustache-twirling villain, I wanted her to be softer, but also quietly commanding,” he stated.

Fogelman then divulged that while the actress agreed to the scripts, prior commitments to other projects ended up souring the deal. Nevertheless, the This Is Us creator, an avid fan of Nicholson, decided to improvise by somehow getting Disney to shift the production dates.

“I actually lied to the people at the studio, and I said: ‘We’re not ready to make the show. We need more time in prep,’ which cost a lot of money to extend prep… I made it [seem] about 12 different things, but that allowed for us to delay starting shooting, and allowed Julianne to be free. Now, obviously, everyone’s so glad we did it… I lied to Disney to buy a couple of weeks of time for Julianne Nicholson,” Fogelman noted.