It’s hard to look at Noah Wyle without immediately thinking, ‘doctor’ – whether it’s his role as Dr. Robby Ravinovitch on “The Pitt” or his iconic turn as Dr. John Carter on “ER.”
However, a producer on the two medical dramas has revealed he almost missed out on his “ER” role.
John Wells Says Wyle Won Producers Over At “Last Minute”
GettyExecutive producer John Wells was a recent guest on the Warner Bros. podcast “A Lot More,” when he discussed Wyle’s casting on the popular medical drama.
At the time, Wyle was working as a waiter when he auditioned for “ER.”
Wells recalls that the aspiring actor “came in kind of later,” almost missing out after another actor had been all but confirmed for the role.
“There was a wonderful actor, who goes unnamed, and has gone on to do very well,” Wells said. “But we thought he was in the part, and [Wyle] came in very late.”
However, Wyle apparently wowed producers at his auditions.
“Brought him back two or three times, and he was different every time and better every time, and had new ideas,” Wells recalled.
“And I said, ‘Oh, there’s somebody who’s really an actor.’ He ended up getting the job at the last minute. He was 22, I think at the time.”
Wyle Recalls Audition Process In 1994 Interview
GettyWyle also discussed how he got the “ER” role in a 1994 interview with “Today.”
He described the auditions as “pretty easy” and “fairly innocuous.”
“Everybody was tremendously supportive,” he revealed.
“I got the impression that they wanted me to get the job, or at least wanted me to do the best job that I could in the auditions while I was there.”
“I went in, I think a total of three times. Twice for them, and then they brought me to the network, you know, to meet all the bigwigs,” he said.
To prepare for the role, he “hung out a lot with some real emergency room doctors” and “did a lot of reading.”
“It’s pretty interesting stuff, actually… some of those photo books are pretty graphic and juicy,” he smiled.
He expanded on the audition scene during an interview with Television Academy.
“The audition scene was me putting the I.V. into a cop who had accidentally shot himself, played by Troy Evans, who then subsequently came back and played Frank, [one of ‘ER”s] desk clerks,” he said.
