Casting directors Susie Farris, Kim Miscia and Beth Bowling have made sure that they made the right choices for "Mr. Robot" season 2.
Speaking with Deadline, Farris, Miscia and Bowling discussed the challenges that they faced when they were casting the lead roles for the show's pilot season. They revealed that the auditions took a while because those who tried out for the roles were not used to the tone of the show.
"And so, for these roles, the actors really had to either take a leap of faith, or come in with a stack of questions about, where is this character going?" Farris said.
But of all those who tried out for the roles, actor Rami Malek stood out and proved that he was cut out for the role of Elliot.
"We were all super excited about him; he was just mesmerizing, with his voice and his eyes and his cadence. What's amazing is how much his face says even in between the lines. I knew that nobody held a candle to him," Farris added.
For season 2, Miscia and Bowling revealed that having a copy of the scripts from series creator Sam Esmail helped them a lot in looking for new cast members.
"It's such an advantage to have the arcs and see what you think might be a small character has a huge reveal later on, and being able to audition that huge reveal," Bowling said.
Their casting additions for season 2 include "Extant" alum Grace Gummer as Dominique Dipierro, "Fear the Walking Dead" star Sandrine Holt as Evil Corp's general counsel Susan Jacobs and "The Office" star Craig Robinson, who was cast in a role as Elliot's neighbor.
Meanwhile, Malek and other cast members Portia Doubleday and Carly Chaikin told the panel during Monday night's "Mr. Robot" For Your Consideration event in New York that they also experienced being hacked in real life.
"Last night someone just asked me for my verification code on Google and it was some bulls—t number," Malek said, as reported by E! News. "Yeah, so, just keep changing my password." Doubleday, on the other hand, was successfully hacked five times. This made her think if the hacking was caused by the show. Chaikin also revealed that her Apple account was also hacked, and she talked to the "Mr. Robot" team about it.
The sophomore season of "Mr. Robot" premieres on the USA Network on Wednesday, July 13.
