JAY RYAN: This was the first year in awhile that I was not going to do pilot season. I was shooting a mini-series for Sundance/BBC, called Top of the Lake, that was shot by Jane Campion, who’s a beautiful native New Zealander and famous film director. The role I was playing was very intense, and they shaved half my hair off. So, I looked like this post-apocalyptic character. I was like, “I’m not going to get a job in America, looking like this,” so I just wanted to focus on that job. But, I got a call from my agent saying, “They want you to audition for Beauty and the Beast,” and I thought it was a Disney thing. I said, “I don’t think I’m very Beauty and the Beast, at the moment.” But, they had seen a tape I had done, so they called and asked because they thought I had this quality that they were looking for. So, I read the pilot and realized that it was a very modernized version. And then, when I saw where Vincent’s backstory came from, I was really intrigued. I put down a tape, and then I did several more tapes. They put me through the ringer, being a foreigner. That’s how it came about. I was really lucky that it worked in with my schedule, and Jane Campion was very accommodating and let me do it. I also had this massive beard, so they had to shave that off and make me a fake one for the BBC project. There were a lot of people that had to come together to make it work. It was this close to not working, so I’m very grateful to everyone.
Source and more: Collider
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