CBS brings together an unlikely set of lovable geniuses in “Scorpion.” Original casting director Denise Chamian assembled a group of eclectic geniuses including Elyes Gabel as Walter O’Brien, Homeland Security’s “Scorpion” team leader, Ari Stidham as Sylvester Dood, the “math guy,” Jadyn Wong as Happy Quinn, the mechanical expert, and Eddie Kaye Thomas as Toby Curtis, the behavior expert. Rounding out the cast are Robert Patrick as Cabe Gallo, “Scorpion’s” government contact, and Katharine McPhee as Paige Dineen, mother to a gifted young boy and the team’s link to the rest of the world.
Casting director Jennifer Cooper joined Chamian on the pilot casting the guest stars like the memorable diner owner, and is now casting the series, which embraces uniqueness and differences over the norm. “You really get to explore real people in a crazy environment,” says Cooper, who loves the comedic funky undertone of the show. “Each character is so distinct in [his/her] own right… my goal is to surround this cast of characters with people that can help heighten them and their performance.”
When the characters walk into the diner where Dineen works, Cooper wanted it populated with various looks and personalities to create a real world representation. “Who you automatically think of isn’t necessarily broad enough in the world that we live in. Everybody comes from a different place, has a different ethnic background, has a different body type, has different physicalities; that’s what makes the show feel authentic,” she explains.
Cooper finds it rewarding to be working on a show with everyone striving to find the most interesting choice to put onscreen. She loves that the producers and CBS are open to the idea that the character description in the first draft isn’t the only way to see a character. “We all have to be a part of the creative process of making sure that every single role isn’t just a five-word description on a page.” Cooper recently cast Shohreh Aghdashloo in a role that was described as a 40-year-old therapist. “I thought, Why couldn’t this be a 60-year-old woman with an accent?”
Cooper loves seeing the way the choices an actor makes can completely change the direction of the character. “That’s the magic of acting,” she says. She cites Josh Leonard (who plays a former Scorpion member who slipped into madness as he let his intelligence get the best of him) as an example of an actor making her see a role differently. “Originally, we had all pictured a really offbeat, super out-there, charactery actor.” On the page, Cooper says, Leonard is not that. But Cooper thinks the original direction of the character would not have been as easy for audiences to connect with. “Josh really brought this openness and this lovingness where it felt like all of a sudden you’re really pulling for him and you really fall in love with the character who lost his mind.”
Cooper hopes audience will fall in love with the characters. “Although they don’t always say things exactly how we might say them or as eloquently as we might say them, there’s real heart to each of these characters… that’s what makes the audience able to connect to them—the fact that there’s a little bit of everybody in them.”
